Sweezey, an undecided sophomore from Edwardsville, assisted with the coordination of this year’s Gay and Lesbian History Month.

The month is sponsored by the SIUC Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Friends organization.

Basically the whole purpose of this organization (GLBF) is to let the community know that we are out there and to educate the community, Sweezey said. We can focus on people’s diversity. I am helping people to understand tolerance of homosexuality and to alleviate the ignorance.

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The theme of this year’s Gay and Lesbian History Month revolves around the recurrence of prominent homosexual people throughout time who have made, and continue to make, significant societal contributions while paving the road of acceptance for countless gays and lesbians.

Many of today’s great artists, musicians, writers and entertainers are homosexual, Tim Rice, an undecided freshman from Cobden, said.

William Burroughs, William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Amelia Earhart and Melissa Etheridge are some famous homosexuals from the present and past.

Homosexual performers like Freddie Mercury, of the 1970s band Queen, have gained tremendous popularity in America. Queen wrote the popular songs We Will Rock You and Another One Bites the Dust.

Some of (the prominent homosexual people) are helping us gain acceptance, Rice said. In Freddie Mercury’s case, a lot on non-gays enjoy the music but overlook their suspicion that he was gay.

Mercury was homosexual and died at 45 from AIDS.

It seemed like it was unmentionable that Freddie Mercury was gay. It was something not talked about much, said Katerie Tattrie, a sophomore in commercial graphics design and coordinator of Gay and Lesbian History Month. I think people developed a stereotype about gay men having AIDS about 20 years ago when AIDS was first coming out.

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Acceptance and understanding are the foundations of the successful integration of the gay and non-gay communities, Rice said.

There is a reason why people don’t come out, Rice said. Society allows the bombings of gay nightclubs and the [gay] bashings, and sometimes even the killings. And it’s somehow written off as being acceptable behavior.

Alan Ginsberg is one of the most popular writers from what is known as the 1950s Beat Generation. Ginsberg expressed his homosexual feelings through his work.

In a time when it (homosexuality) wasn’t even spoken about, he openly wrote about it, Tattrie said.

The work of Ginsberg is considered enlightening and highly structured among some literary scholars. Rice said Ginsberg’s homosexuality sometimes permeated into his writings.

Ginsberg could express himself very well to a public audience like (many of Beat Generation writers), Rice said. Their work was open to interpretation. People could accept them as writers. Ginsberg expressed himself without being overt.

Greg Louganis is an Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. diving team and a champion among the gay community. Louganis is a known homosexual with AIDS.

What makes Greg Louganis great is what he did for this country, not what he does in bed, Rice said. We can focus of the positive images (of historical homosexuals) and see where history has brought us so far.

Some of those people (Louganis, Mercury, Ginsberg) are the people helping us gain acceptance. They are showing us that it is OK to be homosexual. We can be open. We can be honest.

Gay and Lesbian History Month will be going on for the duration of October. The focus of the month is not to point out prominent homosexuals, but to rather embrace equality, fairness and unity between the two communities, Tattrie said.

Being in the closet’ used to be done for your own safety, Tattrie said. It was to protect yourself. But now we are encouraged by people in the public eye and other historical figures.

We’ve got to let people know that its OK to be themselves, and we will be doing that this month by celebrating and honoring those people who have helped us gain acceptance in this society.