Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.

First gay museum in the U.S. opens in San Francisco

by Sean McLachlan (RSS feed) on Jan 14th 2011 at 8:30AM

Less than a month after President Obama repealed the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, the U.S. has gotten its first gay museum. The GLBT History Museum is located in the Castro District of San Francisco. Run by the GLBT Historical Society, it features 1,600 sq. ft. of exhibition and activity space.

Yesterday was its grand opening and visitors got to see two exhibitions: Our Vast Queer Past: Celebrating GLBT History and Great Collections of the GLBT Historical Society Archives.

The GLBT Historical Society has some history of its own. It was founded in 1985 and has one of the largest archives of its kind. Currently there is only one other gay museum in the world. The Schwules Museum in Berlin is the first museum dedicated exclusively to GLBT history. It had its first exhibition in the Berlin Museum in 1984 and moved to its own space in 1985.

[Photo courtesy GLBT Historical Society]

Filed under: Activism, Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Europe, North America, Germany, United States, News

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

sue22 Jan 14th 2011 10:29AM

Great story. FYI - http://OutMilitary.com is a new social network for gay and lesbian service members and their supporters.

patrick Jan 14th 2011 9:53AM

"Exhibition and Activity space"? Hmmmm... Sounds like a punch line for Jay Leno.

Zach Jan 14th 2011 9:53AM

Aren't all museums kind of a little gay.

Jason Jan 14th 2011 3:43PM

This place has been open for years: http://www.liberace.org/

Luke Bryant Jan 14th 2011 4:55PM

The news about establishing this Museum is very good because the Castro is so well known worldwide, that includes Australia, from where I have traveled to San Francisco several times to stay with friends in the Castro and explore your most wonderful City. G/L History is extremely important and must be preserved for future generations to understand the serious problems still facing the G/L Community. Remember, if future generations cannot learn from history, then history - bad history – may be repeated. Build this Museum into one of world standing by adding suitable all suitable,

Luke Bryant Jan 15th 2011 4:10AM

PS. Here in Australia, G/L persons are welcome in all Police Forces and Military Services. Much information relating to this can be found in the "Sets" of my URL at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlukebryant/
In my State, Victoria, the G/L Community does have a group that collects G/L information, but as yet we have no Museum!

Add your comments

Your comments:

Remember me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.