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🏳️🌈 LGBTQ People Have Class
GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) was created in 1990 to promote LGBT issues in kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high schools. It supports students and teachers. GLSEN is best known for helping schools form and sustain Gay-Straight Alliance…
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🏳️🌈 10 Percent
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male shocked the world when it was published in 1948 by Alfred Kinsey. It said 10% of the male population was gay and more than one third of men had had at least one gay…
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🏳️🌈 A Teevee Ad With Some Assembly Required
IKEA was the first company to depict a gay couple in a TV ad in the United States — in 1994! It showed the couple shopping for a table. The ad only appeared in a few markets and was shown…
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🏳️🌈 Oy Gay!
Allen Bennett was the first openly gay rabbi in the United States. He came out in 1978 in California as one of many LGBTQ voices opposing the Briggs Initiative (which I might discuss in a future history lesson). In 1979,…
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🏳️🌈 Death Becomes Us
Ever wonder why so many LGBTQ characters die in movies and on TV? It’s not a coincidence. For many years, written and unwritten censorship laws prohibited the depiction of LGBTQ characters unless they were punished for their orientation. (You can…
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🏳️🌈 Them’s Fightin’ Words
For a long time now, the word “homosexual” has been considered highly offensive. For decades, gay men have gay men have referred to themselves as gay while anti-gay forces continued to use the word “homosexual.” GLAAD (The Gay and Lesbian…
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🏳️🌈 Don’t Leave the T out of LGBTQ
There were times when lesbians, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people did not stand united as one group. These will remembered as the darker moments in LGBTQ history. The most egregious example of this came in 2007. The LGBTQ community…
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🏳️🌈 Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!
LGBTQ people across the United States should credit their civil rights and social acceptance to one woman: Marsha P. Johnson. While the history of the Stonewall riots isn’t quite clear, it’s believed that Johnson — an African-American trans woman —…
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🏳️🌈 Raising the Bar
In 1966, three gay men in New York, inspired by the sit-ins in the South, protested anti-gay laws with a “sip-in” at a Manhattan bar. At the time, it was illegal for bartenders to serve LGBTQ people. Of course, this…
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🏳️🌈 Karl-Maria Kertbeny Gives Gays a Name
The term “homosexual” was created in 1868 by journalist Karl-Maria Kertbeny. Before that, there wasn’t really a nonjudgmental word (at least in the Western world) that described gay people, which meant we couldn’t define ourselves or create communities. (Consider how…
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🏳️🌈 Welcome to Gayskool
June is the most rainbow-tactic, glitteriffic, fabulous month of the year! It’s when we in the LGBTQ community celebrate Pride. Every year, I post daily LGBTQ History Lessons all month long on Facebook. This year, I’ll be doing it on…
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B-Ball for the F-Four Q-Questions
What is Dave wearing today? Dave is going all out today — a USA Men’s Soccer Team T-shirt and a pair of shorts. He’s ready for any and all formal events the day may bring. How does Dave feel today? Dave feels…