LGBT+ History Month

1st February 2022 55 5

Week 3

Day 15: How Many Stripes are in the Trans Flag

Trans Pride Flag has 5 stripes. Monica Helms, a transgender activist, author, and veteran of the United States Navy, created the flag in 1999. The light blue and light pink are the traditional colours for baby girls and baby boys, respectively, while the white represents intersex, transitioning, or a neutral or undefined gender. Helms said, the flag is symmetrical for a reason. If you want the full details behind the story of the flag or its creator, Monica as published her autobiography called “More Than Just A Flag“.

no matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives.

Day 16: Learn About a Trans Role Model

Captain Hannah Graf MBE

In 2013, Captain Hannah Graf came out as a trans woman and became the highest ranking trans person in the British Army.

She has built a wide network of support and has become the leading voice of change for LGBT issues, achieving huge impact at all levels. She is also spokesperson for the Army Engagement Group and a mentor to others.

With a positive, inspirational message, Hannah has championed enormous culture change, removing barriers for trans people and moving the Armys diversity agenda forward.

Hannah and her husband Jake (also Trans), became the first transgender parents in the UK!

Hari Nef

Hari Nef is both a fashion and Hollywood superstar. Her influence in the fashion industry is undeniably huge as the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of a commercial British magazine; ELLE’s September 2016 issue. The American actress’ French 60’s style has since seen her model for the likes of Interview, Vogue and CR Fashion Book. Hari’s also starred in TV shows You and Transparent, plus she’s recently made her film debut in Assassination Nation.

Munroe Bergdorf

Social activist and model Munroe Bergdorf is a force to be reckoned with. As well as modelling for designers such as Gypsy Sport, Munroe is an important activist for transgender rights and the Black Lives Matter movement. Munroe uses her platform to speak out against issues of misrepresentation and racism in the fashion and media industries. She recently rejoined L’Oreal after being dropped by the brand in 2017 after she posted comments about systematic racism, and now sits on the company’s UK diversity and inclusion advisory board. Munroe’s is a voice that fashion certainly needs right now.

Day 17: Talk or Listen to an LGBT+ Person from a Different Generation

LGBT Documentary: Gay, Old and Out

Meet the people who paved the way for LGBT rights. It has been a long hard fight to secure acceptance for the LGBT community, and the older people who fought the fight often get overlooked and forgotten.

Growing Up Illegally Gay

This film tells the incredible stories of four elderly gay men who lived through a time when it was illegal to be gay in the UK. We hear about their double lives, heartbreaks, being arrested, coming out, losing friends to suicide and what they would say to their younger selves.

Day 18: Learn About a Non-Binary Role Model

Lachlan Watson

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star is currently breaking down barriers as one of the youngest non-binary actors in the industry. On Netflix’s What I Wish You Knew: About Being Nonbinary, Watson said,

“I identify as both non-binary and pansexual, which are two very fancy ways of saying I dont care.”

Jacob Tobia

LGBTQ rights activist Jacob Tobia has been open about their genderqueer identity in their writing. In 2015, they wrote an essay for MTV talking about being genderqueer:

“Im a genderqueer person who was assigned male at birth and likes to rock high heels and lipstick, but in the current moment of visibility for transgender women and men, very few people can seem to get my identity right.”

Day 19: Find Out When the Ace Flag Was Designed

Asexual Pride Flag

In August 2010, the asexual pride flag after a period of debate over having a flag and how to set up a system to create one, as many asexual communities as possible were contacted and a flag was announced as the asexual pride flag by one of the teams involved.

The flag consists of four horizontal stripes: black, grey, white, and purple from top to bottom.

Black = Asexuality
Grey = The grey-area between sexual and asexual
White = Sexuality
Purple = community.

Day 20: Learn About a Disabled LGBTQ+ Role Model

We here at GlitterBeam proudly support our disabled LGBTQ+ community. This is why we cant recommend enough that you take a couple of minutes to visit our friends over at Parapride.

Ebony Rose Dark

I AM PROUD OF WHO I AM, MY CREATIVE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS. I WILL NEVER HIDE MY VISUAL IMPAIRMENT OR THE COLOUR OF MY SKIN FOR ANYONE. (Stonewall interview)

You can read more about Ebony Rose Dark here in Pink News, or watch the short video below!

Day 21: Read an LGBT+ Book, Poem or Article

Audre Lorde

Lorde is a leading queer and feminist voice in the world of literature. She’s quoted in an interview withCallalooas saying:

My sexuality is part and parcel of who I am, and my poetry comes from the intersection of me and my worlds”

Click here to read some of her work!

John Giorno

Giorno was born in 1936 in New York. He was in Andy Warhol’s first film,Sleep,and the two had a romantic relationship. A poet and visual artists, he also counted names like Patti Smith and Robert Rauschenberg as friends. In the 1960s, Giorno began to record his poetry, distorting the recordings with synthesizers to produce installations he called electronic sensory poetry environments.

Read some of his pieces here.