Oct. 11th is National Coming Out Day

National Coming Out Day is held on October 11th every year to commemorate the first March on Washington by LBGT people. The March took place in October of 1987 and highlighted the lesbigay struggle for acceptance. The first National Coming Out Day was held on October 11, 1988.

The purpose of National Coming Out Day is to promote honesty and openness about being lesbian, gay or bisexual. LAMBDA celebrates this day with activities and resources designed to support coming out. LAMBDA also conducts ongoing projects to help enable our queer brothers and sisters to take their next steps out of the closet.

So moving forward to Oct. 11,2010 ...
From the Washington Post:

As cultural discourse around gay rights hits a fever pitch, messages of support for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community are pouring out online.

Today is National Coming Out Day, a movement started by the Human Rights Campaign in order for LGBT people -- and their straight allies -- to help raise awareness surrounding gay rights issues. This year, the theme weighs heavily on the importance of ending bullying. People are donating their Facebook statuses at such rapid pace that it's crashing the HRC application that helps them do it. (While we're on the subject: Ricky Martin turned the Human Rights Campaign dinner into a surprise coming out party this past weekend.)

But even as National Coming Out Day unfolds as a way for people to support one another, national headlines indicate conflicting views on homosexuality are mainstream. Last night, New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino told Orthodox Jewish leaders he doesn't want children "brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality" is acceptable.

Headlines like these bump up against reports of gay teen suicides. Seattle-based gay columnist Dan Savage created the It Gets Better video project to show teens that "happiness was possible in the future."

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So what does the 2010 National Coming Out Day mean/represent to you?