LGBT History Month and National Coming Out Day
LGBT History Month: October 1 - October 31
National Coming Out Day: October 11
History
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) History Month was created in 1994 by a high school history teacher in Missouri called Rodney Wilson. The month, which garnered early support from organizations such as GLAAD and the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), was initially chosen to include the by-then well-established National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11 and the anniversary of the first march on Washington by LGBT people on October 14, 1979.
Resource: Celebrate LGBT History Month GLAAD
National Coming Out Day is an annual celebration that takes place on 11 October every year. It was first celebrated on the one-year anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights – a date chosen to honor the bravery of LGBTQ+ individuals who decide to come out and live openly. Although it started off as an American awareness day, the meaning of National Coming Out Day is still highly relevant to LGBTQ+ communities across the world today.
National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an annual celebration highlighting those in the LGBTQ+ community and their decisions to share their gender identity and sexual orientation with the public.
Reference: Stonewall.org.uk
Events
National Coming Out Day Celebration: Carberry Conversation with author Putsata Reang
Date: 10/11/22
Watch on YouTube
STCC's very own LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (EGR) presents the acclaimed author and journalist Putsata Reang in conversation with Sondra Peron, associate professor.
When Putsata Reang was eleven months old, her family fled war-torn Cambodia, spending twenty-three days on an overcrowded navy vessel before finding sanctuary at an American naval base in the Philippines. Over the years, Putsata lives to please Ma and make her proud, hustling to repay her life debt by becoming the consummate good Cambodian daughter, working steadfastly by Ma’s side in the berry fields each summer, and eventually building a successful career as an award-winning journalist. But Putsata’s adoration and efforts are no match for Ma’s expectations. When Putsata comes out to Ma in her twenties, Ma tells her it’s just a phase. When Putsata fails to bring home a Khmer boyfriend, it’s because she’s not trying hard enough. When, at the age of forty, Putsata tells Ma she is finally getting married—to a woman—it breaks their bond in two. In her startling new memoir, Putsata Reang explores the long legacy of inherited trauma and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty. With rare clarity and lyric wisdom, Ma and Me is a stunning, deeply moving memoir about love, debt, and duty.
Sponsored by the LGBTQ+ ERG