International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Dr. Jake Newsome, a scholar of American and German LGBTQ history, has compiled his extensive research on the symbol, its impact on queer liberation, and its historical significance in his book Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Dr. Jake Newsome earned his PhD at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his research focuses on Holocaust history, gender and sexuality, and memory studies.

Founder & Director: The Pink Triangle Legacies Project

Resource: https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/01/27/holocaust-memorial-day-2023-gay-nazi/

https://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2023/06/the-pink-triangles-legacy/

Asexual/Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week

A week to promote information and awareness about aromantic spectrum identities ("an identity within the LGBTQIA+ community in which someone experiences little to no romantic attraction.") and the issues they face. This week was first recognized from 10 to 17 November 2014, under the name Aromantic Awareness Week. In 2015, it was moved to late February and the name was changed to Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, to be more inclusive of all arospec identities.

People who identify as asexual have different attitudes about sex. Some regard sex as a healthy way to forge an emotional bond. Others feel it off-putting and tend to lack any interest in romantic relationships. In between are sex-neutral people who are neither positive nor negative about sex.

Though people who identify as asexual do not experience sexual attraction, they often have sexual desires and even enjoy sex. There are also people who experience sexual attraction only occasionally (graysexuals) and others who form a romantic attraction only after a deep emotional connection has been made (demisexuals).

Bisexual Health Awareness Month / Transgender Day of Visibility [TDOV]

A month to raise awareness about the bisexual community's social, economic, and health disparities, advocate for resources, and inspire actions to improve bi people's well-being. Promoted on social media through #BiHealthMonth

Resources:

HRC Bi Health Brief  

https://cancer-network.org/cancer-information/bisexuals-and-cancer/bisexuals-and-health-risks/

Transgender Day of Visibility [TDOV]

Each year on March 31, we honor International Transgender Day of Visibility!

We celebrate the joy and resilience of trans and non-binary people everywhere by elevating voices and experiences from these communities.

There are over 1.6 million trans, non-binary and gender-expansive youth (age 13+) and adults across the United States. We are parents and family members. We are your coworkers, your neighbors and your friends. We are a diverse community, representing all racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as all faith traditions.

While we have made significant progress in recent years, with more visibility than ever before, we are still fighting for basic human rights for the community. Today we are experiencing significant political attacks by extremists legislating hate in the states and in Congress. We also face an ongoing epidemic of fatal violence, especially against Black and Brown trans women.

Today and every day, we must celebrate all trans and non-binary people everywhere and combat disinformation, discrimination and hate impacting our community.

Lesbian Visibility Week

National Day of Silence - April 12

National Day of Silence is a student-led movement to protest bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and those who support them. The Day of Silence brings awareness and illustrates to the schools and the colleges how intimidation, name-calling, and general bullying have a silencing effect.

Lesbian Visibility Week; April 22-28.  The end of April is meant as a time for lesbians to be seen, heard and celebrated. Just like any other week to commemorate different groups in the LGBTQ+ community, Lesbian Visibility Week is a great time to reflect on how lesbians are treated within the LGBTQ+ community and in everyday life.

This week we uplift lesbians and “show solidarity with all LGBTQI women and non-binary people in our community.”

Resource: https://parade.com/living/what-is-lesbian-visibility-week#what-is-lesbian-visibility-week

Pansexual & Panromantic Awareness Day

An annual day to promote awareness of, and celebrate, pansexual and panromantic identities.

Resource: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/pansexual

Pride Month: Flag Raising & Pride Parade

In collaboration with Roswell's Marketing team, The ENRG joins in the Buffalo Pride Parade every June! Stay tuned for more info for June 2024!

Every June we celebrate Pride Month by raising the flag in Kaminski Park and celebrating all gender and sexuality minorities that enter Roswell's doors.

Our ENRG team educate staff by tabling in different areas around campus to spread knowledge and information on how to be affirming to LGBTQIA2S+ patients, staff & guests.

Disability Pride Month / Drag Day / Non-Binary Awareness Week  / Black & Latino Pride Week

Disability Pride Month: The original disability pride flag, which featured brightly colored zigzagging stripes over a black background, was created in 2019 by writer Ann Magill, who has cerebral palsy. Her first design idea was to make the stripes zigzag, to represent how disabled people have to maneuver around all the barriers they face. However, it came to Magill's attention that when viewed on a phone or computer screen, the design was causing symptoms for individuals with visually triggered disabilities, including seizure and migraine disorders.

Her redesigned version of the flag softens the colors, made the stripes straight instead of zigzagging, and the order of the stripes was changed to accommodate people with red-green colorblindness. Magill said that she thinks it is even better this way because it truly represents the community because the community came together to solve a problem.

- The faded black background represents "the anger and mourning over the eugenics and the neglect that disabled people have to fight against."

- Red represents physical disabilities.

- Gold is for neurodiversity.

- White represents invisible disabilities and disabilities that have not yet been diagnosed.

- Blue stands for emotional and psychiatric disabilities, including mental illness, anxiety, and depression.

- Green is for sensory disabilities, including deafness, blindness, lack of smell, lack of taste, audio processing disorder, and all other sensory disabilities.

Non-Binary Awareness Week: A week dedicated to those who do not fit within the traditional gender binary, i.e. those who do not exclusively identify as a man or a woman, or who may identify as both a man and a woman or may fall outside of these categories altogether. Promoted on Twitter as @NBWeek.

Drag Day: A day that aims to celebrate and recognize the drag art all around the world. Created by Adam Stewart in 2009 through his Facebook fan page for drag queens

Black & Latino Pride Week: Alongside celebrating the beauty and culture of the Black and Brown LGBTQ+ community, Buffalo-based Upstate New York Black And Latino Pride’s mission is to bring “intersectionality and visibility to the forefront” of the conversation. Over the years, the advocacy group has worked tirelessly to fight discrimination, as well as strengthen and support individuals by organizing job and health fairs, creating public programming, and providing a voice to the marginalized within the legislative process.

Transgender History Month

In August of 1966, Black and brown trans women and drag queens started and led a riot against police harassment at Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco

Formally known as the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots of 1966, it is regarded as the first large-scale act of resistance of transgender and queer individuals against police in the United States–predating the Stonewall Inn Riots by 3 years. The riot began inside Compton’s Cafeteria–which at the time was a 24 hour diner where trans and queer residents of the Tenderloin congregated after socializing, performing, or working at nearby clubs and bars–but eventually made its way outside onto the Turk and Taylor Streets intersection where fighting continued. 

Resource: https://www.transgenderhistorymonth.com/ 

Bisexual Awareness

Celebrate Bisexuality Day (also called Bisexual Pride Day, Bi Visibility Day, CBD, Bisexual Pride and Bi Visibility Day, and Bisexuality+ Day) is observed annually on September 23 to recognize and celebrate bisexual people, the bisexual community, and the history of bisexuality.

Bisexuals face striking rates of poor health outcomes ranging from cancer and obesity, to sexually transmitted infections to mental health problems. Studies suggest that bisexuals comprise nearly half of all people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, making the bisexual population the single largest group within the LGBTQ+ community –– yet, as a community, we are doing little to address the needs of bisexual people.

Moreover, transgender people and people of color comprise large portions of the bisexual community –– with more than 40 percent of LGBTQ+ people of color identifying as bisexual, and about half of transgender people describing their sexual orientation as bisexual or queer –– making these groups vulnerable to further disparities that occur at the intersections of biphobia, racism and transphobia.

Resource: https://www.hrc.org/resources/health-disparities-among-bisexual-people

LGBT History Month / National Coming Out / Intersex Awareness Day

LGBT History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. It was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodney Wilson. LGBT History Month provides role models, builds community, and represents a civil rights statement about the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community.

In the United States, Canada, Armenia, Romania, the Netherlands, Southeast Asia, and Australia, it is celebrated in October to coincide with National Coming Out Day on October 11 and to commemorate the first and second marches on Washington in 1979 and 1987 for LGBT rights.

OCTOBER 11 - National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an annual LGBTQIA+ awareness day observed on October 11 to support anyone "coming out of the closet" or "Being Invited In." First celebrated in the United States in 1988, the initial idea was grounded in the feminist and gay liberation spirit of the personal being political, and the emphasis on the most basic form of activism being coming out to family, friends, and colleagues, and living life as an openly lesbian or gay person. The founders believed that homophobia thrives in an atmosphere of silence and ignorance and that once people know that they have loved ones who are lesbian or gay, they are far less likely to maintain homophobic or oppressive views.

OCTOBER 26 - Intersex Awareness Day is an International Day of Grass-roots action to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children. The day also provides an opportunity for reflection and political action. Between October 26 and November 8, intersex organizations bring attention to the challenges intersex individuals face, culminating in the Intersex Day of Remembrance on November 8, the birthday of Herculine Barbin, also sometimes known as Intersex Solidarity Day.

Transgender Awareness Week / Two-Spirit Awareness Week

Transgender Awareness Week: Every year, from November 13 – 19, people around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week. This week raises visibility and awareness for the transgender community to address issues they may endure.

Native American Heritage Month is observed in November to call attention to the culture, traditions, and achievements of the nation's original inhabitants and of their descendants. The official designation of November as National Native American Heritage Month was signed into law in 1990.

Two-Spirit Awareness Week: As part of Native American Heritage Month, we celebrate our Two-Spirits family from November 24-30. Being Two Spirit is being bestowed with the gift of sight and feeling. Two Spirits have the gift of seeing from both a male and female [sic] perspective and so in many cases it is easier to see into others as we can see into ourselves.”- Marcy Angeles (Chiricahua Apache, Guamares Indian and Aztec) artist and Indigenous Trans rights activist.

SAMHSA Two Spirits Webinars

The Legacy Project - Two Spirit

NY Historical Society - Bar Chee Ampe and Beyond: Uncovering Two-Spirit Identity, Part 1

NY Historical Society - Bar Chee Ampe and Beyond: Uncovering Two-Spirit Identity, Part 2

NY Historical Society - Bar Chee Ampe and Beyond: Uncovering Two-Spirit Identity, Part 3

PBS documentary (Trailor) - Two Spirit 

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is a global movement to unite people in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Since 1988, communities have stood together on World AIDS Day to show strength and solidarity against HIV stigma and to remember lives lost.