October is Lesbian, Gay., Bisexual, and Transgender History Month (or sometimes it's GLBT History Month, or if you're in the UK it is LGBT History Month, but it's in February).
Regardless, of the order of the letters or when it happens, it is important to first learn about, and then remember our histories. Mind you the histories we are offered up always focus on a few, include some, and ignore others who nonetheless identified as LGBT or queer. Below are a few of the big ticket sites celebrating LGBT history this month. But I'd say an even better way to celebrate is to pick a part of your identity that matters to you - whether it's tied to race or class or age or embodiment or religion or video game preference - and then get on line and find someone who connects to that part of your identity and was also someone who cared about queer people. Learn a few things about them and then remember them by telling 2 or 3 other people what you learned.
And while we're at it, let's remember that the histories and experiences of those of us who identify as L, G, or B are vastly different from those of us who take the T. Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same thing and the ways we are marginalized, ostracized, and punished for being something other than cis-gender and straight, can be vastly different. Not better or worse, just different.
Two places offering up bite-sized histories are the official home of LGBT History Month and Huffington Post's history month home page. You may also want to check out the GLBT Historical Society, No word yet on whether or not BuzzFeed's new LGBT channel will be doing something to celebrate it, but despite my best efforts I'm finding it impossible not to fall for their heady mix of gay friendly Honey Boo Boo clips, adorable declarations of love, and easily digestible coverage of more serious topics. For an example of how we can remember the histories that are usually excluded from mainstream media, one that also highlights trans experiences, check out this great Trans Oral History Project.
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Cory, thank you so much for highlighting LGBT History Month! It’s wonderful to be able to recognize that you are caring enough to bring it to the attention of your entire readership.
Our history (MY history) is important – not just those of us who are LGBT, but an entire populace needs to know. We are not weird, we are not trying to prey upon the weak in society, we are perfectly normal people who realize that our sexuality isn’t what most consider mainstream.
Without people like you, Cory, those of us who have come late to our discovery of our true sexual selves might be wary of announcing the truth – not just to others but even to ourselves.
Thank you.