The first Coming Out Day
Keith Haring drew the logo, eighteen states took part: this is how Coming Out Day began.
On 11 October 1988, National Coming Out Day was marked in the United States for the first time. The date recalled an event a year earlier: hundreds of thousands of people had marched in Washington for lesbian and gay rights. On the National Mall, the AIDS Quilt had also been laid out for the first time – a vast memorial made of fabric remembering those who had died in the epidemic.
The day was created by two people with different backgrounds. Psychologist Robert Eichberg from New Mexico ran personal development workshops. Jean O'Leary, who grew up in Cleveland, was a long-standing lesbian activist and headed the organisation National Gay Rights Advocates. They shared a conviction: silence feeds homophobia. Anyone who knows that their own sister, a colleague or the neighbour is queer finds it harder to hold on to prejudice.
The initiative was born at a time of grief and anger. AIDS was killing countless gay men. Activists accused Ronald Reagan's government of ignoring the crisis. In these circumstances, being open about your sexual orientation was also a political act.
Keith Haring created the logo: a figure symbolically stepping out of the closet. The image became an icon of the movement. In the very first year, eighteen states and numerous cities took part. Two years later, the day was being marked in all fifty states and in seven countries. After O'Leary's organisation was dissolved, the Human Rights Campaign took over the organising in 1993.
Robert Eichberg was able to see his initiative develop for only a few years. He died of AIDS-related causes in 1995. The day he co-founded is now known far beyond the United States. For many people, coming out remains a step that takes courage – and one they take again and again over the course of their lives.