October Heritage and Identity Recognitions

LGBTQ+ History Month

• Consider a new approach to teaching LGBTQ+ history:  “I believe that it is especially crucial to consider an even more transformational change of the curriculum beyond inclusion of the themes of LGBTQ+ marginalization, oppression, resistance, and persistence. I want to encourage teachers to teach the history of queer joy. “
• Bring LGBTQ+ history into your classroom:  Dive into lesson plans that center LGBTQ+ identity throughout the past 160 years of U.S. history, created by One Institute, the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization and archives in the country, and the UCLA History-Geography Project
• Listen to LGBTQ+ voices:  Over twelve seasons of podcasts, “Making Gay History'' has explored the LGBTQ+ civil rights movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Drawing from historian Eric Marcus's rich audio archive, it presents "intimate, personal portraits of both known and long-forgotten champions, heroes, and witnesses to history." 
• To honor both LGBTQ+ history and Latinx heritage this month, explore intersectionality:  This resource from the GSA Network provides ideas and resources for schools and students to celebrate the diverse experiences and contributions of LGBTQ+ Latinx activists, artists, and families. 

Indigenous People’s Day is Monday, October 9

• Break down stereotypes and assumptions:  Illuminative, a Native women-led national nonprofit, works to “build power for Native peoples by amplifying contemporary Native voices, stories, and issues to advance justice, equity, and self-determination.” Their guides about Indigenous representation, and appropriate practices for conversations about Indigenous identity at school are invaluable for educators. 
• Listen to Indigenous voices:  Standing Rock Sioux novelist and essayist Susan Power writes in her essay, “Native in the Twenty-first Century”:  “We’re standing up for Turtle Island and the waters, we’re standing up for the future we refuse to gamble away as if it doesn’t matter, as if it should be someone else’s story, someone else’s problem… They’ve been educating us for years, for several lost generations, but we’re up-ending that one-sided desk, that one-sided conversation that can only tell stories in a single direction.” 
• Acknowledge and amplify Indigenous knowledge:  One Schoolhouse educator Amanda Rosas discusses decolonizing teaching and affirming Indigenous knowledge systems without appropriating them. She urges educators to be both truthful and inclusive: "If we want our students to seek truth and justice, we must be willing to be co-leaders and participants in the search."

National Coming Out Day is October 11

• Explore the history of National Coming Out Day:  First celebrated in 1988, National Coming Out Day, centers queer identities and highlights the transformative political power of LGBTQ+ visibility: “The more we are able to share our stories and highlight our own experiences, the more it urges others to stand in their own truths as well."
• Understand coming out today:  The process of coming out continues to evolve as generations shift. In this article from the Seattle Times, high school students and young adults “reflect on what it’s like to come out at a time of social change, but when it is still… dangerous to be openly queer in the majority of the world.” 
• Listen to coming out narratives:  Read personal stories from The Reckoning, a digital publication dedicated to shifting narratives and amplifying voices of LGBTQ+ Black male-identified people: “[Coming out] was a clear choice for me: I could continue to shrink myself into a version that people found acceptable, or I could stand in my truth and deal with the consequences of choosing honesty over lies, truth over fear.”