NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Tuesday in celebration of the American LGBTQ+ Museum, which will open on Manhattan’s Upper West Side upon completion in 2027.
“By looking at history, we can learn something about our present and our future,” museum board chair Richard Burns said.
The museum will open as an expansion of the New-York Historical Society’s Central Park West campus with a goal of sharing LGBTQ+ history with younger generations and provide educational programming.
“It will be a home for queer people and for all people whose liberation has not yet been realized here in the U.S. or around the world,” executive director Ben Garcia said.
New York City is home to Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ movement, making it a prime location for the national museum of queer history. June 28, 1969, marks the beginning of the Stonewall Uprising, a series of demonstrations and riots between the NYPD abd LGBTQ+ protesters against a police raid that took place early that morning.
“New York has been so progressive and so liberal and always leading that fight for LGBTQ+ equality,” co-owner of the Stonewall Inn Stacy Lentz. Among the first artifacts dedicated to the museum was brick from the Stonewall Inn façade.
But Lentz also highlighted the lesser-known history that the museum will showcase, providing space to honor queer history from across the entire nation.
“There’s so many things all across the country, a rich tapestry of storytelling of LGBTQ+ history, and I think it’ll be really cool for folks to come here and learn about all of it,” she said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul attended the ceremony, reminding an audience that it is important to remember those who fought to create LGBTQ+ history.
“Those who struggled, those who are the outliers, those were who not embraced by society and yet stood up anyhow, I honor all them,” she said.
Also in attendance was Mayor Eric Adams, who after the event said on social media that “LGBTQ+ history is New York history.”
“Our administration is proud to support this project in honor of our own history as the City of Stonewall and all the LGBTQ+ New Yorkers who have called our city home,” Adams concluded.
The expansion of the New-York Historical Society for the new museum will include 70,000 square feet of space, classrooms, galleries and a storage facility for the Patricia D. Kingenstein Library.