UK's First Gay Museum Planned for London

In late 2011, Jack Gilbert executive director of Proud Heritage, hopes to open Proud Nation, the UK's first museum devoted to gay history. Located in London's King's Cross area, it will include longterm loans of artifacts ranging from 3,000 year old papyri to the door of Oscar Wilde's jail cell to the Gay Love jumpsuit Alan Wakeman wore in the gay pride march of 1972. A cross section map of Apethorpe Hall will show visitors the secret passage James I [pictured] used to get to the Duke of Buckingham's bedroom and a secret, multi-layered map from the 1950s identifies gay hookup sites when homosexuality was illegal. Gay activist superstar Peter Tatchell has promised to donate material that will illuminate William III's sexual orientation. Other items will tell the story of the Ladies of Llangollen, the lesbian icons of the 1770's. Gilbert is quoted in an article in this morning's Independent:

"It's an invisible history which couldn't be told because it couldn't be researched, but that has changed now," he says. "It will be serious on one level, because we believe that, to have full equality our history, our culture and the full diversity of our lived experience has to be to be recorded and represented. But it will be fun, too."

The idea arose during the 2004 mayoral elections, when Darren Johnson, the Green Party candidate, suggested a gay museum. The Lottery Fund is supporting the plan, but not everyone in the UK's Museum Association approves of the idea. One questionnaire to the curating community was returned anonymously with the comment: "This isn't what I pay my MA subscription for – the association is to support the museum profession, not to promote filthy perversions among the young and impressionable."