On this day in queerstory: The Great March and National Coming Out Day

October 11, 1987 — On this date, the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights took place in Washington, D.C. It was one of the largest assemblies of queer activists in U.S. history at that time, sometimes called “The Great March.” About 750,000 people marched in the capital, demanding civil rights, visibility, and a response (including funding) to the AIDS crisis.

This march was more than a protest—it was a statement of presence. For many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer people, it was among the first moments they saw themselves reflected in headlines, posters, and banners—not as shame or scandal, but as part of a mass outcry for justice. The timing mattered: the 1980s in the U.S. was a period of deep crisis for queer communities, especially as AIDS spread, government response lagged, and cultural stigma was intense. To gather, to organise, to demand rights in that climate took courage.

October 11, 1988 — Exactly one year later, on the same date, National Coming Out Day (NCOD) was first celebrated. Founded by Robert Eichberg, a psychologist, and Jean O’Leary, a lesbian activist, the idea was simple yet powerful: silence enables prejudice. If people knew someone who was gay, lesbian, bisexual, or otherwise queer, prejudice would be harder to maintain. The date was chosen to commemorate the powerful outpouring from the previous year’s march. National Coming Out Day became a ritual of visibility, of personal risk turned into collective strength.

While the 1987 march and the founding of NCOD are often framed around “lesbian and gay rights,” trans and gender-nonconforming people were—and are—part of those movements, often navigating an extra set of exclusions and erasures.

Trans folks have sometimes been overshadowed in mainstream queer organizing, despite being on the frontlines of issues like violence, healthcare discrimination, and lack of legal recognition. The act of “coming out” is for many trans people tied not just to sexual orientation but to gender identification and expression—a more complex negotiation of body, social expectations, and often legal systems.

On National Coming Out Day, trans people may face additional layers of risk: family rejection, legal obstacles around name changes or gender markers, medical gatekeeping, social isolation. But they also embody a particular bravery: to assert that not only their loves but their gender is valid, that their self‐definition deserves respect and safety.

Even in the aftermath of big moments like the 1987 march, trans people have had to create or carve out their own forums for coming out, for being seen. Spaces like support groups, trans-led nonprofits, community centers, performance scenes (drag, ballroom, etc.), and now social media have been crucial to making the personal political. Visibility can be a radical act of self-claiming.

Why October 11 Still Matters

• Visibility as activism: National Coming Out Day remains a reminder that visibility has political power. Each person who comes out (on any scale: to self, to family, to community) shifts the public conversation. What was once deeply stigmatized becomes more normalized when people see that queer people are in their families, offices, neighborhoods.
• Intersectional challenges: Coming out is not the same for everyone. For gay or lesbian people with supportive circles, it may be less dangerous; for many trans people, people of color, queer youth in hostile environments, it can carry greater risks. Recognizing that helps us understand what needs to change—not only legal protections but social attitudes and resources.
• Remembering protest & rights struggles: The 1987 march reminds us that rights are not simply granted—they’re demanded. The presence of thousands in Washington D.C. changed what was politically conceivable. That momentum planted seeds for later legal victories, community support structures, and cultural change.

So, on October 11 we have a dual inheritance: the spark of mass protest (1987) and the ritual of disclosure and authenticity, National Coming Out Day (1988). These moments feed into each other: marching publicly, coming out personally. Both demand visibility, both cost something, both contribute to transformation.