National Coming Out Day encourages civil awareness
http://purdueexponent.org/?module=article&story_id=13074By Christopher Munt
10/10/2008
National Coming Out Day (NCOD), a now internationally-celebrated event, occurs on Oct. 11 each year. NCOD serves as a civil awareness day, during which the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community encourages open discussion about GLBT issues, and also encourages GLBT people to "come out of the closet." Though the exact origins of the phrase are debated, its meaning is understood to refer to the act of openly admitting a GLBT identity for oneself.
NCOD started on Oct. 11, 1988, as the first anniversary of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which drew an estimated half-million GLBT Americans, along with their straight allies. It was during the planning sessions for the march that one phrase became an informal motto for the movement: "the personal is political."
