October is LGBT History Month. The month of observance was first organized in 1994 by high school teacher Rodney Wilson to coincide with National Coming Out Day (Oct. 11) and was meant to highlight the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights movement.
In 2006, the Equality Forum began promoting the annual commemoration by featuring a different LGBT icon each day.
“This is the 7th anniversary of LGBT History Month. There are a total of 217 Icons that inspire pride in our heroes and our impressive national and international accomplishments,” said Malcolm Lazin, Equality Forum executive director, in a statement.
At a time when some in middle America would still prefer to laugh at gay people than laugh with us, one funny little man decided to speak out about LGBT issues on the 2010 season of the prime-time NBC comedy show, “Last Comic Standing.”
Myq Kaplan, a heterosexual Jewish comic, had America laughing about the absurdity of denying gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.
“Prejudice is getting weirder and more confusing,” Kaplan jokes. “It used to be just about keeping people separate — like interracial marriage. People were like, ‘Don’t let them marry us! Only let them marry each other!’ Today with gay people, they’re like, ‘Don’t let them marry each other! Make them marry…..us?’”
Comedian's humor points out the absurdity of anti-gay bias
Funny man Leslie Jordan is a popular fixture wherever he performs, but his brand of humor hits home particularly in the South. He returns to Atlanta this weekend with his new holiday show, “Deck Them Halls, Y’all!”
The work is a complete departure for the openly gay performer – and the best thing he has ever written, he admits. He was supposed to perform in London over the holiday season but instead will be there in February. With a few free months, his booker asked him to write something about growing up in the South. Jordan agreed, but his one stipulation is that he did not want to write about himself, feeling like he had exhausted all that material.
“In “Deck the Halls, Y’all!” he brings three original characters to life – “three generations of white trash,” Jordan quips.
Comedian Hal Sparks continues in Atlanta tonight