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LGBT History Month 2021

February 2021 was LGBT History month. LGBT history month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements.  To mark LGBT history month we updated Hart Gables social media with a statement or fact, remembering the struggles and triumphs our fellow LGBT friends have lived through.

February 1st: Jan Morris (1926-2020) was an author, historian and travel writer. She was an inspirational person who also happened to be transgender and a great role model for young trans people aspiring to become writers.

February 2nd: Alan Turing (1912-1954) was a mathematician and computer scientist whose work was instrumental in cracking the Enigma Code in World War II. He was gay and has become an inspirational icon for the community.

February 3rd: Rabbi Lionel Blue (1930-2016), author of Sun, Sand and Soul and Kindred Spirits, was the first British rabbi to come out as gay in 1960

February 4th: In 1989, Lisa Power, Michael Cashman and Ian McKellen founded Stonewall, the LGBT+ rights charity named after the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising.

February 5th: In 1997 Angela Eagle became the first elected MP to come out as lesbian.

February 6th: In 2014 it became legal in England, Scotland and Wales to marry in a same sex couple.

February 7th: From Sept 2020 it became compulsory for secondary schools to include sexual orientation and gender identity in Relationships and Sex (RSE) lessons, and for primary schools to teach about different family types which can include LGBT+ families.

February 8th: In 2017 a study conducted by LGBT rights charity Stonewall discovered that two in five LGBT students have never been taught anything about LGBT issues in lessons.

Marriage equality campaigns didn’t just start recently. This photo was taken 120 years ago.

February 9th: Some key aims of LGBT history month are to teach young people about the history of the LGBT+ community, its fight for rights and equality and the LGBT+ forbears who paved the way to current rights, and to promote an inclusive modern society.

February 10th:While LGBT history month originated in the US in 1994, in the UK it began 11 years later from an initiative by Sue Sanders and Paul Patrick, then co-chairs of Schools OUT UK

February 11th:, Waheed Alli is one of the very few out gay Muslim politicians in the world, and when he came out became the youngest out peer in Parliament. He spearheaded the campaign to repeal Section 28, which until 2003 prevented teachers from ‘promoting’ homosexuality in the classroom the world, and when he came out became the youngest out peer in Parliament. He spearheaded the campaign to repeal Section 28, which until 2003 prevented teachers from ‘promoting’ homosexuality in the classroom.

February 12th: In 2012 Nicola Adams became the first out bisexual woman to win an Olympic medal.

February 13th: Peter Tatchell, a human rights campaigner ordinally from Australia, his well known for his work with LGBT social movements, including the campaign ‘Stop Murder Music’ against music lyrics which incite violence against LGBT people.

February 14th: Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) was an American activist and a big part of the gay liberation movement, as well as an AIDS activist with ACT UP, which fought to end the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. She was a key figure in the Stonewall Riots.

February 15th: In 2018, Daniel Quasar designed the Progress Flag, which adds additional colours to the Pride flag designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978. The Progress Flag includes a black and a brown stripe to represent LGBT+ people of colour and white, baby blue and baby pink stripes to represent the trans+ community, and is increasingly used by individuals and organisations as the symbol of Pride.

February 16th: Oscar Wilde’s short novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ was first published in 1890 in Lippincott’s Magazine. At the time it caused quite a scandal, partly because of its homoeroticism.

February 17th: In 2019 the term ‘non-binary’ was added to Collins Dictionary defined as:

relating to a gender or sexual identity that does not belong to the binary categories of male or female.

February 18th: In 1997, Ellen Degeneres’ character Ellen Morgan came out as lesbian on her sitcom ‘Ellen’, making her the first ever gay lead in a sitcom. Ellen Degeneres also came out as lesbian herself on the Oprah Winfrey show

February 19th: In 1967 The Sexual Offenses Act decriminalised sex between two men over 21 and in private, however, at the time this did not extend to the Merchant Navy, the Armed Forces, or Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

February 20th: On this day in 1988 over 20,000 people marched through Manchester to protest the introduction of Section 28. It was one of the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ demonstrations ever and placed the city at the forefront of promoting the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the UK.

February 21st: In 1972, around 2000 people attended London’s first Pride event.

February 22nd: In 2013, Olympic medalist and World Champion diver Tom Daley released a YouTube video talking for the first time about being in a relationship with a man and being attracted to both men and women. He has since become a patron of the LGBT+ charity Switchboard and an inspiration for young aspiring LGBT+ sportspeople.

February 23rd: In January 2021, now President and then President-elect Joe Biden tapped Rachel Levine to be his Assistant Secretary of Health, meaning she would become the first out transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

February 24th: In January 2021, Swiss basketball star Marco Lehmann came out as gay, saying,

“This is for the future generations so they can live a free sporting life without hiding.”

February 25th: In 2009, Welsh Rugby legend Gareth Thomas came out as gay. He said,

“I feel I have achieved everything I could ever possibly have hoped to achieve out of rugby, and I did it being gay. I want to send a positive message to other gay people that they can do it, too.”

February 26th: In September 2019, around 1500 people supported London’s first Trans Pride event at Soho Square.

February 27th: In 2015, Director Tom Hooper’s film ‘The Danish Girl’ was released. It is based on the real life story of Lili Elbe, one of the first trans women to undergo gender affirmation surgery after transitioning in 1930.

February 28th: To finish, we thought it would be good to add some LGBT history about Hart Gables.

Did you know that collectively Hart Gables staff have over 35 years experiences of working within the LGBT+ community?

That Hart Gables was first established in 1997 and was firstly launched as a community group named ‘The Rainbow Centre’ ran by dedicated volunteers.

In May 2005 the recently re branded service Hart Gables advanced to registered charity status and has been successfully developing ever since, emerging into an improved organisation year after year. That our strategic aim is to develop a safer and more inclusive community that will enable LGBT+ individuals to lead fulfilling and enriching lives.

We provide:

– one to one emotional support.

– group support including regular meetings and activities

– events that highlight LGBT calendar dates

– training and education

and much much more..Thank you to all of our wonderful service users and followers for helping shape such a positive and welcoming service for all who choose us for their support!

Andrew, Jack, Kay, Sarah and Sian