Highlights from LGBTQ+ History Month
October is LGBTQ+ History Month! We honored the occasion by highlighting LGBTQ+ persons from around the world who have sought justice, equity, and societal change, often at great cost to themselves.
Simon Nkoli
For week 1, we highlighted Simon Nkoli (he/him), an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights in South Africa who lived from 1957 to 1998. He became one of the first gay men on the African continent to publicly disclose their HIV-positive status.
In addition to advocating for those suffering from AIDS, Nkoli was a fierce opponent of apartheid in his nation and an anti-racist, forming the Saturday Group, the continent’s first group for Black LGBTQ+ people. He stated: “If you are Black and gay in South Africa, then it really is all the same closet… inside is darkness and oppression. Outside is freedom.”
Learn more about Nkoli’s life and legacy here.
Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie
For week 2, we celebrated Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie (she/her), an artist, photographer, professor, and museum director. A Seminole-Muscogee-Navajo woman, she started her career as a painter, turning to photography as a means of centering the cultures, history, and experiences of Native people "for Native people."
“The photographs I take are not for White people to look at Native people. I take photographs so Native people can look at Native people. I make photographs for Native people.”
A lesbian woman, Tsinhnahjinnie uses art to critique colonialism and its imposed standards of beauty. She now serves as the curator and director of the C.N. Gorman Museum while teaching at the University of California, Davis.
Learn more about her life and view her stunning work here.
Ifti Nasim
For week 3, we celebrated Ifti Nasim (he/him), a Pakistani-American poet and founder of Sangat/Chicago, an organization serving LGBTQ+ south-Asian youths. Nasim emigrated to the United States in search of safety and affirmation of his sexuality. He began writing poetry based on his experiences, eventually being inducted into The Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1996.
“It so happened [that] I started writing poetry, and that was a big release, that was a big catharsis for my soul...”
Narman, a poetry collection authored by Nasim featuring openly gay and lesbian themes, was the first of its kind published in the Urdu language.
Learn more about Nasim’s life and legacy by visiting https://buff.ly/3tBlbLO.
Bishop Megan Rohrer
For week 4, we highlighted Bishop Megan Rohrer (they/he)! Bishop Rohrer is the first out trans bishop ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. An activist, author, and graduate of the Pacific School of Religion, Rev. Dr. Rohrer now serves as bishop of nearly 200 congregations in the ELCA’s Sierra Pacific Synod.
“You knew God’s up to something — not because I sit here with a bigger hat now, but because courageous people voted a new way: ‘behold a new thing is happening.’”
As a global community of LGBTQ+ Christians and allies, we’re immensely grateful for Bishop Rohrer’s impact on the Church and their commitment to cultivating radical belonging for all. May leadership in the Church continue to become more representative and equitable.
Thank you, Bishop Rohrer!
