there is hope to be found on october 11th: rachael gilbert

on october 11^th of 1987 hundreds of members of the LGBTQ+ community lead a march on washington that lasted six days. the march was structured to protest the recent supreme court decision bowers v. hardwick which upheld criminalization of all homosexual activity, even if done in the privacy of the home. the march also aimed to end the prejudice against AIDS as well as to rally support for better AIDS research and education.

            to celebrate this important step in recognition of the LGBTQ+ community, robert eichberg and jean o'leary founded national coming out day (hereafter referred to as ncoa) in 1988. the holiday was aimed to raise awareness for the community and to provide a resource for people still in the closet.

            in 2015, history was made again as the united states supreme court issued their decision on marriage equality in early july. this year’s national coming out day was the first in which members of the community in all fifty states could be legally married and set the record in some states for most marriages approved of in a day.

            the struggle for equal rights in the LGBTQ+ community is still not over, prejudice still exists all across the world and the fight to be recognized as equal and valid is still a developing one. this year, several campaigns were launched in order to create gender neutral bathrooms in public places in order to battle transphobia and dysphoria across the country* and some strides were made in cities such as new york and los angeles.

            the events on this date are important to me personally, but moreover I find it astounding that so much progress has been made in the past thirty years. This feeling however; is also a double edged sword. reading and researching events that occurred when my parents were in their twenties that were so horrifying and seemingly inhumane is a terrible thing to do. it makes me thankful that I exist in a year like 2015, and even more hopeful for what the future brings us.

*in the past ten years the number of crimes committed against trans* people have risen dramatically (2 in 3 trans* people will experience a violent hate crime in their lifetime).

dysphoria is defined as a state of general unease or dissatisfaction with a certain aspect of life. in public spaces dysphoria can be felt by trans* people as they feel pressured to use the restroom of the gender they were assigned at birth, rather than the one they truly are.