The long-awaited American LGBTQ+ Museum is one step closer to completion after holding a second groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 3 in the New York Historical’s auditorium.
Representatives from both museums delivered remarks during the ceremony, including American LGBTQ+ Museum executive director Ben Garcia and board chair Richard Burns as well New York Historical president and CEO Louise Mirrer and board chair Agnes Hsu-Tang.
The speeches culminated in the donation of a brick artifact from the original Stonewall Inn facade.
“Our intention is to plant that brick in the walls of this new museum as a connection to the spirit of Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and the countless others who stood up for LGBTQ rights,” Garcia said before the event started. The brick was donated by Stonewall’s current owners, Kurt Kelly and Stacy Lentz.
The event came three years after the American LGBTQ+ Museum originally broke ground in September of 2021 in a star-studded ceremony featuring tennis legend Billie Jean King, Broadway star André De Shields, and others who gathered to celebrate a new, forthcoming museum dedicated to chronicling LGBTQ life.
This time around, the gathering celebrated the official beginning of construction on the museum, which will be housed within New York Historical.
After the crowd filed from the atrium into the auditorium, journalist and trans activist Raquel Willis kicked off the program with a mantra for everyone to repeat:
“I am worthy/ My history is rich/ My culture is mine/ My future is boundless.”
Willis’ words set the tone for a program that was as focused on claiming space as it was recognizing the leaders and activists who led the way. More than anything, Willis emphasized being radically defiant about one’s identity in today’s political landscape.
American LGBTQ+ Museum board chair Richard Burns harkened back to his time as a young gay activist to explain the importance of this first-of-its-kind museum coming to fruition, eight years after it was first conceptualized by some of the staff members and trustees in attendance.
“This museum must be the cultural arm of our movement for queer liberation,” Burns said.
Burns also focused on the support that the new museum has received from public servants, including Mayor Eric Adams, State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and Gov. Kathy Hochul — recognition which has allowed New York City to achieve this milestone sooner than other American cities.
Garcia echoed this sentiment when he took the podium, explaining that it would be much more difficult to open this type of museum in his home state of Ohio. He said he was grateful for the opportunity that New York City has brought him and his family in appointing him to lead the museum.
Attendees included Hochul, Adams, Hoylman-Sigal, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, New York State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, and Brooklyn Councilmember Crystal Hudson, among others.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the nation’s first out gay cabinet member to be confirmed by the Senate, delivered remarks in a pre-recorded message:
“As we celebrate today’s groundbreaking, we have a chance to reflect on the progress we have made and all the work that is still to come,” Buttigieg said. “It is important for me as a public servant to do right by our community’s legacy and to make it easier for the next person who comes along so we aren’t just focused on celebrating firsts, but also ensuring that others, seconds, and thirds, and on and on, follow in our place.”
The American LGBTQ+ Museum, set to open in 2027, will be situated on the fourth floor of the New York Historical’s new Tang Wing for Democracy, a 70,000-square-foot expansion coming to New York’s first and oldest museum. Blueprints for the forthcoming museum call for 5,000 gross square feet of gallery space located on the top floor. Exhibits will be a mix of fixed and temporary installations covering topics from New York City and beyond through objects and artifacts that tell the story of the fight for freedom and equality in American LGBTQ+ communities.
“We’re so happy that we get to have our home here at the New York Historical Society, New York’s first museum,” Garcia said before the ceremony. “Situating us at the heart of American history shows us the importance of queer history as part of that story.”
The American LGBTQ+ Museum, according to its website, “preserves, investigates, and celebrates” stories of the LGBTQ+ community and other emergent identities. With only a handful of staffers and a team of 30 trustees, the as-yet unbuilt museum is already hosting educational events and programs online and across the country.
