Today is National Coming Out Day and thousands of people are taking to Twitter, and other social media platforms, to share their stories and raise awareness.
The annual day of observance was started in 1988 by psychologist Robert H. Eichberg and Jean O’Leary as a way to encourage “gay men and women to reveal their homosexuality,” according to Eichberg’s obituary in the New York Times.
A lot has changed since then National Coming Out Day, or NCOD for short. After all, it began before gay marriage or even TV show, Will & Grace.
NCOD is also celebrated in Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
On Twitter, NCOD was a national trending topic and has been mentioned more than 10,000 in the last few hours, according to statistics from Topsy, a social media search engine.
Here’s how people are celebrating around the Web.
Photo by Eduardo Ogata.
