The acronym LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and the "+" represents other sexual identities including pansexual, intersex, and asexual.
In 1995 the General Assembly of the National Education Association passed a resolution to include October as Lesbian and Gay History Month (now called LGBTQ+ History Month) on a list of its commemorative months. While June celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride, and commemorates the Stonewall Riots that many credit as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, October brings attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer history. The + stands for numerous additional identities that have been recognized under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, including asexual, demisexual, intersex, and others.
In 1978, the artist "Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man, and a drag queen, designed the first rainbow flag." "Baker decided to make that symbol a flag because he saw flags as the most powerful symbol of pride. As he later said in an interview, “Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’” Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky, so he adopted eight colors for the stripes, each color with its own meaning (hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit)."
Created by Cecilia Smith 9/28/2020
