Celebrate Coming Out Day in Style

Wednesday, October 11, is National Coming Out Day, and celebrations begin this weekend to applaud anyone who has come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) or as a straight ally of individuals in this community.

Every American deserves equality. Therefore, every person who speaks up in an effort to change more hearts and minds creates new advocates for equality. No matter how you identify, there is hope on Coming Out Day that you can meet the challenges and opportunities that living openly offers to each of us.

Coming Out Still Matters

In the United States, half our population has someone close to them who is gay or lesbian. However, for transgender people, that number is only one in 10.

It takes bravery and self-confidence to come out or to public support the LGBTQ community. Sadly, homophobic or oppressive views still exist, and there can be an environment of silence and ignorance that is damaging or even scary. For more information on National Coming Out Day and resources, we enough you to visit https://www.hrc.org/resources/national-coming-out-day.

30th Anniversary of the March

National Coming Out Day was first celebrated on Oct. 11, 1988, to mark the anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, where half a million people marched and demonstrated on the nation’s capital. In honoring this event, it became a day filled with awareness, education and merriment.

The event was founded by Robert Eichsberg, a psychologist, author and gay rights activist, and Jean O’Leary, a former nun and founder of Lesbian Feminist Liberation, one of the first lesbian activist groups in the women’s movement. The original intent was to raise awareness of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and its civil rights movement.

In their initial idea to commemorate such liberation, Eichsberg and O’Leary felt that things that were personal to many people began to become political. Their effort had an emphasis on activism. And the most basic way to engage in this effort was to encourage others to come out to family, friends and coworkers, and live life openly as a gay person.

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Now in its 29th year, National Coming Out Day is annually celebrated by thousands of LGBTQ individuals and allies on or near Oct. 11 with rallies, speeches and other events that promote a safer, more inclusive world for those who have come out and want to live truthfully and openly.

If you plan to celebrate National Coming Out Day in the Houston area, why not arrive in style. Colony Limo offers stretch limos, party buses, SUVs, town cars and more for you to safely and easily travel in luxury.