A black door landed on the sidewalk in front of the McIntosh Center the morning of Oct. 10, leaving the student body and faculty questioning its origin and what is was doing there. Some students questioned if it was a joke “portal” to a different dimension; others believed it was a simple prank to throw them out of their day-to-day lives.
Quickly everyone learned that it was a campaign initiated by Open Doors to bring awareness to National Coming Out Day on Oct.11 and to the organization itself. Open Doors is a club on Ohio Northern’s campus that
is focused on promoting awareness for the LGBTQA+ culture on campus.
“We’ve done things internally as a group [for National Coming Out Day], but this year we wanted to do something that had a bigger impact and spreads the word,” Vice President Will Sierputowski said.
“It’s important, and we want to make a big statement, but ‘what do we do?’”
After the executive board of Open Doors discussed many possible ideas, David Dellifield, director of McIntosh Center, came up with a way to empower others without causing a large amount of controversy.
“We talked to Dave, and he told us to put a door on the sidewalk. We thought that was a great idea because we could obstruct the sidewalk and be in the way but in a good way!” Sierputowski said.
With the black door, they were able to reach a new audience and make a statement quickly on campus.
“We wanted to leave it there for a day to let people fester. ‘What is this, what is it for, what does it mean?’” Open Doors secretary Jasmin Garven said.
Open Doors announced on National Coming Out Day the importance
of the black door and that anyone who walked through it would receive candy, a wrist band and more information on the club.
The door was covered in paper with positive quotes written all over it.
“It could be viewed as coming out of the closet for people in the community, but it could also be seen as coming out as an ally to support us,” Sierputowski said.
He explained that students didn’t need to be part of the LGBTQA+ community to walk through the door.
“I viewed it as an indication that we are a safe-space on campus.”
Open Doors is continuing to hold events on campus, teaming up with the Student Planning Committee to raise awareness on campus and continue the conversation about what they truly stand for in the community.
National Coming Out Day is an important event for Open Doors members because of the special place it holds in the members’ hearts.