Join more than 500,000 business leaders, teachers and students, parents and families, faith leaders, elected officials, and other members of the community for the LGBT Network’s 18th annual National Coming Out Day (NCOD) Awareness Campaign on Friday, Oct. 11, 2019—National Coming Out Day.
The LGBT Network’s NCOD Campaign is a one-day campaign that engages communities to take a stand against the discrimination, violence, harassment and bullying of LGBT people by coming out in support of safe spaces where they live, learn, work, play and pray.
How does the campaign work?
- People participate in the campaign by wearing a rainbow ribbon, a symbol of LGBT pride and history, as a way to visually “come out” in support of safe spaces for LGBT people.
You register and sign-up your institution or organization. You can run the campaign in your office, a house of worship, your library, a school or college, a senior center, non-profit organization, union, government agency, gyms, civic associations or any other organization—anywhere! Sign up and register at www.WearTheRibbon.org. - Sign the LGBT Safe Space pledge! Sign the pledge at www.WearTheRibbon.org to commit your support to creating safer spaces for LGBT people where they live, learn, work, play and pray.
Get involved and take action today
- Sign-up and register your institution, organization, or school! You’ll receive your own National Coming Out Day Campaign Organizing Kit, which includes:
- Rainbow ribbons and safety pins so that people in your organization can participate
- “Ally” stickers
- 13″ x 19″ full-color campaign posters to display
- 4″ x 6″ information cards to distribute
- Pronoun Stickers
- Organizing Manual that provides tips and suggestions about implementing and running the campaign to make it the best that it can be
- Request a campaign training: LGBT Network staff will visit you and your team to introduce the campaign, discuss best practices and help you get started.
Since 2002, the LGBT Network has been organizing its National Coming Out Day Awareness Campaign. In 2017, the campaign’s 16th year, the LGBT Network expanded this successful campaign, bringing it to other institutions with one goal in mind: Create safe spaces for LGBT people where they live, learn, work, play and pray.
“This campaign embodies the ethos and community organizing framework that has set the LGBT Network apart for 25 years,” said LGBT Network founder, president and CEO David Kilmnick. “The LGBT Network is a home and a voice for the LGBT community. We help and support LGBT people, while simultaneously working to address the discrimination, violence, harassment, and bullying that LGBT people face daily. We aim to engage everyone—not just LGBT people—so that we can build awareness throughout the community to create businesses, schools, living centers, athletic programs, places of worship, libraries, and other institutions that are space spaces for LGBT people.”
Why safe spaces are important
- LIVE: 32 percent of LGBT people reported they were told, or made to feel, they would not be welcome in a neighborhood or housing because of their identity
- LEARN: Over 85 percent of LGBT students report verbal harassment in school, 60 percent report sexual harassment, and 27% report physical harassment, leading to 58 percent feeling unsafe in school.
- WORK: 21 percent of LGBT workers had been treated unfairly by an employer, and 90 percent of transgender workers experienced workplace harassment.
- PLAY: 84 percent of Americans witnessed anti-LGBT behavior in sports.
- PRAY: 4 out of 5 LGBT adults regard major faith groups as unwelcoming.
—Submitted by LGBT Network
