National Coming Out Day will be celebrated Thursday as part of LGBT month.

“Coming out” is the process of recognizing, accepting and sharing one’s sexual and/or gender identity, as stated in the NIU Ally Program Volunteer Handbook.

NCOD was created as a way to counter the invisibility of LGBT people by encouraging and empowering them to become more visible, according to the NIU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center’s official Web site.

This year’s event marks the 20th anniversary of the 1987 gay and lesbian march on Washington and unfurling of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall.

“National Coming Out Day encourages people to take the next step in the LGBT process,” said Margie Cook, director of the LGBT Resource Center.

The LGBT Resource Center, located in the Holmes Student Center, Room 707, is promoting NCOD by hosting “Out and Proud,” where LGBT individuals and allies can add their names to an online list.

“[We are] inviting anyone on campus who wants to be open about being LGBT or an ally to be on our list,” Cook said. Signing the list is a way to show mass support for LGBT students on campus, she said.

The list will be available on the LGBT center’s Web site through Thursday.

Promotional “Do Ask, Do Tell” stickers are available in the LGBT center, and will also be distributed by PRISM members Thursday.

The LGBT Resource Center will host “In, Out or In-Between: A Coming Out Discussion” Thursday, at 7 p.m. in the Latino Resource Center. This will be a confidential discussion.

NCOD Out and Proud List

http://www.niu.edu/LGBT/resourcecenter/opl/index.shtml