October is LGBTQIA+ History Month. It’s okay if you didn’t know. USC is acting like it didn’t, either.

As a staunch advocate for and member of the queer community, I almost forgot about October’s significance. Maybe it’s because of midterms or because fall recess is coming up; or, maybe it’s because the University and the government have been silent.

Since 2010, USC Libraries have hosted the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives — the world’s largest repository of LGBTQIA+ materials — promoting scholarship and public awareness of queer history.

How can USC boast globally renowned queer archives but fail to recognize the month that encapsulates their significance? USC guards our past, yet it refuses to stand up for our community in the present.

USC’s silence is especially striking for an elite institution that touts its role in preserving queer history. Both the queer community and allies need to remember our history in order to unite as a community and not regress to a time — not long ago — when we were persecuted and silenced.

The silence at USC and in broader institutions isn’t just a “whoops” — it’s a deliberate omission that risks erasing an essential part of our campus and national culture. Queer history is inseparable from American history, and minimizing it risks rewriting the past to fit the current government’s far-right agenda.

LGBTQIA+ History Month was established in 1994 by Rodney Wilson, a Midwestern high school teacher who sought to honor the lives and rights of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Wilson chose October to fit the academic year and to align with National Coming Out Day, which is Oct. 11.

The month is distinct from Pride Month because of its focus on history and education. Although Pride Month is more widely known and celebrated, both months serve important purposes, especially at institutions like USC, where students, staff and faculty from all over comprise a diverse community.

In previous years, USC loudly supported LGBTQIA+ History Month. Last year, it adorned campus with banners displaying queer symbols and posted on Instagram in support of the month, encouraging followers to learn more through attending University-endorsed events.

This year, the University’s silence is deafening: USC has posted nothing on social media and listed only three related events on its official calendar. Did USC forget, or did they “forget?”

This isn’t the first time queer students have faced a loss of support this year. In April, the Undergraduate Student Government cut nearly a quarter of the Queer and Ally Student Assembly’s budget, proportionately the largest reduction among all programming assemblies. Budget pressures may explain the cuts, but the unbalanced targeting of queer resources echoes a concerning trend in higher education.

In February, the Trump administration issued directives forbidding federal agencies from acknowledging history months and commemorative days, including LGBTQIA+ History Month, Black History Month and Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On Oct. 1, the administration introduced its Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, with USC among nine universities asked to sign in exchange for preferential funding access. The compact pressures colleges to “recognize only two genders” and stick to “institutional neutrality,” directly undermining transgender and nonbinary students’ existence.

When I was a prospective student, a representative visited my high school and emphasized that USC stood for values of inclusivity and diversity, supporting social movements such as Black Lives Matter, Stop Asian Hate and the ongoing fight for LGBTQIA+ representation.

As a then-closeted queer person, USC’s championing of inclusive values was part of what drew me to apply and attend — and I could not be more disappointed in how much it has changed in three years. USC is not just becoming “neutral”; it is abandoning its core values to appease a reactionary regime.

“I would ask that you not overinterpret my silence, sometimes the hardest thing to do is listen, and that’s what I have been trying hard to do,” said interim President Kim during a special Academic Senate meeting Monday.

In response, the American Association of University Professors addressed a petition to Kim and other University higher-ups, urging USC to reject the compact, which has already garnered over 700 signatures from faculty and students.

“When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation,” the petition read.

We must join these brave faculty members and students in holding the University accountable. We must pressure the University administration to assert a clear, public commitment to recognizing LGBTQIA+ History Month and other crucial commemorations that uplift underrepresented groups.

I also encourage you to learn more about LGBTQIA+ history through your own research and by visiting the ONE Archives. You can also attend events hosted by the LGBTQ+ Student Center throughout October and beyond.

We have no excuse to ignore the value of underrepresented groups that enrich campuses’ cultures nationwide. Dismissing LGBTQIA+ History Month could be the beginning of a larger regression, and we can’t neglect USC’s responsibility to safeguard truth and inclusion. We cannot let one presidential administration derail decades of hard-won progress.

Disclaimer: Abigail Mann is the assistant director of the Queer and Ally Student Assembly. QuASA was not involved in the production of this article.