Los Angeles recognizes National Coming Out Day in city first.
On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council will vote to adopt a resolution declaring the city celebration in a ceremony featuring iconic and historic LGBTQ local figures.
"We need to band together because there's so many people that want to bring us backward," P.J. Brescia, founder of the local LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit BabyGay, told ABC News in an interview. "We really need to support one another in regards to where we are as a country. We are so far from equal rights in this country."
The official designation of the holiday comes as the country faces a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. The ACLU tracked more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in state legislatures in the 2024 legislative session.
"Even in California, which is widely seen as a very, very liberal state, we are seeing real incidents of anti-gay, anti-queer, anti-trans rhetoric that has been very surprising," said Los Angeles City Council Member Nithya Raman. "We want to make sure that we have spaces where people feel accepted, where people feel safe, and I think this is a real moment of concern for us."
National Coming Out Day was founded in 1988 by LGBTQ+ activists Jean O'Leary and Robert Eichberg, marking the first anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in the early throes of the AIDS epidemic.
Throughout the LGBTQ+ rights movement, Los Angeles has been the backdrop to several historic moments, including the founding of The Black Cat, a gay bar that first opened its doors in 1966 at a time when same-sex relations were criminalized in California.
Shortly after its opening, the venue and its clientele were targeted in a violent New Year's Eve police raid that prompted hundreds to protest in the days following anti-LGBTQ+ violence and discrimination. This establishment and its history predate the iconic Stonewall Uprising in New York and it is often upheld as a symbol of progress in the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights, bar co-owner Lindsay Kennedy told ABC News.
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The bar was later renamed and passed through several owners before Kennedy, who called the establishment a "historical gift."
"We chose right away to dedicate ourselves to amplifying this gift we were given," Kennedy told told ABC News.
The bar was eventually designated a California Historical Landmark in 2022.
"And the first step in that was to actually rename it the Black Cat," Kennedy said. "It had not been the Black Cat since 1967, so that was the first step in sort of saying, 'Hey, we're here. And if you know what this name means, come talk to us.'"
Los Angeles has also been the birthplace of a new era of activism. Brescia, who came out in adulthood, said they were burdened by shame and loneliness in their coming out journey, finding it hard to process this new phase.
They said they turned their journals from this time in their life into a short film called "BabyGay," which would become the catalyst for the arts-based community-building nonprofit that BabyGay has since become.
Florida parents of LGBTQ students band together to fight anti-LGBTQ bills"I'm not the only one that felt so alone in this process," said Brescia. "This is a movement. The goal from the beginning is: Let's create a welcoming space, judgment, free space for all people of the queer community and their allies to come and support one another through the coming out process, to be free to ask those awkward questions that no one's kind of guiding you through."
This year's Coming Out Day celebration will feature the likes of comedians Margret Cho and Allison Reese, drag queen Lauren Banall, and singers including Grant Knoche, Tori Kay and others.
Editor's Note: The story was updated to clarify that Los Angeles was not the first city to recognize National Coming Out Day a holiday.
