LGBTQ+ awareness days: a month-by-month calendar

There are a lot of these dates, and they are easy to confuse. This calendar lists the ones that matter most to trans and non-binary people, in the order they fall in the year. For each: the date or the rule that sets it, who started it, and whether it is international or mainly a US or UK thing. Where an origin is disputed or simply not documented, we say so rather than repeat a guess.

Trans Day of Visibility and Trans Day of Remembrance have their own article, Trans Day of Visibility, Day of Remembrance and other dates, so here they get a line each.

February

• LGBT+ History Month (UK): all of February. Started by Sue Sanders and Paul Patrick, co-chairs of the education charity Schools OUT. It was launched at the end of 2004 and first held in February 2005, a month picked because it is a quieter time in schools, with a half-term. UK-centred. The US and several other countries hold theirs at different times: see LGBTQ+ History Month.
• Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week: the first full week, starting on a Sunday, after Valentine's Day. First held in November 2014 as Aromantic Awareness Week, it moved to February and took its current name in 2015. It is run by volunteers from Aromantic-Official, AUREA and the wider aromantic community, as a week to raise awareness and to celebrate. International.

March

• Trans Day of Visibility: 31 March. Founded in 2009 by Rachel Crandall, a US trans activist and head of Transgender Michigan, because the only well-known trans day at the time was a day of mourning. Now marked around the world. International, with US roots.

April

• Lesbian Visibility Day: 26 April. Most accounts date it to 2008, but they do not agree on who started it: the Washington Blade credits both the National Coalition for LGBT Health and, separately, a group of American lesbian activists who ran a campaign called I am a Lesbian that year. Other accounts give different origins, so treat this one as unsettled. International.
• Lesbian Visibility Week: the week ending on Lesbian Visibility Day. Created by Linda Riley with DIVA magazine, it first ran from 20 to 26 April 2020, online, as a week for lesbian, bisexual, trans and queer women. In 2026 it ran from 20 to 26 April. UK-centred, with a US edition.

May

• IDAHOBIT: 17 May. The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. The date marks the World Health Organization's decision in 1990 to remove homosexuality from its International Classification of Diseases. The idea dates from 2004 and the first day was held in 2005; its founder was the French activist Louis-Georges Tin. Transphobia was added to the name in 2009 and biphobia in 2015. Anyone can organise an event, and the organisers count it as marked in 155 countries and territories. International.
• Agender Pride Day: 19 May. DIVA reports that the first took place in 2017. Who started it, and why that date, is not documented anywhere we could find. International.
• Pansexual and Panromantic Visibility Day: 24 May. Poorly documented. The same DIVA article dates the first to 2015 and also mentions a Pansexual Visibility Day started by activists in 2014. No founder is named. International.

June

• Pride Month: all of June. June because of the Stonewall uprising, which began in New York on 28 June 1969. The first marches were held a year later: New York's Christopher Street Liberation Day march on 28 June 1970, with marches in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago the same year. US presidents proclaimed it as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999 and as LGBT Pride Month in 2009. US origin. Two people remembered from Stonewall have their own articles: Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.

July

• International Non-Binary People's Day: 14 July. The date sits exactly midway between International Women's Day and International Men's Day. It is usually dated to 2012, and Katje van Loon has described inventing it, in a BBC feature published in 2022. International.
• Non-Binary Awareness Week: the week leading up to 14 July, starting on the Monday, or the Sunday in some places. We found no reliable record of who started it or when, so we give neither. International.

September

• Bi Visibility Day: 23 September. Also called Celebrate Bisexuality Day. Celebrated since 1999, when three US bi activists, Wendy Curry, Michael Page (who designed the bisexual flag) and Gigi Raven Wilbur, launched it on Wilbur's birthday at the International Lesbian and Gay Association conference in Johannesburg. People mark it with meetups, socials and talks, and the Bi Visibility Day website lists events in several countries. International.
• Bisexual Awareness Week: 16 to 23 September. First held in 2014, co-founded by GLAAD and BiNet USA, and ending on Bi Visibility Day. US-centred.

October

• LGBTQ+ History Month (US and elsewhere): all of October. Started in 1994 by Rodney Wilson, a high school history teacher near St. Louis, Missouri. Australia has marked it in October since 2016. See LGBTQ+ History Month for the dates in other countries.
• National Coming Out Day: 11 October. First held in 1988, founded by Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary, on the anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. US origin, also marked in Ireland and the UK. More in National Coming Out Day.
• Spirit Day: the third Thursday of October. Started in 2010 by Brittany McMillan, then a teenager, after she read posts about a series of LGBTQ teen suicides. People wear purple to show support for LGBTQ young people facing bullying, and GLAAD got involved from the start. Mainly US-centred, though NBC News describes it as having become a global day.
• Ace Week: the last full week of October, starting on a Sunday (by that rule, 25 to 31 October in 2026). Founded by Sara Beth Brooks and first held in 2010 as Asexual Awareness Week, it took the name Ace Week in 2019. It began as an awareness campaign aimed at LGBTQ+ communities and their leaders, and now describes itself as an international campaign, marked with educational material, community events and online gatherings. International.
• Intersex Awareness Day: 26 October. It marks the first public demonstration by intersex people in North America, held on 26 October 1996 in Boston, outside a conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics. International.

November

• Intersex Day of Solidarity, or Intersex Day of Remembrance: 8 November. The birthday of Herculine Barbin, a French intersex person whose memoirs were later published. It appears to have been held first on 8 November 2005, as Intersex Solidarity Day, after a call from Joëlle-Circé Laramée of Organisation Intersex International. Some organisations, such as OII Europe, run campaigns through the whole period from 26 October to 8 November. International.
• Trans Awareness Week: 13 to 19 November. The week leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance, used for education on the discrimination and violence trans people face. Mainly US-centred; we could not confirm who started it.
• Trans Day of Remembrance: 20 November. Started in 1999 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, with a vigil in San Francisco for Rita Hester, a trans woman murdered the year before. It is marked with vigils around the world. International.

December

• World AIDS Day: 1 December. Not an LGBTQ+ day as such. Founded in 1988, it was the first international day for global health; many people wear a red ribbon. International.

What US-centred and international mean here

A lot of what gets called international began in the United States. In this calendar, US-centred or UK-centred means a day is organised and mostly kept in that country; international means it is organised or kept across several. If you live somewhere else, your local LGBTQ+ centre or organisation will know which ones people near you actually keep.

You do not have to mark any of them

These dates are useful when they bring people together or teach something, and they are not a test. Visibility days in particular are an invitation, not an obligation: plenty of trans people mark them by supporting someone else, or by ignoring them entirely, and both are fine. If a date helps you find an event, a group or a bit of history you did not know, it has done its job.