Maria Spirova/The Ithacan LOCAL AUTHOR KARI KRAKOW reads to students from her book “The Harvey Milk Story” Oct. 11 in the Clark Lounge. Krakow talked about the challenges of introducing first-graders to homosexuality.

Seventeen years ago, a half million people marched in Washington, D.C., demanding gay and lesbian civil rights for the first time.

National Coming Out Day, which encourages homosexuals across the country to openly share their orientation with friends and family, has been celebrated ever since on Oct. 11.

The college honored the day with a speech by Kari Krakow, author of “The Harvey Milk Story.”  Krakow’s work with elementary-age children prompted her to write a biography about gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

“It’s the first biography of an openly gay man at the elementary level ever published,” Krakow said.

In 1977, Milk was the first openly gay person elected to the San Francisco City Council. His work focused on encouraging acceptance of homosexuality. 

Another city official, Dan White, who opposed gay rights, assassinated Milk the following year.  In court, White pleaded the infamous “Twinkie defense,” claiming he ate too much sugar and therefore could not be held accountable for the murder. As a result, he spent only six years in prison.

Krakow learned of Milk while researching how to teach children about diverse families as part of her graduate degree. Krakow thought of the idea while teaching a third grade class at Belle Sherman Elementary School in Ithaca. Part of the curriculum focused on different types of families, especially those with gay or lesbian parents.

“Gay was a big put-down word,” Krakow said. “Lots of kids didn’t even know what these words meant. We need to talk about these words and define them to the kids.”

Lisa Maurer, coordinator for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender outreach services, said that Krakow brought an important message to the college’s National Coming Out Day celebration.

“I think many students have a sense that there are LGBT students on this campus, and yet I still think there’s a gap that many students don’t stop to think that they have classmates who come from LGBT families,” Maurer said. “Sometimes [LGBT people] may feel isolated but there are many of us.”

Krakow said that while the atmosphere is different for a college campus than for an elementary school, it is still important to raise awareness.

“Our populations of children are becoming more and more diverse, with more and more children coming from homes where their moms are lesbians or their dad is gay,” Krakow said.  “I think we really need to figure out a way to talk about it in the classroom.”

Residence Director Linda Frechette said the college has worked to raise awareness, and National Coming Out Day promotes its mission to create an atmosphere where students feel accepted.

“I think that it empowers people to feel comfortable with who they are and to be comfortable to share that,” she said.

Students attending the event said that Krakow brought an interesting perspective to LGBT issues.  Sophomore Regina Hermosillo said the Milk story was relevant to many departments, including education and human rights issues.

“People are still to this day not receptive of the book,” Hermosillo said. “I think it really highlights that we still live in a closed-minded society, scared to talk about these issues that are obviously prevalent in everyone’s lives.”