OUTinPerth reader Nic asked what percentage of the ‘On This Gay Day’ posts were celebratory and how many were about mourning.

We crunched some numbers and reviewed the content that’s been published since the segment was introduced one year ago today.

We introduced the regular segment ‘On This Gay Day’ back on 1st January 2020. It followed reader feedback that showed there was a strong interest in more posts about LGBTIQ+ related history and people.

Often the trigger for writing about a particular person’s achievements is the anniversary of their birth or death. It’s also undeniable that HIV/AIDS casts a big shadow over the lives of LGBTIQ people with so many important figures being lost to disease throughout the 80’s and 90’s. This can lead to many of the post in this area including people we lost way before their time.

Since we introduced the history posts there have been 74 posts in 2020, that covered 144 different events, people and anniversaries. Roughly 60% of positive stories, 15% are neutral and 20% are negative, sad and miserable stories.

As writers we’ve discovered a lot of stories about people that we were not familiar with, LGBTI people from the last who we personally did not know about. Since creating this section we’ve learned about Ethel Richardson, the Brunswick Four, Anna Ruling, Fanny Ann Eddy and Karl Baer.

We’re always looking to include more local stories from Australia and Western Australia in this section, more stories about women and people who are transgender, and hope to increase the content that features people who are not as well known in history.

If you have any suggestions for this section of OUTinPerth, drop us a note at editor@outinperth.com and if you’re interested in helping create this part of OUTinPerth – sign up to our writers email list.

Graeme Watson

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