It is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes.– Robert Eichberg, in 1993 Most people think they don’t know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact, everybody does. The date of October 11 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. This led them to establish NCOD in order to maintain positivity and celebrate coming out. LGBT activists, including Eichberg and O’Leary, did not want to respond defensively to anti-LGBT action because they believed it would be predictable. O’Leary was an openly lesbian political leader and long-time activist from New York, and was at the time the head of the National Gay Rights Advocates in Los Angeles. Eichberg, who died in 1995 of complications from AIDS, was a psychologist from New Mexico and the founder of the personal growth workshop “The Experience”. NCOD was inaugurated in 1988 by Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary.
