It seems like National Coming Out Day^[1] comes earlier every year. 

With less than two weeks to go, stores are stocking up on heart medication and facial tissue (which always come in handy for the moment bright-eyed gay and lesbian kids earnestly spring the Big News on Grandma over Sunday dinner).   ---

Now, National Coming Out Day is officially on Oct. 11 every year, but this year the Center is beating the rush by celebrating a week early. Cleve Jones, whom we all remember as grand marshal at 2009's Utah Pride Festival, will speak at the Center's fifth annual celebration Oct. 4. (Queer sci-fi geeks might avoid embarrassing misunderstandings by noting that this is not Clive Jones, the father of Rose's sexier replacement on Doctor Who -- which is apparently a common mistake -- but the venerable Cleve Jones who is a longtime activist in the LGBT movement, a onetime associate of Harvey Milk, the creator of the AIDS memorial quilt project, and the leader of the National Equality March in Washington, D.C., Oct. 10-11.)

The event takes place noon Sunday, Oct. 4 at the downtown Salt Lake City Sheraton, 150 W. 500 South. Tickets are $35. 

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1. For grammatical reasons, I would prefer to call it National Coming-out Day instead of National Coming Out Day, but I think the publicity people prefer the excitement of Words That Are All Capitalized!!! and the simplicity of no hyphens.