Saturday, October 2, 2010

LGBT History Month

In 1994 Rodney Wilson a Missouri teacher nominated October as Gay History Month to celebrate queer history. October was significant because it was the month in which the first two queer marches on Washington (in 1979 and 1987) took place. One of the outcomes of the 1987 march was the February 1988 War Conference at Airlie House in Warrenton, VA where it was decided to have an annual Coming Out Day on October 11th (the date of the second march on Washington).

Philadelphia's Equality Forum has recently resurrected the queer history month with profiles of key LGBT figures each month at the GLBT History Month site. This year, on October 14th, Patsy Lynch, a Rainbow History Board member and well-known documenter of the gay community in Washington, DC, will be profiled on the history month site.

Catching up and moving on ...

It has been a long while since I last posted on Visible Past. Now that I am no longer heading Rainbow History Project, I hope to have time to catch up on our Visible Past.

September's slew of suicides has also spurred me back to the keyboard. It shouldn't have to be hell to be a gay kid but it has long been that way. A very good article by Brian Moylan, on Gawker, maps the agony of gay teens: What It's Like to Be a Gay Teen .

Among DC's first gay activist efforts by the Gay Liberation Front at 1620 S St NW and Deacon Maccubbin's Earthworks on 20th St NW were the scheduling of support groups for gay youth, especially those living on the streets.