Join more than 1 million business leaders, teachers and students, parents and families, faith leaders, elected officials, and other members of the community for the LGBT Network’s 19th annual National Coming Out Day (NCOD) Awareness Campaign on Friday, October 9, 2020 to celebrate 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.  This year we’re all VIRTUAL to support creating safe spaces during COVID.  We recognize that there is no one singular solution for this year’s Campaign, but we wanted to provide the most far-reaching method for even more people to participate this year!

HOW DOES THE CAMPAIGN WORK?

• People participate in the campaign by “rep’ing” the rainbow #RepTheRainbow – doing things that raise awareness about creating safe spaces for LGBT people.  In the past pre-COVID, our focus has been on wearing a rainbow ribbon, a symbol of LGBT pride and history.  For 2020, our Campaign is all virtual providing broader access for participation and helping get our Campaign materials to even more people!  We’ve changed our hashtag to #RepTheRainbow to emphasize all of the different ways people can raise awareness – wearing a (virtual) ribbon, using a NCOD virtual Zoom background, taking our Safe Space Pledge and Call-to-Action, posting information on social media, and more.  Campaign materials are accessible through our online Virtual Campaign Toolkit – flyers, informational resources, rainbow ribbon, pronoun signs, and more!
• You register and sign-up your institution or organization.  You can run the campaign anywhere!  You can run it virtually, or 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.RepTheRainbow.org.
• Sign the LGBT Safe Space pledge!  Sign the pledge at www.RepTheRainbow.org to commit your support to creating safer spaces for LGBT people where they live, learn, work, play, and pray.  For 2020, we’ve made a significant expansion of our Pledge to include specific calls-to-action.  These calls-to-action help participants better understand how to create safe space for LGBT people and to take action!

GET INVOLVED AND TAKE ACTION TODAY

• SIGN-UP AND REGISTER: Sign-up and register your institution, organization, or school!  You’ll gain access to our Virtual Campaign Toolkit, which includes
  • Campaign flyers/posters
  • Campaign educational cards
  • “Rainbow ribbon”
  • Pronoun stickers
  • “Ally” stickers

• 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,” says 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.”