Creatives Fight LGBTQIA+ Erasure with Free Calendar Tool

As the recent debate around DEI has found its way into the mainstream media and corporate conversation and become increasingly partisan, the just-released, free, ‘Today is Gay’ calendar plugin highlights important historical moments in the LGBTQIA+ community and offers an easy to use and celebratory alternative to the news agenda.

For every day of the year, the calendar includes a diary note of relevant history: from anniversaries of homophobic tragedies; to celebrating the high-five being invented by Glenn Burke - the first major league baseball player to come out as gay; to sharing how Michelangelo’s grandnephew switched all the masculine pronouns in the great sculptor's romantic poetry to feminine pronouns before publishing them posthumously.

It was made and released by creatives from The Ginger Beers, the dedicated LGBTQIA+ affinity group of creative company Wieden+Kennedy London; looking to push back against corporations removing support for the community from their calendars, communications, and policies. It works as a free Google calendar plug-in, compatible with the work calendars of over 500,000 companies and millions of workers around the world - offering a daily description of the relevant occasion with a link to the source of the information.

The team has also launched a dedicated website, www.todayis.gay, with all the information and instructions for installing the plugin; as well as an Instagram account that posts the relevant occasion daily, too for maximum exposure.

Winona Wee, co-lead of The Ginger Beers and senior creative at Wieden+Kennedy London commented, “This project has been a real labour of love. I feel lucky to be surrounded by friends at work who volunteered their time and care to help bring it to life. Each of us took charge of a different month, and the events we chose naturally reflected the diversity in our team - Wil is Australian, Andre’s Brazilian, Jonathan’s British, and I’m Singaporean. Along the way, I learnt so much about queer history: the good, the bad, and the lives and legacies that were missing from our history books.”

Wil Koslowski, comms planner at Wieden+Kennedy London commented, “As institutions flee from Pride, it’s been gutting to realise how fragile progress can be. It’s such a brutal reminder that their acceptance was always provisional. But for us, the Today is Gay calendar project has been a joyful way to turn loss into gain. Queer history is a never-ending fight to be loud, proud, and urgently visible, no matter the resources or support. If queer people are being quietly erased from corporate calendars? We’ll put their stories right back on everyone else’s! Good luck trying to erase this one.”