I’ve attended more GLBT events at which “Over the Rainbow” goes over like a national anthem, but I think the gayest lyric on the “The Wizard of Oz” soundtrack is “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

National Coming Out Day, not coincidentally, falls on the day of the National Equality March, when GLBT activists will come out, come out to the National Mall to demand “equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.”

But the majority of GLBT people in the United States will not be marching on Washington. A majority of GLBTs will not be coming out to America from the Capitol, but coming out in smaller ways, more subtle ways — and possibly not even recognizing the significance of their actions.

Even those of us who have been out for decades still come out on a daily basis to acquaintances or long-lost friends, to distant relatives or new co-workers, to new neighbors and sometimes strangers.

Just the other day, I came out 16 times.

The first pronouncement of my sexual orientation was an awkward reply to my new gynecologist, who had wanted to know the answer to, “Are you engaging in intercourse?”

“Um, well, not the straight kind,” I clumsily answered.

He just made a note on his scratch pad and nodded matter-of-factly like, yeah, OK, a member of the low-maintenance club.

But I came out to him, and study after study shows that these interactions, however, small, have an impact.

Later that day, back home from the doc, I set about to accomplish the agonizing task of trying to get a stable Internet connection after installing the buggy new Snow Leopard operating system on my MacBook.

I made 15 telephone calls to the technical support division of my Internet service provider, and each technician asked me the standard, “What is your relationship to the account holder?”

The account is in my partner’s name, and I could have saved time by pretending to be her, but I once pretended to be her when renting “Spice World” and she got irked.

So I came out to each and every technician as I answered, “She’s my partner” and “She’s my girlfriend.”

Sometimes the technicians repeated the statement for verification. Sometimes they responded with an “OK” and sometimes “Thank you.” At no time did I get attitude, though the technicians did get touchy when they failed to resolve my computer challenges.

Did the technicians think twice about my answers? I can’t say, but at least they had to think once about them, and doesn’t that illustrate the power of GLBTs coming out, living out and celebrating National Coming Out Day?

Many of us have had big coming-out moments — the talk with the parents, the full-disclosure to best friends, the this-isn’t-working confession to the boyfriend or girlfriend, the first “I’m gay and I’m proud” march in a pride parade.

Such moments, we might even say occasions, are profound, meaningful, likely life-changing happenings, but the small outings have such impact too, the small outings are the ones in which we say, “Yep, I’m gay” or “He’s my guy” or “I like a girl.”

Looking ahead to National Coming Out Day, I see that I have a record to break: I’m going for a personal best and planning to come out to 17 people that day, though I’m hoping it won’t be to 16 cable company customer service representatives and another doctor.

So, what’s your record? And can you break it?