500 signatures reached
To: Mayor of London
Create a Queer Museum and LGBTQI+ Centre in London
We call upon the Mayor of London to support us in the creation of a museum for queer history and an LGBTQI+ community centre.
After decades of political struggle queer history remains locked in the closet. LGBTQI+ people have centuries of history and heritage they could look back on, but queer history is not taught in schools or displayed in a central museum. Many places in London are prominent sites of queer history - places where queer people met and danced and organized and protested and kissed and cottaged - yet it is possible to walk through London and not be aware of how many streets contain queer stories. Activist groups break-up. Clubs close. Our history is easily lost.
We demand a permanent community space where LGBTQI+ history and culture can take root and be accessible to all. As a world destination and home to queer history and culture, London deserves one.
Where?
Our preferred location would be the former Magistrate's Court on Bow St, WC 2, a space with a complex queer history of oppression and defiance. We are open to other locations: the most important thing is that queer history has a permanent home in London.
After decades of political struggle queer history remains locked in the closet. LGBTQI+ people have centuries of history and heritage they could look back on, but queer history is not taught in schools or displayed in a central museum. Many places in London are prominent sites of queer history - places where queer people met and danced and organized and protested and kissed and cottaged - yet it is possible to walk through London and not be aware of how many streets contain queer stories. Activist groups break-up. Clubs close. Our history is easily lost.
We demand a permanent community space where LGBTQI+ history and culture can take root and be accessible to all. As a world destination and home to queer history and culture, London deserves one.
Where?
Our preferred location would be the former Magistrate's Court on Bow St, WC 2, a space with a complex queer history of oppression and defiance. We are open to other locations: the most important thing is that queer history has a permanent home in London.
Why is this important?
1) 2017 is the 50th Anniversary of the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which partly decriminalised sexual acts between two men in private and aged over 21.
2) As a cultural centre, the queer museum would be a vital space in which to counteract the effects of homophobia, transphobia, racism and religious intolerance, especially important with the rise of right leaning political parties throughout Europe and America and attacks upon the LGBTQI+ community.
3) Some of the demands of the Gay Liberation Front from the 1970s have yet to be met, including the demand that ‘sex education in schools stop being exclusively heterosexual.’ Schools must provide sex and gender education that addresses the needs of LGBTQI+ students, queer histories must find a permanent home, and the LGBTQI+ community must have a place to organize: anything less is a betrayal to the courage of the pioneering queer activists of the 1960s and beyond.
2) As a cultural centre, the queer museum would be a vital space in which to counteract the effects of homophobia, transphobia, racism and religious intolerance, especially important with the rise of right leaning political parties throughout Europe and America and attacks upon the LGBTQI+ community.
3) Some of the demands of the Gay Liberation Front from the 1970s have yet to be met, including the demand that ‘sex education in schools stop being exclusively heterosexual.’ Schools must provide sex and gender education that addresses the needs of LGBTQI+ students, queer histories must find a permanent home, and the LGBTQI+ community must have a place to organize: anything less is a betrayal to the courage of the pioneering queer activists of the 1960s and beyond.
