GLBT Holidays & Events

In Stonewall Fleet, we've celebrated Pride every year and that's great, but there's a lot of other glbt holidays out there than that. Just that come to mind are:

• World AIDS Day
• Day of Silence
• Coming Out Day
• Transgender Remembrance Day

It'd be great if we could start celebrating some of these other events as well. To get that started, we should create a list of the most important events every year. Many of these events are usually country specific, so I figured I'd ask our multi-national community, what events should we celebrate?

Quote by NicholasJohn16

In Stonewall Fleet, we've celebrated Pride every year and that's great, but there's a lot of other glbt holidays out there than that. Just that come to mind are:

• World AIDS Day
• Day of Silence
• Coming Out Day
• Transgender Remembrance Day

Great idea Nick! Here are a couple of immediate thoughts... first of all, complete list (as far as I can tell) is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_holidays

The two that caught my eye as being the easiest to build some momentum:

Stonewall Riot (June 27) - Do we explicitly celebrate this date over and above the general Pride celebrations? By rioting I guess? Might be nice to have an event specifically tied to it (or at least a MoTD) if we don't already.

World AIDS Day - Awesome idea, would love to see ideas to increase AIDS awareness both within and outside of the fleet. For example:

• External awareness - Change our uniform insignia to red ribbons? Promote discussion while pugging? Post relevant message on the forums?
• Internal awareness - Do we have anyone who's poz and proud who could help lead this? I would love to have more open discussion about this within the fleet in general and it'd be great to be able to refer new members to poz role models who can provide support as needed.

Great initiative!

Ok where is Judy's Birthday (June 10th)?

In more than a few Gay chorus circles we actually celebrate this as Icon's Day, a day we celebrate and give gratitude to all the fabulous gay icons that have supported us and fought for us...it's also a day to totally indulge in Cher, Madona, GaGa and others with out any guilt whatsoever.

Quote by Araa

Great idea Nick! Here are a couple of immediate thoughts... first of all, complete list (as far as I can tell) is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_holidays

Ah! Thank you. I was searching for that list everywhere on wikipedia, but couldn't find it anywhere.

Quote by Araa

Stonewall Riot (June 27) - Do we explicitly celebrate this date over and above the general Pride celebrations? By rioting I guess? Might be nice to have an event specifically tied to it (or at least a MoTD) if we don't already.

Pride celebrations are Stonewall Riot celebrations. That's why we have marches, to reenact the original riot. We don't celebrate it exactly on that date; we plan our celebrations for the weekend and try to avoid the same weekends as other major cities celebrations so as many people as possible can come to ours.

Quote by Araa

World AIDS Day - Awesome idea, would love to see ideas to increase AIDS awareness both within and outside of the fleet.

It'd be great if we had better education and awareness on HIV/AIDS in and out of the fleet. I'd like to see a mix of all kinds of celebrations for these events, in game, on the site, and in multiple of our games.

I agree that we should commemorate all four of those days you mentioned, Nick. Too many people don't know enough about LGBT history or just shrug it off and take it for granted, but the majority of the world still oppresses homosexuality.

Though this isn't really an "official" holiday, something like it might also be worth noting on our calendar? It's called Anti-Bullying Day.

I would be willing to do some work on any of the days Nick mentioned. I am an LGBT historian and I would gladly post/open discussion about any glbt holiday (since I teach and research in the field) Simply let me know offlist what you might like me to do, and I am up for it.

jwcisneros920@gmail.com

I could also talk to colleagues about events in your cities and arrange for speakers for you (either in an online medium or real life venue, you choose). Since Stonewall already does real life gatherings, this might work...

~Jeff