October 2022 Update: 2SLGBTQ+ History Month

ID: "2SLGBTQ+ History Month 2022 History Makers, History Keepers" with the Freedom Oklahoma logo and a collage of people: DAOK members holding Pride Was a Riot signs, the characters from the book cover of Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, two characters from A League of Their Own (2022), Faun Harjo, James Baldwin, Darren Black Bear and Jason Pickel, Paula Lewis, Rep. Mauree Turner, James Cooper, Paula Cassandra Schonauer, TAPE, Krystal Naomi, and CJ Garcia.

We’ve always been here.

In their book Red, White & Royal Blue, finding itself on bestseller and challenged book lists, author Casey McQuiston gives us the line, “History, huh? Bet we could make some.” Ever since I first read that, I have been thinking about the gravity of it. Not only do 2SLGBTQ+ folks constantly forge new paths for ourselves and our communities, we’re often the documenters of that history. The bearers and storytellers, sharing our wisdom and our experiences, from one generation to the next.

We see it in queer zine culture. In poetry from Sappho to Audre Lorde to Andrea Gibson. In iconic t-shirt slogans and jacket patches and memorial quilts and protest signs and photos captured by 2SLGBTQ+ photographers. You hear it around 2SLGBTQ+ equality centers, from the floors of legislatures spoken by 2SLGBTQ+ representatives, and in testimony from 2SLGBTQ+ community members. You hear it in stories around the campfire and at the dinner table and through the tinny speaker of a bullhorn. We as 2SLGBTQ+ people are the history makers and the history keepers.

In fact, even 2SLGBTQ+ history month is of our own creation. Missouri high school teacher Rodney Wilson is credited with starting 2SLGBTQ+ history month back in 1994, after coming out to his students and making news of his own as the first openly gay K-12 educator in the state. Inspired by the Black activists who created Black history month, and the women who created Women’s history month, he knew that making space to intentionally document, uplift, share, and celebrate 2SLGBTQ+ history was important. Starting with celebrations on college campuses involving film festivals and galas, almost 3 decades later, 2SLGBTQ+ history month is time for all of us to engage in the work of preserving, amplifying, and learning our history.

At this moment in our history, even as everything seems especially hard, so many of these fights are fights we’ve seen before. In 2022, policymakers are using talking points developed by Anita Bryant to bully 2SLGBTQ+ kids. Oklahoma Representative Danny Williams suggested in a committee meeting during the 2022 session that when he was born in 1949, 2SLGBTQ+ people didn’t exist. We know those talking points are based on hatred and fiction. We know 2SLGBTQ+ people have always existed. Even when mainstream history wanted to leave us out and erase us, we did the work to record our existence. To share our experiences. To let future generations know that even in the midst of harmful policy and hateful actions and attitudes and compounding seemingly-impossible conditions, we found community and ourselves and love, and we did it all in life-changing, world-shattering, historic ways.

We’re writing our own history right now. And we’re drafting our future as we do it. This 2SLGBTQ+ history month, let’s celebrate both. We’ve always been here. And we will continue to be. And, together, we’ll do all we can to build a future where all 2SLGBTQ+ people have the safety to thrive.

Important Links and updates:

2SLGBTQ+ Virtual Community Groups

"Freedom Oklahoma Virtual 2SLGBTQ+ Community Groups" "Teachers & School Staff: Tuesday, 10/4 Parents/Guardians: Wednesday, 10/5 Students: Thursday, 10/6" and "2SLGBTQ+ youth organizing & GSA support" with a picture of DAOK at Pride on a paper collage background with the Freedom Oklahoma logo.

Name & Gender Marker Correction Clinic

Corkboard with graph paper pinned to it, text "Freedom Oklahoma Name & Gender Marker Correction Clinic". Below post-it text "Next Clinic On Saturday 10/29". On graph paper are a trans pride flag sticker and next to it is a pin with the text "Trans Rights Are Human Rights."