GLBT History Month Celebrates Their 5th Anniversary

by Chip Alfred, Equality Forum

2010 marks the 5th Anniversary of GLBT History Month. “In just five years, GLBT History Month has mushroomed into our community’s most collaborative project with over 650 organizations having GLBT History Month links on their Web sites,” stated Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum, and founder of GLBT History Month.

“Our community has made profound international contributions as reflected by Alexander the Great, James Baldwin, environmental movement pioneer Rachel Carson, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Eleanor Roosevelt, Tchaikovsky, Alan Turing, Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde.”

“Our nation has been enriched by Leonard Bernstein, George Washington Carver, George Eastman, Barney Frank, Philip Johnson, Alfred Kinsey, Annie Leibovitz, Margaret Mead, Suze Orman, Bayard Rustin and Gore Vidal.”

“Our culture would not be the same without Alvin Ailey, Jr., Ellen DeGeneres, Tom Ford, Cary Grant, Keith Haring, Elton John, Jasper Johns, Bill T. Jones, Tony Kushner, k.d. lang, Jane Lynch, Rachel Maddow, Martina Navratilova, Cole Porter, Bessie Smith, Gianni Versace, Andy Warhol and John Waters.”

GLBT History Month celebrates civil rights heroes such as Tim Gill, Barbara Gittings, Jim Hormel, Cleve Jones, Frank Kameny, Bishop Gene Robinson and Matthew Shepard,” said Lazin. Across the spectrum of 155 Icons, we have so much to be proud of in these remarkable role models and historic figures.”

The video below is a two-and-a-half-minute overview video of all 31 GLBT Icons. Then, beginning on October 1, a 30-second video featuring a different GLBT Icon will appear each day for 31 days.

GLBT History Month 2009 Icons Monday, October 5 - Sunday, October 11th

October 5th - Ruth Ellis
"I never expected I'd be 100 years old. It didn't even come to my mind."Ruth Ellis, who lived to be 101, was credited with being the oldest known lesbian and GLBT civil rights activist. More...




October 6th - Rainer Fassbinder
"I'd like to be for cinema what Shakespeare was for theatre, Marx for politics and Freud for psychology." Actor, director and screenwriter Rainer Fassbinder made over 40 films in his 15-year career. He is among the most important figures in New German Cinema. More...




October 7th - Michel Foucault
"It's not enough to affirm that we are gay, but we must also create a gay life."Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, sociologist and educator who had a profound impact on academic thought. He is best known for his critical studies of psychiatry, the prison system and human sexuality. More...



October 8th - Harry Hay
"In order to earn for ourselves any place in the sun, we must work collectively for the first-class citizenship of minorities everywhere." In 1950, Harry Hay founded the Mattachine Society, an underground network for homosexuals. It was one of the first American gay organizations. More...



October 9th - Magnus Hirschfeld
"Soon the day will come when science will win victory over error, justice a victory over injustice, and human love a victory over human hatred and ignorance."Pioneering sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld devoted his life to the scientific validation and political liberation of homosexuals. He helped lay the groundwork for the modern GLBT civil rights movement. More...



October 10th - Zora Neale Hurston
"Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at de sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground."American author and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston is the author of "Their Eyes Were Watching God," a book heralded as one of the most poetic works of fiction by a black writer in the first half of the 20th century. More...


October 11th - Jasper Johns
"To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist." Jasper Johns is one of America's most successful and influential contemporary artists. His paintings and prints, often incorporating objects and symbols from popular culture, inspired a new generation of artists and laid the groundwork for the Pop Art movement. More...