Editor’s note: The American LGBTQ+ Museum breaks ground on a well-deserved home in New York City

New York City has always played a pivotal role in the LGBTQ+ movement. From the Stonewall riots to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and present, with a second Trump presidency creating fears of rollbacks to rights the movement has fought for. That’s why the local and state political turnout at the groundbreaking of the American LGBTQ+ Museum on Manhattan’s Upper West Side Tuesday came as no surprise. This institution, less than a decade old, will find itself a home in an expansion of the New York Historical Society. Among those who attended the groundbreaking were Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, state Attorney General Letitia James, state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assembly Members Jessica González-Rojas, Linda Rosenthal and Tony Simone, City Council Members Tiffany Cabán, Gale Brewer and Erik Bottcher and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. That’s in addition to the museum’s proud executive director Ben Garcia and beaming founding board members Mitchell Draizin and Richard Burns.

Today we celebrate courage, when you think about it, the long journey from those who stood against their communities, their friends, their family, the police, and took to the street and said, “No! We have basic human rights,” Hochul told attendees. Hoylman-Sigal walked past Draizin at the event. “Thanks for the living room,” the state senator told Draizin, in a reference to how the concept of the museum was first conceived in his home years earlier. “I think it’s the right idea at the right time with the right people in power, and I think given the election, it's actually going to generate (even more) enthusiasm,” Draizin said. “Maybe out of fear, maybe out of hope.”