national coming out day
This year’s National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, will mark an especially important hallmark, as it falls on the 20th anniversary of the 1987 Gay and Lesbian March on Washington, and the unfurling of the AIDS Quilt on the National Mall. National Coming Out Day was celebrated a year to the day later as a way of continuing the spirit of openness, honesty and visibility that the march and the AIDS Quilt presentation inspired.
“Twenty years ago, as the AIDS crisis was raging, coming out was literally a matter of life and death,” said Mark Shields, director of HRC’s Coming Out Project. “In many ways, we have come a very long way in a relatively short time, and yet that lesson still resonates deeply today. Coming out and living openly is the most important thing that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight-supportive Americans can do to build lasting understanding and equality.”
Today, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of Americans say they personally know or work with someone who identifies as gay or lesbian, according to Peter D. Hart Research Associates Inc. In 1987, only 11 percent claimed that they associated with a “male homosexual” on a regular basis, according to ABC News and The Washington Post.