This year, National Coming Out Day, which is celebrated today, takes on a new meaning with the current political climate.

Sexuality is a personal issue about a choice somebody makes for the happiness in his or her life. For a country founded upon freedom, the political proceedings of last year seem like some sort of ironic farce of that ideal.

We all remember in the spring, President George W. Bush stressed that marriage was between a man and a woman, and that his administration tried to pass an amendment to delineate that marriage was defined as such. This creates a resounding message for National Coming Out Day -- the group whose citizens are singled out by the President of the United States to receive fewer civil liberties.

Instead of general assumptions about discrimination in the gay community, the president himself essentially admitted that he wants to discriminate against them. There is a codified reason that these people need to speak out. A piece of legislation was written specifically to limit their rights. Thankfully, the bill never made it in the Senate or the House of Representatives. It is wrong to take away people's rights, and to discriminate against someone because of his or her sexuality. Gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender people in our community, and in the larger U.S., should not feel like they are being discriminated against, or have any of their rights taken away.

And when the president tries to shove a relative "morality" on to the country's citizens, people need to speak out.

We are proud the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community members feel they can speak out on our campus, as exemplified by activities throughout the year, and last year's National Coming Out Day. But, we also need to recognize that not every place in the world is as much of a "safe space" as the Penn State campus.

And Penn State lacks as a "safe space" in comparison to others. There is still hate at Penn State, and it's ignorant to assume otherwise.

National Coming Out Day is a time to recognize oppression exists, and speak out in volumes against it. Last year, one of the leaders of our campus's National Coming Out Day activities, Allison Subasic, said, "The rally is important for the whole campus to see. Those of us who are and can be visible will stand up for those who don't have a voice."

We cannot pretend to have felt the discrimination that gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender community members may have felt, but we can stand beside them, and say we support them today, and every day of the year.