Queer Britain — Attraction in London

I've been a few times and wanted to like it so bad as we need a proper museum of queer history. I even donated early on. But this is not what we need. It's a gallery which has very little actual history and presents a very sanitised, middle class perspective on the community to please donors and cishets. I'm sure it's great if you're into art and champagne but there are far better ways to learn about our history. For example from the Bishopsgate Institute and the Hall Carpenter archives. What it should have been is something like the Vagina Museum which is grassroots, down to earth and teaches you so much in such a small space. You learn barely anything in Queer Britain which is an embarrassment given how much rent in that place must be. Take a look at the huge contrast between this space and the people behind it and places like the LGBT Community Centre, GTW, Bishopsgate, Museum of Transology, Common Press and so on. Queer Britain should hand its funding and management from its art aficionados over to actual community groups who could do so...

This is an amazing intimate gallery celebrating LGBTQIA+, and this kind of representation of community is a long time coming, especially in recent struggles.

The space itself is easy to navigate. Staff are engaging and want feedback. The range is quite vast and covers a lot from histoic articles, pamphlets to costumes, and Oscar wilde cell door.

I think it is great for everyone to really showcase our history and struggles like you would visit any musuem dealing with oppression. The positivity wall where you can add you comments is nice touch and access to lgbtq books is a bit overlooked but I think HUGELY important especially for people who may not of properly come out or is more recently out.

I think also a great place for said people/families to visit and learn about thier heritage. As a deprived child of such knowledge our older generation can learn more nowadays and this is important contribution to our journeys!

Only tip bit tricky to find as googlemaps hates the coal yards! So peseevere!

I'd love to work here...

It was an amazing visit. The museum is quite small and free to enter; it only took me about an hour to go through the four exhibition rooms (if I remember correctly😅). I learned quite a few things about queer history that I hadn't previously known about—what particularly captured my interest was the repeal of Section 28 and a queer Muslim movement called Imaan.

I was in luck because there was also a temporary exhibition on East Asian and Southeast Asian queers, where they shared their lived experiences through zines and other interesting mixed-media crafts. I remembered a zine mentioning how some homophobic laws in Asian countries originated from the colonial era, and another one about the fetishization of Asian men in the gay dating scene. I also enjoyed some of the books displayed, which I would love to...