American LGBTQ+ Museum announces October events

The American LGBTQ+ Museum has announced a suite of public programs this October, also celebrated nationwide as LGBT History Month. 

“LGBT History Month occurs in October specifically because of the number of important historical moments in LGBTQ+ history that happened in October,” said Leti Gomez, Programming Committee Co-Chair, American LGBTQ+ Museum. 

“October is full of landmark anniversaries for the gay rights movement, including multiple marches on Washington D.C. We will focus specifically on the 1987 march this year,” said Eric Marcus, Programming Committee Co-Chair, American LGBTQ+ Museum. “National Coming Out Day, Spirit Day, the anniversary of the death of gay rights trailblazer Frank Kameny — October is an opportunity to come together and reflect on our shared past.” 

The American LGBTQ+ Museum will host three events; all members of the public are welcome:

MARCHING MAD: The 1987 March on Washington and its Impact on our Nation, 
a 35th Anniversary Panel
October 11, 2022, at 6:30PM
In 1987 — as rightwing politicians attacked LGBTQ+ people and the AIDS epidemic raged — more than half-a-million queer people and their allies gathered in Washington, D.C. to demand their full civil rights and immediate action to address the AIDS crisis. Around the United States, LGBTQ+ people gathered in local communities to plan for the march, building organizations that drove the movement in the years ahead. The 1987 March on Washington was a landmark, galvanizing event in the history of LGBTQ+ civil rights. On October 11th, a panel of movement activists, including moderator Ann Northrop, will discuss the march, their roles in organizing it, and its impact. The program will include an optional screening of Joan E. Biren’s 1990 documentary, “For Love and for Life: The 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights,” which participants may watch at any time during the month of October. To register for this virtual event, and for details on streaming the march documentary, click here.

THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS: Reckoning and Reclaiming
October 14, 2022, at 6:00PM
In partnership with the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and more than 300 years after the Salem witch trials, the Museum implores us to reflect upon and reckon with the personal tragedies and grievous wrongs that occurred in Puritan New England. Building upon PEM’s recent exhibition of the same name, which explored the factors that fueled the storied crisis, this panel seeks to facilitate a conversation that actively dismantles the contemporary view of witchcraft and returns the queer perspective to narratives of paganism, religious persecution, and magic. 

The panel will feature Marcelitte Failla, a Black and biracial educator, researcher, and scholar of African heritage religions in the United States and throughout the African diaspora; Christopher Penczak, modern Witch and co-founder of the Temple of Witchcraft tradition and community; and Raquel Salas Rivera, a Puerto Rican poet, translator, editor, and founding member of the Yerbamala Collective. After the panel attendees are invited to tour the exhibition and experience a performance created by Catherine Cabeen, modern dancer and choreographer, and a reading from Raquel Salas Rivera. Click here for more information on the exhibit (event registration link to come).

20TH ANNIVERSARY OF “THE COCKETTES” DOCUMENTARY
October 16, 2022, at 6:30PM
In partnership with NewFest, the LGBTQ film festival, the Museum will host a screening and panel discussion of the documentary described by Daily Variety as capturing “the anarchic, freewheeling spirit of San Francisco in the late ’60s-early ’70’s better than any film I’ve ever seen.”  “The Cockettes,” directed by David Weissman and Bill Weber — both who will participate in the post-screening Q&A moderated by award-winning filmmaker Stephen Winter — focuses on the performance group of the same name. To register and for more information, visit NewFest: newfrest.org/events/thecockettes. 

About the American LGBTQ+ Museum 

The American LGBTQ+ Museum is a new collaboration dedicated to preserving, researching, and sharing LGBTQ+ history and culture. While other great institutions and organizations exist to investigate, preserve, and tell our histories, we believe a national LGBTQ+ museum is overdue. We envision a world in which all people work toward and experience the joy of liberation.