CULTURE: San Francisco Opens Country's First Gay Museum!

What holds sex toys, manuscripts, and Harvey Milk’s pink sunglasses? America’s first gay museum, opening today in San Francisco. The GLBT History Museum is only the second of its kind in the world; the other is in Germany, reports the Chronicle. The city should have had such a museum “long before this, given that it's known as a mecca for LGBT people,” says the program manager of a gay and lesbian center.

The GLBT Historical Society has wanted to open a museum for a decade; the trouble was finding a space that fit the society's $500,000-a-year budget. Organizers finally found a 1,600-square-foot empty storefront in the Castro district, which has been called “one of the great ground zeroes of queer liberation.” Donors and volunteers are helping run the museum, which opens with two exhibits and hundreds of articles.