LGBT History Month!

Hello everyone, hope you had a great month of September, but now it's almost October 1st everywhere, and that means that October is LGBT History Month! So what I was thinking I would do, was every day of October, I would write a short report post about one of the people to be included in this year's history month, with 31 LGBT individuals in total. These individuals are very diverse in race, gender, orientation, professions, and I think it would be a pretty good educational experience. So this will act as the post for October 1st, make sure to leave any feedback, comments, or anything down below as well. So without further ado, let's get 2013 LGBT History Month started!

October 1st - Zackie Achmat - Gay - South Africa - Activist

Achmat was born in 1962 in Johannesburg, during the South African culture of apartheid, racial codes against the black population in South Africa. As a young kid, he urged his fellow students to join in anti-apartheid movements. He even once set off a fire in his school to convince people to join his cause.

Achmat, who is HIV+ himself, founded that Treatment Action Campaign in 1998. TAC is credited with convincing former South African President Mbeki to make antiretroviral drugs available even for the common citizens of South Africa. Before then, most of the people who got treatment with these breakthrough drugs at the time were the wealthiest citizens of South Africa. Due to his work with TAC, they New Yorker even proclaimed Achmat as "the most important dissident in the country since Nelson Mandela".

Achmat also founded the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, which is largely accredited in leading the fight to decriminalize sodomy in the country. Achmat has a long list of awards to his name, including but not limited to: The Desmond Tutu Leadership Award, the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights, and the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights.

Achmat married fellow activist Dalli Wayers in 2008, but the couple divorced in June 2011.

So that's the first LGBT History Month post. Hope you enjoyed it. Make sure to leave feedback of this down below and tell me if you liked it and would like to see more of it.