There are few places in the world with queer history stitched into its tapestry quite like New York City, from the Stonewall riots and ensuing queer liberation movement to the first Pride parades; the birth of ball culture to the formation of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP—organizations that became a blueprint for HIV/AIDS activism across the country and around the world.
It only seems natural, then, that New York will be home to the American LGBTQ+ Museum—the first of its kind in the United States, dedicated solely to preserving and celebrating the rich and complex history of American LGBTQ+ life—opening in the spring of 2028.
“In part, New York made sense because of its particular role in LGBTQ+ history and the global impact it has had,” Ben Garcia, who has served as director of the museum since 2022, tells me over a mid-May Zoom call. “But also when the team was conducting market research, we found that the city has the largest number of both LGBTQ+ households and tourists in the country. We wanted to make sure, when starting a cultural institution like this, that we were situated in a prominent position for the community.”
The idea for the institution was formed in early 2017, when the founding council—a collective of community pioneers including Richard Burns, Kevin Jennings, and the late Urvashi Vaid—“started conversations about what this museum could be,” Garcia says. They would soon bring in other organizations and leaders to further inform the vision for and scope of the museum’s future programming—and invite the likes of Michael Kors and his husband, Lance Le Pere; Imara Jones; Erik Stegman; and Leti Gomez to serve as trustees. “It was important that our team represent the breadth of queer identity, intersectionality, and community here within the United States,” Garcia tells me.
On the roof of The New York Historical, during a hard-hat tour of the new Tang Wing for American Democracy
Photo: Leandro Justen
The museum has found a partner in The New York Historical on the Upper West Side, the oldest museum in the city. “Finding a partner that has a long and trusted history as a cultural entity really supported the belief in this project,” says Garcia. “But also to have American LGBTQ+ history situated within one of the nation’s longest-standing museums holds an enormous amount of symbolic value.” The American LGBTQ+ Museum will occupy the top floor of The New York Historical’s new Tang Wing for American Democracy, a 71,000-square-foot addition to its Classical Revival building on Central Park West. “All visitors will come through a single entrance where they can buy one ticket to access both museums,” Garcia explains.
The new museum will include a core exhibition space that considers American history through a queer lens. “We will start off with Indigenous American communities who were the first people that lived on these lands, exploring what same-sex relationships and gender fluidity looked like during those times,” Garcia explains, “then moving into early colonial life, as well as the start of the American Revolution and how queer people were a part of it all.” Following that, the space will explore how the 19th-century urbanization boom, driven by the Industrial Revolution, helped LGBTQ+ people find one another across the country.
