Our country isn’t very comfortable talking about sexuality. The Midwest even less so. But that’s exactly what’s happening this week as part of National Coming Out Week.

Founded in 1988 by activists Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary as an anniversary celebration of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (Whew! Long name!), National Coming Out Day — later expanded into a full week — is a day for those of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community and its allies (LGBTQA for short — another long name) to celebrate diversity and to proudly proclaim who its members believe themselves to be.

Whether you agree or disagree with the LGBTQA community, there’s something to take away from National Coming Out Week for everyone.

First, to be proud of yourself. No matter what you identify as, atheist or Christian, man, woman or neither, straight-laced or pink–laced, we should all be proud of who we are, and we should assert what we believe.

Some of humanity’s greatest accomplishments and largest leaps forward were when an individual refused to accept the status quo. Take Martin Luther’s grievances with Catholicism for example, which led him to scribe “The Ninety-Five Theses,” widely regarded as a fundamental tipping point for the Reformation and the eventual creation of Protestantism. Likewise, in defense of Copernican, heliocentric astronomy, Galileo also clashed with the church.

Each one of us is special, and we all have a pool of brilliance locked within us — primed for tapping. To assert that we are unique, that we are individuals with our own ideas, our own interpretations, our own lives to live is not something limited to the LGBTQA community.

Secondly, the LGBTQA community refuses to back down. In fighting for hate crimes legislation, marriage legislation, and employment non-discrimination legislation, the community has been relentless. And this is despite a history of sodomy as a capital offense in the United States and continued resistance to treating long-term, monogamous, same-sex relationships as equal to married heterosexual couples.

After all, it wasn’t until Lawrence vs. Texas in 2003 that all sodomy laws were ruled unconstitutional, and even so, certain states continue to pursue sodomy as a felony, and the “Reclaim Iowa” project by the National Organization for Marriage aimed to place Stephen Burgmeier into the Iowa Legislature in September in an effort to push same-sex marriage to popular vote.

There has even been a history of violence against the LGBTQA community, including the infamous murder of Matthew Shepard which, despite claims to the contrary, has never been credibly seen as anything less than motivated by hatred out of Shepard’s homosexuality. The largest proponents of the theory that it was motivated not by bigotry but instead a desperate grab for drug money are the convicted murderers themselves — Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson — and McKinney’s then-girlfriend, Kristen Price. Price’s interviews in particular have been contradictory accounts of who was and was not on drugs and motivations for the crime.

Despite such fierce opposition, the LGBTQA community continues to proclaim its pride, another quality we can all learn from. Persistence, not out of hatred for those we oppose, but out of passion for belief of who we are is something to celebrate.

There are many more stories to be shared, information to be given and learning to be done this week, but hopefully, you feel a little more compelled to take notice of those who may be grasping at the straws of confidence and self-empowerment for the first time thanks to this celebration.

If nothing else, it deserves your attention and respect.

If nothing else, take notice.