30 years of LGBTQ+ History Month

October 3rd, 1994. A group of University of Missouri-Saint Louis (UMSL) students joined at Lucas Hall to attend the first of four sessions dedicated to LGBTQ+-themed movies. That Monday, they could see a double program with two non-fiction films: Before Stonewall (Greta Schiller & Robert Rosenberg, 1984) and Word Is Out (Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown & Rob Epstein, 1977). It was an activity driven by Rodney Wilson, a high school teacher, to celebrate a National LGBT History Month, similar to other National Heritage & History Months, and especially inspired by Black History Month, the precursor of all of them. Rodney Wilson tried October because public schools are in session, and October the 11th was stablished as the National Coming Out Day.

Probably nor Rodney Wilson neither the session attendees thought then thirty years after that day the National LGBTQ+ History Month will be so alive. Here we have the session flier, kept in Wilson's personal archive and published at LGBTQ+ Nation:

 
 
This flier shows the importance of keeping personal archives where we can find documents to build LGBTQ+ community memories and histories. So does Equality Forum coordinating the LGBTQ+ History Month and celebrating the achievements of 31 LGBTQ+ icons, one each October's day. You can visit them at LGBT History Month and Equality Forum. To know more about that October, 3rd, 1994, you can read the commemorative article by Rodney Wilson at LGBTQ+ Nation website. LGBT History Month coincides also with American Archives Month, a very good reason to look for LGBTQ+ community in archives.

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