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12 COM I NG OUT AND SEEK I NG SUPPORT

the year. It’s National Coming Out Day—set aside to encourage those people struggling to suppress their sexual identities to instead embrace them and share their true selves with their loved ones and the world. “To anyone out there, especially young people, please know this,” said football player Michael Sam at a recent National Coming Out Day celebra- tion: “great things can happen when you have the courage to be yourself.” These sentiments are echoed by an increasing number of high-profile gay people who have come out in the full glare of public attention, including Olympic diver Tom Daley, singer Sam Smith, actress Ellen Page, singer- songwriter Rufus Wainwright, actor Wentworth Miller, NBA player Jason Collins, actor Zachary Quinto, and many more. The date for National Coming Out Day was selected in honor of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which brought half a million demonstrators to the nation’s capital. It was a pivotal mo- ment in the movement for gay rights, and it led activists Rob Eichberg and Jean O’Leary to conceive of a national coming-out event that began the following year. In a few short years, annual celebrations were being held in all fifty states and a number of other countries around the world.

What Is “Coming Out”?

“Coming out” is defined by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an LGBT advocacy group, as “the process by which a person first acknowl- edges, accepts and appreciates his or her sexual orientation or gender identity and begins to share that with others.” It is an incredibly impor- tant personal journey that means something different for each individual.