West Hollywood to House Gay History Museum

by Michael Jones · 2008-10-14 09:53:00 UTC
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gay history museumYou might have seen many a newspaper headline these past few years, dealing with the subject of same-sex marriage. But would you expect to see a newspaper headline blaring "Homosexual Marriage!" from the 1950s?

Well, now you can. West Hollywood is the new home of a museum - one of the first in Southern California, and one of just a very few in the entire country - dedicated to the history of all things gay.  The ONE Archives Gallery and Museum will open with an exhibit covering the history of the Christopher Street West parade, the gay pride celebration that makes its way down Santa Monica Boulevard each year.  But the museum will have an impact much broader than the history of gay rights in Southern Cali.

Robert Nuñez, a board member of ONE, views the museum as "an espresso shot of the gay community's history. Gay pride has come to mean parades and carnivals. This is a different approach."  Indeed, the museum will open up the archives of ONE magazine, the first gay publication in the United States.  In the 1950s, ONE Magazine had to battle the post office just to be mailed to subscribers, because the government questioned whether it was pornographic to cover LGBT news and events.  Today, ONE Magazine is the foundation that LGBT magazines like the Advocate, Instinct, Out, Curve and more stand upon.

As West Hollywood's mayor, Jeffrey Prang, put it:

"ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives have cultivated the unique legacy of leadership within our LGBT community and I am extremely proud to welcome this new addition to our City.  The ONE Archives Gallery and Museum will continue to illuminate the voices of LGBT trailblazers for posterity and give witness to one of our community's greatest strengths: our diversity."

For more information on the ONE Archives, click here.  As Victor Hugo once said, history is the echo of the past on the future.  How relevant this museum is today, given the ongoing battle for equality in California and beyond.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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