LGBTQ+ History Month
October 1 - October 31
This month we celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, sometimes also known as OUTober. This celebration was started by Missouri high school teacher Rodney Wilson in 1994 after he was nearly fired for coming out to his students during a lesson about the Holocaust. October has long been a significant month for the LGBTQ+ community—the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was held on October 14, 1979, and October 11 is National Coming Out Day, first celebrated on the one-year anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
On this 30th anniversary of LGBTQ+ History Month, and throughout the year, we celebrate the contributions of LGBTQ+ leaders and community members. Please join us in learning about and honoring the long and ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ civil rights and justice, and in reaffirming our commitment to building an open and affirming campus where everyone is empowered to live and work as their true selves.
Explore
- Read: National Coming Out Day celebrates visibility, belonging, and the right to live as our authentic selves. The Human Rights Campaign has resources for coming out and living openly at home, work, and in one’s community, along with resources for being an LGBTQ+ Ally. UC Irvine’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Resource Center gathers and shares coming out stories from across the UC Irvine community.
- Watch: Pediatrician Uchenna Umeh—or Dr. Lulu as her patients call her—asks us to rethink the closet and explore a different process for sharing our lives. What if there were no closets for LGBTQ+ persons to come out from? Learn more in her talk, “Rethinking the Closet: Coming Out LGBTQ* vs Inviting In.”
- Listen: The Stonewall uprising is a key moment – though neither the beginning nor the end – in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. It began early on June 28, 1969, in New York City. Learn more in this Making Gay History podcast episode, “Everything Clicked and the Riot was On.”
Campus Resources
- The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center (LGBTRC) provides support, education, and advocacy from an intersectional perspective regarding sexual orientation/attraction and gender identity for the UC Irvine Campus Community.
- The Office of Inclusive Excellence’s Gender Inclusive Campus site shares guidance and resources to foster an affirming and supportive campus environment. Explore the site to learn how to update your lived name and gender marker, locate gender inclusive facilities, practice gender affirming language, and understand campus policies.
- UCI Libraries has an extensive collection of books, films, archival materials, and other resources to support academic study, learning, and celebration, including the Celebrating One and All: LGBTQ+ Pride research guide.
Education & Resources
- The LGBT Resource Center’s Safe Zone: Practice of Allyship Workshop Series is open to any campus affiliate and trains individuals to identify as Allies that are informed, supporting, and affirming of the LGBTQA community at UC Irvine.