Happy Halloween/LGBT History Month!

 October, with the packed, double punch of being the month leading up to Halloween and all of its many flavors of creepy and being LGBT History month, has got to be my favorite of the year. Yes, there's December and February, both truly lovely in my estimation, but October is when the leaves turn russet and when the weather turns crisp and cool, and when you are practically obligated to indulge in ghost stories, monster movies, and the darker mysteries of the human experience. But, when you add in LGBT History month, it adds a very different flavor to the recipe, and as a result, I am finding myself torn. I vascilate from daily readings of Vito Russo's masterpiece "The Celluloid Closet" to nightly viewings of the latest ghostly televised series by "The Haunting Of Bly Manor". I want to sing out the praises of some of our lesser known queer entertainers, and pour forth with all the recommendations I have for past sitcom Halloween episodes that deserve special attention. All of this simply acts as a pre-amble to say, get ready for some split personality posts, that likely won't seem contradictory to many of you, seeing as Halloween has always had an indefinable appeal to the gays, possibly because it's a day when everyone steps into someone else's shoes for an evening. Gay people have often had that experience forced upon them, to always wear the bland brown leather shoe when one's heart longs for the violet suede. Halloween was always an opportunity to slip on a more decadent persona that we wouldn't have dared to allow ourselves otherwise, and if someone questioned it, we could always escape to the refuge of joining in the spirit of the holiday. And now that it's easier to publicly admit the side of ourselves that don't conform to the arbitrary whims of the greater society, Halloween allows us to push those boundaries further. 

At its best, Halloween is festive, decadent, and daring. It's a celebration of bravery, and of laughing at the unknown and therefore frightening things that haunt the corners of our imagination. And since LGBT history month celebrates those who came before us and braved the very real dangers and oppressions to make life better for themselves and those like them, maybe it's not the worst fit after all.