National Coming Out Day

It’s National Coming Out Day—♫ ♪ Come out Come Out Wherever You Are ♪ ♫—and even though we have a lying hypocritical bigoted homophobe in the White House who is working to push us back into the closet, not only are we not going, but today, today, a permanent Rainbow flag will fly on federal land when it is hoisted above the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan.

The flag—which will be maintained by the National Park Service—will be raised at noon today, which just happens to also be the 30th anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for LGBT. On that day hundreds of thousands of LGBT Americans and our allies called for an end to discrimination and more federal funding for AIDS research and treatment. That was also the first time the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was unfurled and displayed on the National Mall with 1,920 panels covering a space larger than a football field to commemorate those who had died.

Gilbert Baker, who created the original rainbow flag in 1978, passed away this year at the age of 65 so this is a fitting tribute to him as well:

“The rainbow is a part of nature, and you have to be in the right place to see it. It’s beautiful, all of the colors, even the colors you can’t see. That really fit us as a people because we are all of the colors… we are all the genders, races and ages.”

So, while we watch as those in charge seek to deny us equality, and make us feel less than, let’s take a moment and realize that we have come this far, and we may still have a ways to go, but not even this Bigot-In-Chief will stop us.

The march goes on ... so, if you haven't already done so, come on out already!