SF announces new site for nation's 1st LGBTQ history museum
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Marchers at the seventh annual Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco on June 25, 1978. Photo: Prentice Brooks/MediaNews Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images
The nation's first LGBTQ history museum has set its sights on a new home.
Why it matters: The move is part of a $17.5 million project aimed at helping the GLBT Historical Society Museum and Archives — sometimes referred to as the "queer Smithsonian" — build on its collection at a permanent location.
Driving the news: Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman will introduce legislation next Tuesday that would allow the city to purchase 2280 Market St. with the goal of helping the museum become a full-scale research center.
- The new site, located next to the newly renovated Fisch & Flore restaurant, features a two-story building with 22,330 square feet of space.
- The museum plans to explore a timeline for moving into the ground floor as tenant leases expire over the next few years. Its current location at 4127 18th St. is one level.
Follow the money: Breed allocated $12.5 million in 2021 to acquire a site for the museum. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) helped secure an additional $5.5 million in state funding in 2022.
What they're saying: "This investment is more than the purchase of a building; it is about creating a home to share the lessons of LGBTQ and allied history," Roberto Ordeñana, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, said in a news release Thursday.
- "The Castro is the heart of LGBTQ culture in this city and this country, and it is the perfect place for a museum that ... elevates our LGBTQ community and celebrates those who paved the way for us to have the freedoms we enjoy today," Breed added.
Context: The historical society was founded in 1985 and operates the Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives and Research Center in addition to the museum.
- Over 60 people — including members of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project and the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Periodical Archives — banded together to promote understanding of Bay Area queer history.
- Its first years of materials included records from the first LGBTQ American Indian liberation organization, pioneering trans historian Louis Sullivan, Daughters of Bilitis and photographer Crawford Wayne Barton.
- The society opened its museum to the public in 2011 and later helped preserve the history of San Francisco's AIDS direct-action groups and rolled out an online archive of the LGBTQ newspaper Bay Area Reporter.
What's next: Breed, Mandelman, Wiener and other city officials will join leaders from the GLBT Historical Society at 10am Friday for a community celebration to mark the milestone.