October? Don’t you mean Pride Month in June? No! There are two different month-long celebrations of LGBTQ+ people in the United States.

LGBTQ+ History Month first started in 1994. Rodney Wilson, a high school teacher, chose October because the first and second LGBT Marches on Washington were in October, and National Coming Out Day is October 11th. He also chose it because it was during the traditional school year! In 1995, the National Education Association included “LGBT History Month” in its list of commemorative months –— to great backlash –— and yet, that recognition helped spread the idea of this new “history month” idea.

A decade later, in 2006, Philadelphia’s Equality Forum created a website highlighting and celebrating the achievements of 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people one for every day of the month of October. They update it every year so that more and more LGBTQ+ “icons” can have positive attention drawn to them and their accomplishments (589 so far!). The inaugural year included author James Baldwin, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, actor Ian McKellen, and athlete Sheryl Swoopes.

Conversely, Pride Month arises from the first Pride march in New York City which was held on June 28, 1970, the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. That march became an annual tradition in New York City, and slowly other Pride marches were held in other locations in the United States. President Bill Clinton issued a presidential proclamation in 1999 establishing June as “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.” Since then Pride Month has spread across the globe.

Learn More:

• Library of Congress – LGBTQ+ Legal Research Resources
• Wikipedia – LGBT History Month
• Wikipedia – Pride Month
• NPR episode – The evolution of Pride