LGBTQ+ History Month is celebrated from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31. We take this month to celebrate the history of the diverse and beautiful lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. October was selected to coincide with National Coming Out Day (Oct. 11), and the anniversary of the first march on Washington DC for gay and lesbian rights in 1979.
The move toward pursuing civil rights for LGBTQ+ people came out of the Stonewall Riots that occurred in Greenwich Village in 1969. During that time, it was illegal for members of the LGBTQ+ community to socialize in public and display affection toward each other. When they did socialize in public venues, it was considered disorderly conduct, and the police would harass, beat, and arrest patrons, as well as shut down businesses that served alcohol in these social settings. The constant harassment by law enforcement escalated to riots between police and members of the LGBTQ+ community across the country. The most famous incident in New York became known as the Stonewall Riots.
The observance of a month dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture was created by Rodney Wilson, a history teacher at a Missouri high school, in 1994. The following year, LGBTQ+ History Month was added to the list of commemorative months in a resolution forwarded by the General Assembly of the National Education Association.
LGBTQ+ History Month allows the opportunity to extensively learn about the history of the LGBTQ+ movement, and what factors and measures will be successful in building communities and providing role models who best represent and address the issues of the LGBTQ+ communities.
There are different ways to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month. The first one is to celebrate and give recognition to historical figures who have positively contributed and led the cause for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual people, such as Alan Turing, Bayard Rustin (see below), Billie Jean King, RuPaul and many more.
A second way to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month is to learn what the rainbow colors symbolize: red is for life, orange is for healing, yellow is the sun, green symbolizes nature, blue is for peace, and purple is for spirit. The newest version of the flag also includes the colors brown and black to represent LGBTQ+ people of color plus the colors of light blue, white, and pink to represent the unique experiences of transgender people. A third way is to celebrate is to join an event or Pride Alliance, the student club at HVCC. Many events take place during LGBTQ+ history month: check out local and/or online events and participate.
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) was an African-American leader in the Civil Rights movement, as well as an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, Japanese-American rights during World War II, the Labor Movement, the Anti-Nuclear War movement, and more. He traveled to India to study with the students of Gandhi, learning the concepts behind non-violent protest. He then brought those concepts to Martin Luther King, Jr., and became his trusted adviser. Rustin is most well-known as the organizer of the 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington, DC; however, he did not receive any public credit for this at the time because he was openly gay. In 2013, President Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying, “As an openly gay African-American, Mr. Rustin stood at the intersection of several of the fights for equal rights.”
In service,
Jane Meek
Director, Center for Academic Engagement
and
Ainsley Thomas
Chief Diversity Officer