History of National Coming Out Day: 1990: Combining Forces
In 1990, Shepodd was hired as executive director and among her first actions was to obtain tax-exempt status for the organization. In an effort to make the Haring coming out image a universal symbol, Shepodd began requesting free ad space in the gay press to run it. A total of 150 publications eventually agreed. Her innovations resulted in the expansion of National Coming Out Day to all 50 states and seven foreign countries.
Over the next three years, National Coming Out Day continued to grow and thrive.
In 1991, Geraldo Rivera hosted a coming out day TV program that featured Dick Sargent, a gay actor famous for playing Darren on Bewitched, openly gay California Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl and Eichberg. A turning point came in 1993 when National Coming Out Day merged with the then-Human Rights Campaign Fund.
"I wanted to kick this project up to the next level and HRCF had the muscle to do it," Shepodd says. Tim McFeeley, then executive director of HRCF, also understood the impact the merger could have, and saw it as a missing piece of the movement. "There were so many activists who were still afraid of being truthful about their own lives," remembers Shepodd "Tim saw NCOD as a way to make a bigger impact on public policy issues."