Robert Eichberg, 50, Gay Rights Leader (Published 1995)

Dr. Robert H. Eichberg, a psychologist and author who helped establish an annual day of observance encouraging gay men and women to reveal their homosexuality, died on Friday at his home in Tesuque, about 10 miles north of Santa Fe. He was 50.

Dr. Eichberg died of complications from AIDS, said his mother, Shirley Greenes of Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Dr. Eichberg was born in Brooklyn but lived most of his life in Los Angeles. His activism began more than two decades ago, with the founding of a political action committee in Los Angeles for the rights of gay men, lesbians and women. He moved to New Mexico in 1988, the same year he and Jean O'Leary of Los Angeles founded National Coming Out Day.

In 1990, a book by Dr. Eichberg, "Coming Out: an Act of Love," was published by E. P. Dutton & Company.

In an interview in 1993, Dr. Eichberg said: "Most people think they don't know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact everybody does. It is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes."

He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and earned a doctorate in psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles.

In addition to his mother, Dr. Eichberg is survived by his partner, Jon Landstrom; his father, Norman Eichberg of Los Angeles, and two brothers, Peter, also of Los Angeles, and Steven, of Westlake Village, Calif.