When thinking about 2SLGBTQ+ community celebrations, Pride is likely to be among the first things that comes to mind for many folks. There is, however, an equally important marker of milestones related to the history of the community.
2SLGBTQ+ History Month is a celebration of the incredible global, national, and local organizing histories as well as the equally remarkable 2SLGBTQ+ people that identify as members of the community. It is celebrated in October in North America.
Unlike Pride Month celebrations, there are no themes or large-scale events, but the milestones that mark community thriving are just as important as those celebrating the ways our community has won rights (and continued fighting to keep them). Apropos of October’s seasonal transformational powers, 2SLGBTQ+ History Month provides a way for people, classrooms, organizations, and community to uplift the contributions of queer, trans, and gender-diverse folks.
Some wonderful local resources to find more information are:
- Kitchener Public Library’s excellent overview and timeline of local organizing history in the Kitchener-Waterloo area
- Digital archive for local 2SLGBTQ+ history, compiled by SPECTRUM Waterloo through the Grand River Historical Project
If you’re looking to celebrate 2SLGBTQ+ History Month through a broader North American focus, here are some books to check out.
Non-Fiction
Out North: An Archive of Queer Activism and Kinship in Canada
by Craig Jennex & Nisha Eswaran
Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution
by David Carter
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam 
Queer Street: Rise and Fall of an American Culture, 1947/1985: Excursions in the Mind of the Life
by James McCourt
The Stonewall Reader
edited by the New York Public Library
Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend: A Celebration of Gay Gods, Sapphic Sirens, and Queerness Through the Ages
by Dan Jones
And these titles are great for the young ones in your life looking for information about 2SLGBtQ history:
The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes and the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience
by Zoë Playdon
Stonewall: A Building, An Uprising, A Revolution
by Rob Sanders
The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets
by Gayle E. Pitman
Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights
by Ann Bausum
The Stonewall Riots: Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights
by Archie Bongiovanni
Personal Narratives
Reading beyond local political organizing histories, and into the personal narratives of queer and trans changemakers lends an empathetic spotlight highlighting why representation matters. Narratives of greatness and achievement were limited to those with access to the platforms and opportunities that 2SLGBTQ+ people were not always privy to. As conversations continue in the spirit of debating whether and what kind of rights the community should have access to, underpinning Pride month celebrations, so too does the need for representation highlight the need for stories of 2SLGBTQ+ brilliance.
Suggested reading for personal narratives this History Month include:
Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary
by Toshio Meronek and Miss Major
Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir
by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali
Making Love With the Land
by Joshua Whitehead
We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir
by Samra Habib
People Change
by Vivek Shraya
The Queer Evangelist: A Socialist Clergy’s Radically Honest Tale
by Cheri DiNovo
Ensuring that we tell these stories during History Month offers generations of leaders, changemakers, activists, community organizers, athletes, and more, the space to create worlds few of firsts so that we can be among the many wherever we find our 2SLGBTQ+ selves. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to celebrate members of the community whose lives and stories have helped author what it means to be 2SLGBTQ+ rather than just a subject authored.
Upcoming Program: 2SLGBTQ+ Reading Circle
Thursday, October 26, 2023
7:00 to 8:00 pm
Location: Main Library
Join WPL and SPECTRUM for a reading circle for 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and allies that takes less commitment than a book club. We’ll have different readings (short stories, essays, poetry, etc) that we will read together and then discuss. No preparation needed! The readings will explore 2SLGBTQIA+ topics and/or be written by 2SLGBTQIA+ writers.
This program is for adults (19+).
Header photo credit: Uptown Waterloo Business Improvement Area
Check it out 