National Coming Out Day is observed annually on October 11 and there is a reason why this day was chosen for the celebration.
It was founded in 1988 to support the LGBTQ+ community and spread awareness about different sexual orientations.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community celebrate the day by identifying themselves for who they truly are while drawing more attention to their rights.
National Coming Out Day was first celebrated on 11 October 1988 and has been celebrated on this day every year since.
Coming out is a personal experience for members of the LGBTQ+ community and everyone has their own story to tell. #NationalComingOutDay pic.twitter.com/0GY1VJeioo
— LGBT Foundation (@LGBTfdn) October 11, 2022
WHY IS NATIONAL COMING DAY ON OCTOBER 11?
According to the American Psychological Association, psychologist Richard Eichberg and gay rights activist Jean O’Leary founded National Coming Out Day in 1988.
The purpose of the celebration was to raise awareness among the LGBTQ community and its civil rights movement.
However, they chose October 11 to celebrate the second anniversary of the national march on Washington for lesbian and gay rights, held on the same day in 1987.
Nearly half a million people participated in the second National March.
Over the years, National Coming Out Day has grown into a full-fledged celebration with parades and marches held throughout the states of the United States.
POSITIVE QUOTES TO SHARE IN 2022
To celebrate National Coming Out Day 2022, we’ve rounded up some quotes you can share to make everyone feel special, regardless of sexual orientation, and encourage more positive conversations about coming out respectively.
- Don’t come out unless you want to. Don’t come out for anyone else’s sake. Don’t come out because you think society expects you to. Come out for yourself. Come out to yourself. Shout, sing it. Softly stutter. Correct those who say they knew before you did. That’s not how sexuality works, it’s yours to define. ― Dean Atta
- Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself. — Harvey Fierstein
- Love yourself, whatever makes you different, and use it to make you stand out. Mine is my voice and the fact that I’m gay.— Ross Matthews
- To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- I’m proud to be not only a member, but an ally of the LGBTQIA+ community and I’m proud to say I will live my life based on loving people, not for their gender, but their soul.—Tana Mongeau
- Like being a woman, like being a racial, religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights. — Hilary Clinton
- There’s just some magic in truth and honesty and openness. — Frank Ocean