What do you call the rest of the year?

February, the shortest and seemingly darkest month of the year, is Black History Month. This month, March – which, at least in several parts of the country, is frequently marked by some of the worst weather of the year – is Women's History Month.
Despite the crummy weather, African-Americans and women have much to celebrate when it comes to historical contribution.
As yet, of course, there is no Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender History Month. (America also doesn't have a Native People's History Month; but then, many of the same kinds of people who have tried to erase LGBTs have also traditionally been active in the effort to erase the cultures, languages and religions of this continent's First Peoples – when they weren't outright killing them.)
But, just as black history and women's history is American history, so too are the history and contribution of LGBT citizens wound through the tales of African-Americans, women and of our country as a whole.
In February we hear about Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. In March it's Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt (who, by the way, was bisexual). But what about Dr. Rodney N. Powell, a black gay man and a leader of the Equality Rides, or Bayard Rustin?
The black civil rights movement has been served by Lynn Cothren, a gay white man who was the assistant to Coretta Scott King, and the women's movement has been forever impacted by sports greats like Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King (both lesbians, thank you very much) and intellectual greats like Audre Lorde.
Meanwhile, the organizers and participants of Camp Trans remind the women's movement that there's more to being a woman than having an X chromosome.
It's a sad thing that the history of African-Americans and women, without whom there wouldn't be an America, is relegated to separate, inclement months on the nation's calendar and seldom mentioned apart from those dates. It's an even sadder thing that the contributions of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals are generally ignored all twelve months of the year.
What's worse, though, is that we still live in a nation of "firsts." The first woman, the first black person – and now, the first L,G,B, or T person – who has been allowed by our culture to accomplish a particular thing, like winning a particular political office, is still big news.
We at BTL wish all of our readers a happy Women's History Month. However, what we really wish for is a full calendar where the historical and current accomplishments of all people are celebrated, where equality has become a reality and not merely still a dream, and where individual matters of sex, gender, race and sexual orientation have become about as important in measuring a person's success, or documenting that success, as his or her eye color.
Take it from the Guerrilla Girls: "If February is Black History Month and March is Women's History Month, what happens the rest of the year? Discrimination."