Past Events

Started in 1988 by Rob Eichberg and Jean O’Leary in celebration of the second March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights on October 11, 1987. In the 1980s, when many people did not know any openly LGBTQ2S+ people, ignorance and silence allowed homophobia to persist. Coming out was a form of activism and it was believed that when people realized they knew someone who was queer, they would be far more likely to support equality under the law. Each year on October 11th, National Coming Out Day continues to promote a safe world for queer individuals to live openly.

Spirit Day is an annual LGBTQ awareness day observed on the third Thursday in October. Started in 2010 by Canadian teenager Brittany McMillan, it was initially created in response to a rash of widely publicized bullying-related suicides of gay school students in 2010, including that of Tyler Clementi. On Spirit Day, people wear purple and stand in solidarity to advocate and protect the queer community against bullying.

International Pronouns Day began in 2018 and seeks to make asking, sharing, and respecting personal pronouns commonplace. Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity. International Pronouns Day is celebrated on the third Wednesday in October each year.

Ace Week (founded as Asexual Awareness Week in 2010) is an annual event that puts asexuality in the spotlight. Part celebration of the progress we’ve made as a community, and part campaign for greater understanding and acceptance of asexual-spectrum identities, Ace Week is a time to focus on all things ace. The ace community has made significant headway over the years. Asexual representation in mainstream media continues to improve, major LGBTQ+ organizations now acknowledge and include us, and ace community groups have sprouted up and flourished in cities around the world. Ace Week gives us an opportunity to recognize these achievements and the efforts that made them possible.

Celebrated in October to commemorate the first intersex protest, which took place in Boston, MA outside the annual American Academy of Paediatrics conference in 1996. This day was first established in 2003 by Emi Koyoma and Betsy Driver, as a way to raise awareness and a day of action to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who have been lost due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The first candlelight vigil occurred in 1999. Transgender Day of Remembrance provides us all an opportunity to publicly mourn and honour the trans lives lost in our community over the past year, in addition to helping raise awareness about hate crimes that the trans community experience daily.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is very important to the queer community as during the Holocaust, gay men in particular were subject to harassment, arrest, incarceration, and even castration. In Nazi eyes, gay men were weak and unfit to be soldiers, as well as unlikely to have children and thereby contribute to the racial struggle for Aryan dominance. Gay men were branded with a pink triangle on their uniform and were often treated as the lowest caste of prisoner. Today, the queer community has reclaimed the pink triangle and uses it as a symbol of resiliency and unity.