Why do we need a LGBTQ+ History Month?

Every February 1st marks LGBTQ+ History Month. The history of the community matters. Members of the community have stopped wars, changed musical landscapes, led countries and fought back. Preservation is important. LGBTQ+ History Month is a time to celebrate the achievements, mourn the strife, and educate each other. We can all learn a lot from how the LGBTQ+ community has consistently rebuilt itself at its hardest moments. Here are 5 quick lessons we can learn from queer history:

Find Your Community

Banding together is a key part of queer history. The AIDS crisis was a time of great loss, but also a famously communal time as well. The act of support was radical, and when there were no resources, a community of queer people sprung up and provided them.

In the absence of adequate healthcare, we have learned to become our own clinicians, researchers, lobbyists, drug smugglers, pharmacists. We have our own libraries, newspapers, drug stores, and laboratories.

The LGBTQ+ community has a rich history of holding out a hand and moving forward. We can learn a lesson of resilience from the quote above, and how that resilience can be found in others. 

Find more in How To Survive A Plague by David France on Uptime

Be Open to Change

As time goes on, the language we use and the ideas we have about others and the world adjusts accordingly. This is evidenced in our shifting language and ideas around transgender people and the trans community.

To reconcile the relationship between transgender and feminist politics, it’s essential to acknowledge that how each of us experiences and understands our gendered sense of self…is an idiosyncratic personal matter, related to many other attributes of our lives.

Allow yourself to accept those changes. Be present with our ever-shifting world, or it will move without you.

Find more in Transgender History by Susan Stryker on Uptime

Show Your True Self

Whatever your life experience, however you identify or feel, show yourself without shame. Wear that strange outfit, speak up for others and yourself. Gay idols and elders are an important foundation of the queer community.

Yet unapologetically gay men were becoming more visible in popular culture, paving the way for young men to overcome their fear.

Be unapologetic in your daily life, and you’ll reap the rewards of visibility, because someone else could be looking up to you. 

Find more in Good As You by Paul Flynn on Uptime

Love Fiercely

Whether it’s quiet, proudly broadcasted, or somewhere in the middle, love others without shame. It’s a superpower, and an underrated one at that. Do it for those in the LGBTQ+ community - those still with us and those who are no longer - who couldn’t be open with their love, in whatever capacity that may have been. Sometimes, it truly is just about finding your own happiness. 

We didn’t know anybody, we were just happy to be together.

Find more in A Secret Love by Chris Bolan on Uptime

Forge Your Path

To discover who you really are is a feat. Carve out a path for yourself to follow, and follow it. Create things that make your daily life purposeful. Feel the things you need to feel and then push past all of your obstacles with fierceness.

Be proud of your ability to push forward, because it’s there when you least expect it.

But the man so admired felt inherently alone, knowing that such longing fuelled his writing.

Find more in James Baldwin by David Leeming on Uptime

To be proud, to express yourself freely, there are vital things we can learn from the queer community of past and present.

Historically oppressed, but never put down, to be LGBTQ+ is to strive forward a little more every day. Put these ideas in your pocket and save them for a rainy day, and visit Uptime for the full Hacks of the books and documentaries listed here.

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