Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness. During May, NAMI joins the national movement to raise awareness about mental health. Each year we fight stigma, provide support, educate the public and advocate for policies that support people with mental illness and their families.

National Honor Our LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender) Elders Day, May 16, is an opportunity to recognize and pay tribute to earlier generations whose activism and bravery have created a path for younger community members to envision a future free from discrimination and stigmatization.

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was created in 2004 to draw attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex people and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sex characteristics.

Led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseasesexternal icon, HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (HVAD) is observed on May 18. This event is an opportunity to recognize the many volunteers, community members, health professionals, and scientists who are working together to find a safe and effective vaccine to prevent HIV. It is also a day to educate communities about the importance of HIV vaccine research.

May 19 is National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, a day to combat stigma in Asian and Pacific Islander communities. When we reduce HIV stigma and promote prevention, testing, and treatment, we can #StopHIVTogether.

Agender directly translates to “without gender”, which is why it is often used interchangeably with terms such as non-gendered, genderblank and genderfree, even though not all agender people may identify with these labels.

Queer Transgender Asian Pacific Islander (QTAPI) Week was started by the QTAPI community in the Bay Area. Queer Asian/Pacific Islanders face more discrimination because of their overlapping identities of race and sexual orientation/gender identity. According to a report by The Trevor Project, more than half of AAPI LGBTQ youth (54%) reported discrimination based on their race/ethnicity in the past year and 1 in 10 reported discrimination based on their immigration status (10%) — these rates were nearly double that of the overall sample of LGBTQ youth.

Harvey Milk Day is organized by the Harvey Milk Foundation and celebrated each year on May 22. Harvey Milk was a gay rights activist during the twentieth century and assassinated in 1978. Harvey Milk, was a visionary civil and human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

The 24th of May marks Pansexual and Panromantic awareness and visibility day. These are two terms that not everyone might be conscious of so an awareness and visibility day such as this is really important.

Pansexual means to be attracted to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex.