Queer Christian Celebrations | October 2024
Commemorations and celebrations of events and dates of particular interest to queer people of faith in the body of Christ.
The rainbow flag with cross image, above, comes from the Rainbow Christ Prayer page by Kittredge Cherry at QSpirit.net.1
October has plenty of opportunities to celebrate and commemorate Queerness, especially National Coming out Day (NCOD) on 11 October.
All October
National LGBTQ History Month
Founded in 1994 by former GLSEN Chapter leader Rodney Wilson with the support of many others, National LGBTQ was declared a national history month by President Barack Obama in 2009 with the intent to encourage openness and education about LGBT history and rights. Find out more—and maybe learn a little something—at glsen.org/lgbtq-history.
04 October 2024 (Fri)
Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis of Assisi may not have identified as LGBTQ but if you read his life story and his biography he is as Queer and spiritual as they come!
08 October 2024 (Tue)
International Lesbian Day
An annual day celebrating lesbian culture that originated in New Zealand (1980) and Australia (1990), but is now celebrated internationally.
10 October 2024 (Thu)
World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year to raise awareness of mental health issues and promote efforts to support mental health. Find out more at who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day.
11 October 2024 (Fri)
National Coming Out Day (NCOD)
National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is the annual commemoration of the March on Washington held 11 October 1987 to pressure President Ronald Reagan to address the AIDS crisis. Since then, NCOD has been a day for people who are comfortable (and some who aren't) to "come out of the closet," to announce to the world, a group of friends, their family or just themselves that they are identified with or a member of the LGBTQ community. Each year, HRC announces a theme. Read more about NCOD at Wikipedia’s National Coming Out Day page.
12 October 2024 (Sat)
Martyrdom of Matthew Shepard
On this date in 1998, Matthew Shepard was martyred. Find out more at qspirit.net/matthew-shepard-gay-martyr.
14 October 2024 (Mon)
Indigenous Peoples’ Day (formerly Columbus Day)
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is the second Monday in October, the date on which many have traditionally celebrated Columbus Day. For decades, support has been growing to use this date to remember and celebrate the indigenous peoples whom Columbus disenfranchised, enslaved and killed in the name of God. Somebody owes somebody an apology.
15 October 2024 (Tue)
National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day
On the last day of National Hispanic Heritage Month, 15 October, National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day is celebrated by organizations such as the Latino Coalition on AIDS and the Hispanic Federation in order to increase testing and make people aware of HIV prevention and treatment opportunities in Latinx communities.
16 October 2024 (Wed)
International Pronouns Day
Celebrated on the third Wednesday in October since 2018, Pronouns Day seeks “to make sharing, respecting and educating about personal pronouns commonplace.” Find out more at pronounsday.org and mypronouns.org.
17 October 2024 (Thu)
Spirit Day
Promoted by GLAAD, Spirit Day has been celebrated the third Thursday in October since 2010. On this day people around the world wear purple to provide support for LGBTQ+ youth who are the victims of bullying, as well as to honor LGBTQ+ victims of bullying-related suicide.
17-24 October 2024 (Thu-Thu)
Genderfluid Visibility Week
Since 2021. Also referred to as Genderfluid Week, Fluid Week or Genderfluid Awareness Week.
20-26 October 2024 (Sun-Sat)
Ace Week (formerly Asexual Awareness Week)
Ace Week, the last full week in October, was founded in 2010 by Sara Beth Brooks, promotes awareness of those on the asexual spectrum. Find out more at aceweek.org.
26 October 2024 (Sat)
Intersex Awareness Day
Celebrated on this day in October since 1996 to commemorate the first intersex protest, which took place in Boston, Massachusetts. Intersex Awareness Day advocates for the rights of persons whose differences in sex traits or reproductive anatomy are used as a reason for medical intervention to "assign" them a sex (either male or female) without the persons consent and regardless of whatever gender identity that person may be. This practice causes untold heartache, and it must stop. Find out more at interactadvocates.org, the website for InterACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth.
31 October 2024 (Thu)
Halloween!
Halloween has traditionally been the Queerest holiday celebrated by people of all walks of life. Avoid the ethnic and defamatory costumes, don’t drink until you’re endangered or obnoxious, and have a good time!
Thank you for reading, commemorating, and celebrating!
If I missed anything, let me know. I’m also open to posting events of interest to queer people of faith from other traditions, so if you’d like to help me make this list more complete, email me at joncarl.lewis@gmail.com.
QSpirit is a refreshing, empowering, obscure-information-packed website and blog curated by Kittredge Cherry “questioning spiritual assumptions with quality content for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & queer (LGBTQ) people and allies” —from QSpirit.net.