Teetering back and forth on the metal-chained swings at our grade school playground, swinging fast and furiously above the stable ground below us, my best friend turned to me and told me he was gay.

I was 15 years old. And with that confession, my world became fundamentally changed. Swinging there, on the site that embodied my childhood, I suddenly became an adult, dealing with an issue that was so much bigger than I could ever be.

It still is an issue that is bigger than many of us. Growing up in the cradle of the Catholic Church, many of us have developed attitudes about homosexuality that do not accept the lifestyle. We may have learned homosexual acts are a sin; we may have learned the lifestyle is immoral.

And if we did not develop those attitudes from the Church, society didn't help. We grew up as little girls and boys dreaming of Prince Charming or Cinderella, a heterosexual ideal. We grew up watching our moms and dads hold hands in public, but never observed affection between homosexual couples. We grew up thinking that heterosexuality was the norm, and anything that fell outside of it was wrong.

So when we are asked to confront the issue, it's uncomfortable. It was for me. After all, it goes against the very moral core by which we were raised.

Today, National Coming Out Day, a day in support of lesbians, gays and bisexuals, will be celebrated nationwide. Last year on this very day, students at Saint Mary's wrote chalk messages on sidewalks to raise students' awareness about the day. But by the end of the day they were erased, vibrant messages snuffed into clouds of muddled sidewalk chalk.

I hope that today, on the day designed to promote tolerance, that messages are not erased. I hope that today, people are not erased. I hope that today, people have the courage to confront what may be uncomfortable, and begin to understand.

That's what I did. At that moment where I stood on my childhood playground, I took my friend in my arms, and told him I'd be there for him. That I would understand.

And to this day, I have.

• Practice acceptance on Coming Out Day