Brought to you by WHA’s LGBTQ+ Employees and Allies Resource Group.
Established in 2004, the purpose of this annual observance is to draw the attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions and sex characteristics. May 17th was chosen to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.
International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia is celebrated in more than 130 countries (including 37 where same-sex acts are illegal). Europe and Latin America are some of the strongest celebrators of the day, with events in almost every country. Each year a theme is chosen – the theme for 2022 is “Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights.”
For more information check out May17.org and ILGA 2022 IDAHOTB.
Sunday, May 22 is Harvey Milk Day
This date was established in 2009 as a day to remember and teach about Harvey Milk’s life and his work to stop discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community. We celebrate Harvey Milk Day on his birthday, May 22.
Milk was an activist, organizer, and one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the late 1970s. Milk was responsible for passing gay rights ordinances for the city of San Francisco and served eleven months in office before he was assassinated on November 27, 1978, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.
Did you know there is a street named after Milk in downtown Portland? City leaders voted to make this change in June of 2018.
Want to learn more?
- Here is a link to Milk’s biography
- Check out The Times of Harvey Milk, a 1984 documentary about his life
- There was also a movie made about Harvey Milk in 2008, titled Milk
May 24th is Pansexual & Panromantic Visibility Day!
- Pan is a root word meaning all
- Pansexual is the sexual attraction to all genders
- Panromantic is the romantic attraction to all genders
- Pansexual and Panromantic people see gender as a characteristic about a person rather than a deciding factor in who they are or are not attracted to
- Pansexuality is different from bisexuality but the two aren’t mutually exclusive
- Being bisexual means being attracted to more than one gender, while being pansexual means being attracted to people regardless of gender
- Some bisexual people also identify as pansexual, and vice versa
- Pansexuality is included under the bisexual umbrella, which covers anyone who experiences sexual or romantic attraction to more than one gender
- Being pan can mean different things to different people!