5 Moments in Media in Honor of LGBTQ+ History Month

October is such a fitting time for LGBTQ+ History Month. I’m a huge fan of October. I love the Midwest crisp mornings and nights, it’s warm afternoons. The option of a heavy cardigan or a denim jacket is everything to me. I love the leaves, their colors cascading across my lawn before it sinks in that I’ve got to clean it all up soon. Autumn is such a perfect picture of the passing of time. It is both messy and jubilant, exciting and sorrowful. Autumn is the best time for snuggling up on the sofa for a good t.v. binge. It’s a time for getting lost in a good book or winding down with your favorite song. In honor of LGBTQ+ History Month here are five of my favorite queer moments in media. These moments hightlight the amazing people who paved the way for those of us who fall across the Kinsey Scale to be in living rooms across America. These moments are for Marsha P. Johnson and Bayard Rustin. They are for Audre Lorde and James Baldwin, for Alvin Ailey and Bessie Smith. These are the moments in media that make the chill that comes along with October worth it.

HBO’s 2015 Bessie Smith biopic has to be one of my favorite biopics of all time. LGBTQ+ History is full of artists; singers and dancers, writers, visual artists and more. For HBO to highlight a bisexual Black woman of the 1920’s and 30’s without making it look it look like smut is one of the best compliments to Black queer folks ever. HBO gave us an insight into Bessie’s (Queen Latifah) struggles as not only an enterainer,…