Roderick McCladdie-Mcleod said the rainy weather Wednesday was a great allegory for coming out.

National Coming Out Week continued on Oct. 11, with the Coming Out Rally — originally planned to be on the steps of Old Main, it was held on the Millennium staircase at the HUB-Robeson Center due to unforeseen weather.

“Coming out to students is uncomfortable, it’s oppressive and kind of miserable, but we’re doing it and we’re here together,” McCladdie-Mcleod (senior-theatre) said. “Even though we’re wet and we’re sad, we’re here and we’re proud to be here — whether we’re gay, lesbian, intersexual, bisexual or questioning.”

National Coming Out Week is hosted every year by the Penn State LGBTQA Student Resource Center located in Boucke Building.

As the pride flag lay across the Millennium staircase, students stood behind a podium and spoke to a filled HUB where students and faculty members were both sitting and standing.

LGBTQA Student Resource Center intern and Speech and Debate Society President Seckin Kara said he came out only two weeks ago.

“I am the oldest son of three children; my sister is a lesbian and my brother is transgender, so I was the last one to come out and the last hope my parents had for grandchildren,” Kara (junior-Spanish and computational mathematics) said.

Students all clapped and cheered for Kara as he continued telling his coming out experience.

Kara said he was scared and prepared for his parents to not want to pay for his education once they found out he was gay.

But, that was not the case. For an entire year of his life, Kara said, all he could think about was how long he was going to wait until he told his parents he is gay.

“One hour before coming out to my parents, I was going to attempt suicide,” Kara said.

According to The Trevor Project , one out of every six LGBTQ students nationwide considered suicide in the past year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people in the LGBTQ community, according to The Trevor Project.

“I feel so much better now having told my parents and other people about this,” Kara said. “If you know someone who is going through this, try to really be there for them because I don’t know where I would be without my friends.”

Previously deployed, international student Daniel Schleufer said coming out to his parents as gay before leaving for Afghanistan was the hardest decision he’s ever made.

“My parents are unconventional about the LGBT community,” Schleufer (sociology) said. “My dad is a hardcore military man and my mother is a ruthless business woman.”

According to a report by the Williams Institute , 70,871 of those serving in the military in 2004 were a part of the LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual) community.

Schleufer said he started out the conversation with his parents by telling them there’s a reason he doesn’t have, and has never had, a girlfriend.

“My dad left the room and came back with a gun and said ‘give me one reason not to shoot you,’” Schleufer said. “All I could say was ‘because I’m your son.’”

Schleufer said a lot of people think being gay is a choice, although it’s not. Schleufer said coming out to his parents was crazy, but coming out to his twin brother was priceless.

“My twin brother said I was weird because I like men, so I told him he was weird for liking women,” Schleufer said.

He said his parents finally came to terms with it and accepted him after his near-death experience while deployed in Afghanistan.

“Being gay is a constant battle with society, the war did not end the day I came back from Afghanistan,” Schleufer said.

National Coming Out Week will continue with a Gender Expression and Body Positivity discussion on Thursday followed by the annual Student Drag Show.