LGBT History Month was founded in 1994 by Rodney Wilson, a high-school history teacher who came out to his students during a lesson on the Holocaust.[1] In doing so, Wilson because the first openly gay K-12 teacher in Missouri.[2] Recognizing the need for a month celebrating and teaching the history, culture, accomplishments, and perseverance of the LGBTQA2S+ community, Rodney sent a proposal to the General Assembly of the National Education Association, seeking to have LGBT History Month added to the list of commemorative months – it passed in 1995.[3] October, already a month full of celebrations and historical milestones for the LGBTQA2S+ community, like National Coming Out Day on the 11th, or the anniversary of the first march for gay rights in Washington on the 14th, seemed like the natural choice to observe LGBT History Month.
Commemorative months like LGBT History Month allow us an opportunity to comprehensively engage with the history, made and in the making, of the LGBTQA2S+ community on a deeper level!
