An estimated 1,400 to 3,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals at Iowa State will celebrate coming out during National Coming Out Week.

Festivities, sponsored at Iowa State by the university’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Alliance [LGBA], begin at noon Wednesday with a speech south of the Campanile by Jonathan Wilson, a former member of the Des Moines school board who is gay.

Wednesday is National Coming Out Day.

The week-long schedule of activities also include a movie night, a raffle and a dance sponsored by the AIDS Coalition of Story Country, and a coming-out forum, which features students, faculty and group members discussing the process of coming out.

The coming-out forum is a new addition to Coming Out Week.

Todd Herriott, vice president of LGBA, said many people have had questions about coming out and could benefit from the forum.

“In the Ames area, there is not one specific group dealing with coming out. We hope people will utilize this forum,” Herriott said.

National Coming Out Week (NCOW) at ISU will conclude Oct. 18 with an 8 p.m. speech in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union by Candace Gingrich, the gay half-sister of Newt Gingrich, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Herriott said the aim of Coming Out Week is to encourage people to “come out of the closet” to parents, friends and family.

“There is a tolerance for intolerance in Ames,” Herriott said. “People use [sexual] slurs on a daily basis and nobody questions it. Because of that, people have built up a thick skin and a thick closet door. They are afraid to come out.”

However, Herriott stressed that people shouldn’t come out before they are ready.

“Sometimes it is simply not safe to tell an entire community,” he said. “It depends on what the individual feels is best. Whether it be one person or several, the important thing is that people see gays, lesbians and bisexuals out there being visible.”

Herriott, who said there are up to 3,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals on campus, said his group has not always gotten a warm reception from ISU.

“When I first went to organize the events on campus, I encountered people who had decided that any mention of gays on campus would not be nice,” Herriott said. “If any queer groups held an event, those people would do a counter-protest. It really showed the difference between a celebration of being true to one’s self and people just screaming these hateful things.”

But during the last three years, there has been no counter-protests against NCOW.

Herriott said it is hard to gauge the influence Coming Out Week has on the campus, but LGBA almost always sees an increase in membership after the activities.

“We generally have a good turnout for these events,” Herriott said. “The amount of people who attend relates directly to the amount of publicity we do. It’s not like there aren’t people out there who are interested.”