Events will be held throughout the month at the ONE Gallery space on Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood. (photo by Edwin Folven)

West Hollywood will mark LGBTQ+ Histories Month starting Oct. 1, as the city aims to focus on the legacy and impact of earlier generations of the queer community. The events are a part of the Circa Festival, presented by One Institute, which, according to its website, “is the first and only LGBTQ+ histories festival in the United States.”

A centerpiece of the month will be a tribute to ONE Magazine – the first nationally distributed publication in history to focus on LGBTQ+ issues. ONE Magazine published in the 1950s and 1960s.

“ONE Magazine was the first widely distributed LGBTQ publication. Back then, it was actually called the magazine for homosexuals,” ONE Archives Foundation executive director Tony Valenzuela said. “It talked about contemporary issues for that time, which was obviously incredibly difficult. It was the years of the Lavender Scare and people’s lives were ruined if there … was a bar raid and they were arrested. This was at a really challenging time for LGBT Americans.”

An exhibition entitled “One Magazine at Seventy,” sponsored in part by the city of West Hollywood, will open on Oct. 1 with an event starting at 3 p.m. at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place. Additionally, One Institute operates the ONE Gallery in West Hollywood, located at 626 N. Robertson Blvd.

“LGBTQ Histories Month challenges us all to make sure that we remember our past while honoring our present and looking forward to the future for all that we have as a community,” Mayor Pro Tempore John Erickson said. “Art is a way in which we can continue to show that.”

The Mic at Micky’s WeHo, located at 8857 Santa Monica Blvd., will host “Stories of Sex Work” at 7 p.m. on Oct. 4. The open mic event will invite participants to share poems, stories and comedy with an emphasis on sex work. Adult film actor Drew Valentino will be the featured comedian.

“By nature of being a community of sexuality, the queer community and sex workers communities are often closely inner twined,” West Hollywood Poet Laurette Brian Sonia-Wallace said. “One of the things we found at The Mic was that folks would share stories about everything from stripping to pornography, that might be taboo in other spaces but felt safe here. This is going to be our last true open mic for a while, as we focus on our new West Hollywood slam team, and we are so excited to get to partner with One Institute to share some of the stories that made the space so special for the past two years.”

Additional West Hollywood events will be held at ONE Gallery, including an Oct. 6 panel discussion on contextualizing LGBTQIA+ topics and issues in education, Kate Millett’s Feminist Music Festival on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m., an oral histories project at 11 a.m. on Oct. 15, a panel on HIV/AIDS’ literary history on Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. and a lecture on documenting senior lesbian partnerships in the United States at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20.

Circa will also showcase a pop-up exhibit titled “Coming Out Green” at beTRUE Los Angeles, located at 7225 W. Sunset Blvd., on Oct. 22 at 3 p.m., and a tribute to Olivia Records, the first lesbian-owned recording company, on Oct. 28 at 2 p.m. in the West Hollywood City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

“I’m looking forward to the number of events happening throughout the city, as well as elsewhere, which will be wonderful reminders of the beautiful rainbow of diversity we have in our community – while also ensuring that we honor and uplift that past for those that are looking to us right now to remind us that we have a lot to look forward to,” Erickson said.

Poet and actor Nate Lovell will co-host a special open mic night at Micky’s WeHo on Oct. 4 as part of LGBTQ+ Histories Month. (photo courtesy of Circa)