Danny Nguyen told his older sisters eight years ago that he was gay, but he never told his parents.

His parents are immigrants from Vietnam, and Nguyen, 21, grew up in a conservative, Catholic family. They have certain expectations for Nguyen to inherit the family name. Because of his background, the second-generation Vietnamese American has not been able to tell his parents that he is gay.

"I feel a certain level of hostility that they have towards [gay people], and there is also a level of ignorance that they don't really understand or know much about gay people," said Nguyen, a senior English major at SF State.

Similar to Nguyen's case, people of color face more challenges when they come out of the closet because many ethnic minority communities carry negative cultural perspectives of homosexuality, according to Amy Sueyoshi, assistant professor for human sexuality studies. Some of them choose to stay in the closet and have a wife and children, but those who decide to come out usually lose the kinship with their community, she said.

"Folks who are immigrants and come from different families have a lot at stake in terms of family and culture," said Sueyoshi.

People in white communities, on the other hand, are more tolerant of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people because they are more focused on the individual, while ethnic minorities are more focused on the family, she said.

The consequences of the coming-out process are sometimes unfortunate. Many GLBT youths are rejected by their families and thrown out of the house. About 25-40 percent of homeless youth are GLBT, according to Advocates for Youth (AYW), a Washington D.C.-based organization that supports sexual health for youth.

"Coming out in the idealistic world is a wonderful concept, but it has a real consequence to it. Most of the folks are not necessarily prepared to deal with the consequences," said Sueyoshi. "You have to be prepared for a complete rejection."

When Jordan Green came out to his parents, he was only 13 years old. Green, an African American, was caught by a counselor making out with a boy he met in a summer camp sponsored by a boys and girls club in Mendocino. The director of the camp called his parents for Green's misconduct.

Green said his mother accepted him when he came out. But his father could not accept his son because, as Green said, he thinks it is unusual for any father, and he did not like his son appearing less masculine in the black community.

"He didn't know how to handle it. He thought it was something that he did wrong. He thought it was something my mom did," said the 18-year-old freshman art major. "He thought he raised me right. The fact that I was gay didn't change anything. I am still the same person with values and the same ideals that he raised me with."

After his father rejected Green, he moved to his grandmother's house. He was fortunate that he had support from his friends in high school and his mother. It took five years for his father to understand and accept his son being gay. Today, they have a great relationship, Green said.

But, Green's experience of support at school is rare. Studies show that over 83 percent of GLBT students reported verbal and physical harassment and 21 percent of those students dropped out because of the peer harassment, according to AYW.

Nguyen experienced verbal harassment in high school before he came out, but he faced less homophobic treatment by his peers after he came out. He even took a male friend to the prom.

When Sueyoshi, a second-generation Japanese American, came out to her parents, her mother stopped talking to her for six months.

"It was long and painful six months, but it was relatively short compared to five years, [like Green's father]. It doesn't mean that she isn't accepting. That's not it at all, but she will talk to me," said Sueyoshi.

Nguyen plans to come out to his parents in the future. He has a partner, and his parents think of him as Nguyen's best friend.

"[My partner] would probably be the factor of my decision to coming out," said Nguyen.

Thousands of GLBT people marched on Washington D.C. to support equal rights on Oct. 11 in 1987. People started to commemorate the event, and it became the annual occasion known as the National Coming Out Day, which is held in hundreds of cities in the United States and around the globe today.