Coming out of the Shadows – A How To Guide
Difficulty:
Easy to Medium to Very Difficult
Time:
10 minutes-2 hours
“Brothers and Sisters, you must come out! come out to your parents, come out to your friends, if indeed they are your friends, come out to your neighbors, come out to your fellow workers. Once and for all, let’s break down the myth and destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake, for their sake. For the sake of all the youngsters who’ve been scared by the votes from Dade to Eugene. On the Statue of Liberty it says ‘ Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.’ In the Declaration of Independence it is written, ‘All men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights.’ For Mr. Briggs and Mrs. Bryant and all the bigots out there, no matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words from the Declaration of Independence! No matter how hard you try you can never chip those words from the base of the Statue of Liberty! That is where America is!”
-Harvey Milk
Congratulations! You have decided to come out of the shadows about your undocumented status. Perhaps you have finally decided to tell your friends why you haven’t signed up for your drivers’ ed. class or why you still don’t drive to school. Maybe, you will come out to your guidance counselor, who has asked you repeatedly to turn in your college application, but you were too afraid to tell him/her that you don’t have a social security number and that you still don’t know how you will pay for college without financial aid.
Please remember you are not alone. You are part of a large community of courageous undocumented youth who have decided to come out of the shadows about our immigration status. We live every day in fear and we are tired of it. We want to be able to talk about our lives and our stories without fearing persecution or deportation. We are not free to travel, go to school, work, live, but we refuse to be helpless. In the same way the LGBTQ community has historically come out, undocumented youth, some of whom are also part of the LGBTQ community, have decided to speak openly about their status. Your courage will open the way to having even more conversations about your immigration status. Sharing your stories will allow us, as a movement of undocumented youth, to grow, as we continue to learn to accept ourselves. By being more open we will begin replacing fear with courage and, ultimately, be united in our demands for change. You will be surprised how little other people know about the realities of being undocumented. People who know someone who is gay or lesbian are more likely to support equal rights for all gay and lesbian people- the same follows for people who know someone who is undocumented. Also note, if you must also confront intersecting oppressions (i.e. Gender, Race, Class, Sexual orientation), coming out about your status is one of the many hurdles for liberation.
National Coming Out Day
March 10th is National Coming Out Day. In Chicago, the Immigrant Youth Justice League will be holding a rally and a march to launch a week-long “coming out” of undocumented youth across the country. In other cities and towns, students are coming out to their friends on a much smaller scale. Whether big or small, consider participating in the National Coming Out Day and weeks by coming out!
Before you get started:
If you are nervous about coming out:
Include Know Your Rights Info here.
How to Participate in the Coming Out Week:
Your Commitment:
Look at the list below and determine your level of participation. Every bit helps moves us closer to passing the DREAM Act!
“I am a Dreamer”
Share your story with anyone (friends, family that do not know, a teacher, etc.) and get at least 10 petition signatures
“Shout It Out”
Get 25 petition signatures (or text) & share you story with us (written or video)
“We Are Here, Get Used to It”
Get 50 petition signatures (or text) & share you story with us (written or video) & hold a coming out party
“Loud and Proud”
Get 75 petition signatures (or text) & share you story with us (written or video) & hold a coming out event w/ press coverage
“Out of the Closets and into the Streets”
Get 100 petition signatures (or text) & get 5 people to share their story with us (written or video) & hold a coming out event w/ press coverage
Coming out is a very important and empowering time in a persons life. By coming out of the shadows you’re finally shedding some light on this issue that has been affecting others for years. Remember that there’s other youth out there, like yourself, that are too scared to come out. By taking the first step many more will find the courage they need to speak out as well!
Whatever you decide to do….Be creative and Be Brave!
Popularity: 31% [?]
Today, the Trail of Dreams sent us a video via our Twitter feed that we feel we ought to share with all of you.
In the spirit of coming out week here it is!
With this video comes the inspirational story of Gaby Pacheco, who has been out and about her status for quite some time now. Pretty powerful stuff.
“My blog is dedicated to all those students who decided to walk into the light.
The first bell rings and its time to wake up. I rush to the bathroom, brush my teeth, change my clothes, and comb my hair. I run out of the house, jump the fence, cross the four lane street and there I am, in school. I was a tenth grader then, and I was in a new school. I was part of the first graduating class of Felix Varela Senior High. We would be the first to leave legacies behind for future students to come, for me and my 800+ classmates.
For almost ten years I had attended school with my native U. S. born friends. We weren’t any different, like them, I had participated in afterschool extra-curriculum activities, field trips, dances and the pain of suddenly losing one of our classmates.
It was around this time that I realized my future after high school was not going to be the same as my friends, even though I had worked just as hard in obtaining excellent grades and excelling in everything I had the opportunity of participating in. I understood that indeed I was different and that for over ten years, I had been hiding inside a closet. For many long days I thought about coming out of the closet. I wanted to tell the whole world who I really was. It was a difficult decision to make. I thought, how would this affect the relationships with my friends; how would I be judged and how will my parents be affected? I would think about it day and night and often daydream about it in school. I thought, maybe someone will help and perhaps there are more people like me.
It took a lot of courage to do it but one day in 10th grade I told everyone “I, Maria Gabriela Pacheco, the girl that most know since the third grade, am UNDOCUMENTED”.
My teachers couldn’t believe it. Some tried to help me, while others made fun of it. I still remember one of my teachers yelling across the room, “Hey Pocahontas, why don’t you get married” or “Pocahontas, when is the wedding?”. Funny enough that is the only pathway to citizenship that ever seemed to be available to me, even after my multiple consultations with various of the top immigration lawyers in the country.
Coming into the light had its benefits. Once I was out, there was no reason to lie to anyone or fear anymore. Because I was out, I was able to explain my situation to every college admissions personnel I would meet. And in fact in my school there were several undocumented students, all came to me and shared their secret of also not having papers. One student made me promise that if I was to find a way to go to college, that I would share the information with him. One day, I met a Miami Dade College recruiter who decided to help me enter college. Since then, I’ve been able to obtain three college degrees from MDC, and have also represented at both local and state level the student body as the SGA president.
However, coming out of the closet also had its backlash. On July 26, 2006 there was a raid conducted at 6 AM in my home, and my parents and sister where detained. I was fortunate to have acted quickly and was able to get out of being detained as well. At first, I thought it was a mistake, a coincidence that ICE by chance had come to my house. It wasn’t until my sister called and told me “Gaby, the man is telling me I should thank you for what is happening to us”, I understood they really came looking for me! Everything I had done as an advocate for human rights and for students had an effect on my family and ICE hit me where it hurt the most, my family. Even though my family is still at risk of being deported because I publicly came into the light, this has allowed me to work with organizations that fight for immigrant rights and has indeed allowed me to keep my family close to me for much longer than I probably would have been able to if we had just stayed living in fear (disappearing in the middle of the night like thousands of other immigrants nationwide). My friends at the Florida Immigrant Coalition, SWER, and MDC have helped me and I know I can count on them to be the support I need when I am weakest.
What is fear and how do we conquer it? On this walk we have had to conquer many of our fears. Today for instance, we were stopped by the police, something that in many cities means potential deportation. We have heard so many cases of people being detained for no apparent reason. Police are now interrogating people and are asking for migratory status (this is in part because police have entered “287g agreements” and are now acting as ICE agents). Without much hesitation we calmly spoke to the police officer, told him what we were doing and proudly handed him information about the walk. How did I do it, well in part because I whole heartedly believe that there is nothing to fear but fear it self, nevertheless, we are able to conquer our fears because we are not alone, we are together in this struggle.
We walk often with shirts that say UNDOCUMENTED and we do it proudly, not because we are proud to be undocumented, but rather because we are putting out a statement:
WE ARE HUMANS TOO AND WE CANNOT BE IGNORED AND EXPLOITED ANYMORE.
We stick together and support each other. In the end, the only way we are going to conquer this fear and live life how God meant it to be will only be if we work collectively and support each other.
Lastly, I hope to be able to soon see the 2.5 million undocumented students wearing black UNDOCUMENTED shirts and standing united as we walk into the light to say what my dear friend Carlos once said to me “We the undocumented should no longer be afraid to be undocumented”
Psalms 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Popularity: 1% [?]
Undocumented youth all over this country will finally come out the shadows and lay claim to their own futures. No longer will we let ourselves be intimidated, scared and ashamed. We have worked long and hard, we have risen to meet every challenge and we have made this country a better place for all. And yet, we are relegated to live in fear. So let us come out and end this fear.
In anticipation of the National Coming Out Week, stories written and submitted by undocumented youth will be published daily. More stories shedding light on the experiences of DREAMers can be …
Issela, a DREAMer from Michigan is determined to keep on fighting for her freedom!
My name is Helen Yu and I was brought here at the age of 11, and had no clue about my status until the end of high school (my family overstayed our tourist visa). Everyone …
You have decided to be one of the thousands of undocumented youth that are standing up and speaking out. How can you overcome the fear of telling someone you’re undocumented?
I first came out to a …
UCLA has a reputation for producing proud, enthusiastic DREAMers. They’ve even got their own page at DREAMActivist for sharing their incredible stories.
Their enthusiasm has created many willing allies among not only other students but administrators …
An ally shares her story about why she cares, what is your story? Share it with us at story@dreamactivist.org or send us a video clip!
My name is Kemi, and I want to recruit you. Why? Because I am undocumented, and this battle should not be mine to fight alone.
Are your scared, mystified, perplexed, confused and just downright troubled by our call to “come out?”
Why should undocumented immigrants come out and more importantly, be out? Prerna lays it down.
Undocumented youth all over this country will finally come out the shadows and lay claim to their own futures. No longer will we let ourselves be intimidated, scared and ashamed. We have worked long and hard, we have risen to meet every challenge and we have made this country a better place for all. And yet, we are relegated to live in fear. So let us come out and end this fear.
