Loving Day is not an official national or state holiday in the United States, despite attempts to make it so.[6][7] A writer for Time magazine in 2010 claimed that Loving Day was "the biggest multiracial celebration in the United States."[8]
According to the Pew Research Center, "In 2019, 11% of all married U.S. adults had a spouse who was a different race or ethnicity from them, up from 3% in 1967. Among newlyweds in 2019, roughly one-in-five (19%) were intermarried."[9]
The idea for Loving Day came from one person, Ken Tanabe. In 2004, while a student at Parsons the New School for Design, Tanabe created Loving Day as part of his senior thesis. Growing up, he had never heard of the Lovings, and as a person of mixed-race heritage, he wanted that to change. He created a website to educate people about the history of mixed-race marriages and encouraged people to host their own Loving Day gatherings to create an annual tradition for the mixed-race community.
According to the official Loving Day website, the event was recognized by a resolution of the United States House of Representatives in 2007, by a proclamation of the Governor of Virginia in 2015, and by a resolution of the California State Assembly in 2017.[11] In 2024, the website listed 16 privately hosted events to mark the day, 11 in U.S. cities and towns, and five in European cities.[12]
Many organizations sponsor annual parties across the country. To celebrate the holiday, people are encouraged to hold parties in which the case and its modern-day legacy are discussed, in smaller settings such as living rooms, backyards, etc., as well as in larger gatherings.
In 2010. New York Times best-selling author Heidi W. Durrow[19][20] co-organized a celebration of Loving Day in Los Angeles with Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, during the annual Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival.[21][22]
Several cities and municipalities have issued proclamations officially recognizing Loving Day as a holiday, including Washington, D.C., and Caroline County, Virginia,[23] where the Lovings hailed from.[24]
Since 2013,[25][26] Loving Day has been celebrated with an annual symposium at De Balie theater in Amsterdam, organized by the Stichting Loving Day foundation.[27]
A documentary, The Loving Story,[28][29] which features rare contemporaneous photographs of the couple and details the history of the case and references Loving Day, premiered on HBO on Valentine's Day 2012.[30][31][32][33]
