Curated by WPHL deputy director Julio Capó, Jr. (author of the award-winning book Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940), Queer Miami: A History of LGBTQCommunities was the featured exhibition at HistoryMiami Museum from March 26, 2019 to September 1, 2019. The 5,000-square-foot exhibition chronicled Miami’s queer past from the 1890s to the present, reflecting on multiple forms of gender and sexual expressions through Greater Miami’s history. In locating Miami’s status as a city of the Americas, it was especially attentive to questions of segregation, racial violence, incarceration, public health, and immigration.
Moments of defiance, resistance, and triumph are emphasized, highlighting stories of community and identity formation, coalition building, and civil rights. The exhibition also encouraged museum visitors to share their personal stories in an effort to acknowledge the diversity of the LGBTQ communities over time.
Through artifacts, photographs, archival footage, and more, the exhibition displays the stories of Miami’s diverse queer communities who, despite discrimination, isolation, and violence, carved out spaces for themselves in southern Florida.
About the HistoryMiami Museum
HistoryMiami Museum is the area’s preeminent history museum, telling the story of Miami’s people and the events that have made those people who they are. The exhibition was the first of its kind for the museum, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.