Omar Thomas Joins Rivers For National Coming Out Day
Rivers recognized National Coming Out Day a bit early this year, but did so in grand fashion by welcoming LGBT activist and acclaimed composer Omar Thomas to campus on Monday, October 6. Thomas serves as an assistant professor of harmony at Berklee College of Music in Boston and has twice been awarded the Certificate of Distinction from Harvard University, where he serves as a teaching fellow.
In addition to being an accomplished musician, Thomas has been a vocal advocate for LGBT rights and for the role that music can play in supporting social change.
“You can write laws that will change things, but laws can’t change people’s hearts,” Thomas said. “So I believe the arts are how we can reach people’s hearts and minds to make the changes we need to make.”
With his piece, “We Will Know, an LGBT Civil Rights Piece in Four Movements,” Thomas hopes to give the LGBT community a song they can call their own and sing in times of celebration and of hardship. He brought with him members of the Berklee and Harvard communities to perform the first movement of the piece.
Click here to watch the performance of the first movement of “We Will Know, an LGBT Civil Rights Piece in Four Movements” by Omar Thomas.
National Coming Out Day will be recognized across the world on October 11. Now in its 26th year, this civil awareness day celebrates individuals who publicly identify as a gender or sexual minority. The date was chosen to recognize the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
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