GLBT History Museum Fosters Ongoing Cultural Exchange

Jan 2, 2012

The international visibility of The GLBT History Museum has led to a growing number of requests for information about the museum’s approach to queer public history and a strengthening of its contacts with sister institutions outside the United States. During 2011, the museum welcomed representatives from the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives  and the Australian Gay and Lesbian Archives. In addition, the organizers of the Institut Arc-en-Ciel (Rainbow Institute), a new LGBT archives initiative in Paris, have called on the museum and the GLBT Historical Society for technical assistance in preparing their project proposal.

The GLBT History Museum wrapped up the year with further international recognition: an invitation to present in Berlin at the annual conference of Maneo, the German national organization that advocates an end to anti-LGBT violence. On Dec. 1, Gerard Koskovich, a founding member of the GLBT Historical Society and one of the curators of “Our Vast Queer Past,” discussed the ways that the museum’s public history work promotes social respect and equality for LGBT people. Another longtime museum supporter, former San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty, also highlighted the museum in his talk at the conference.

Koskovich’s presentation made the following point: “The international response to The GLBT History Museum has reinforced my observation that as members of LGBT communities, we can either seize the opportunity offered by this emerging interest in our past as a means of advancing our demands for a position of dignity in neighborhoods, cities, countries and cultures — or we can ignore it at our peril. We can either create and disseminate our own historiographies — or see our history debased or erased by those who oppose us. An awareness of these alternatives is a driving force for all of us who have worked to create The GLBT History Museum in San Francisco.”

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