Posts by Sofia:

On this day in queerstory: a day for quiet reflection

December 22 rarely arrives with fireworks in queer history. There is no single riot, ruling, or declaration that claims the date outright. Instead, December 22 has become something more telling: a recurring moment when global institutions—courts, borders, hospitals, and bureaucracies—are forced to confront the fact that queer lives do not fit neatly into the systems […]

On this day in queerstory: reflective Winter Solstice

December 21—the solstice—has been marked across cultures for thousands of years as a turning point: the longest night or the brightest day, depending on where you stand on the planet. In queer history, this date carries a distinctly global resonance. Long before Pride parades or human rights frameworks, LGBTQ+ people everywhere were already finding ways […]

On this day in queerstory: Vermont recognizes same-sex couples

December 20 holds a special place in queer history as one of those moments that didn’t look revolutionary at first—but absolutely was. On December 20, 1999, Vermont Governor Howard Dean signed the nation’s first civil unions bill into law, making Vermont the first U.S. state to legally recognize same-sex couples. It wasn’t marriage, but it […]

On this day in queerstory: existence is resistance

December 19 doesn’t come with one neat headline moment—no single court ruling or presidential signature—but in queer history, it marks something just as important: the growing realization, especially in the United States, that being seen could be a political act powerful enough to change institutions. By the late 20th century, visibility itself had become a […]

On this day in queerstory: DADT dies

December 18 marks a rare and beautiful moment in U.S. queer history: the day Congress actually did the right thing. On December 18, 2010, the U.S. Senate voted to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the policy that had forced LGBTQ+ people in the military to choose between serving their country and telling the truth […]

On this day in queerstory: American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from DSM

On December 17, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association publicly announced that it would remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM). In plain terms: being gay was officially declared not a mental illness. About time. To understand how radical this was, you have to remember what came before. For decades, […]