Gets Real: Seattle Pride is now putting LGBTQ+ history on full display in museum exhibit

SEATTLE — Throughout Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) reminders hang, big and small, of the city’s profound gay history.

“The LGBTQ+ community has been the victim of harassment and of legal discrimination, and of opposition on every conceivable front. And so we’ve sometimes hidden that history out of fear that in showing it we’d be jeopardizing our safety,” says MOHAI’s Executive Director, Leonard Garfield. “Here’s a chance to look back and say, that history that I saved, the courage I have saved, and that I can now share that. And I can share it in a prideful way.”

Garfield, along with colleague, Devorah Romanek and Seattle Pride are now putting that history on full display. Their efforts are seen inside the museum, as well as online. With a digital exhibit called ‘Objects of Pride’.

Objects of Pride is a digital curation, showcasing snapshots of LGBTQ+ history.

“There are histories that have been across time rendered invisible. And this community is one community where it’s not just that it’s been overlooked, but there’s really often been an active effort to render that history invisible in this community invisible,” says Romanek.

Which is why the museum is working tirelessly to give the community a visual platform. Preserving the exhibit on their website so anyone, anywhere, has access to the pieces of history.

And in the spirit of pride, the exhibit offers a special, added feature: inclusion. An online submission form, calls for members of the public to add their pieces of history to the collection.

“We’re asking people to tell us about the objects and artifacts, the images, the history, that means something to them that shaped their lives, and then share it with us so that we in turn, can share with the broader community. That’s the best way to discover history is really to turn to the community and say, tell us your story,” says Garfield.

A story that can come in many forms.

“It might be an outfit that we saved, it might be a sign that we carried it a protest, it might simply be the coaster, from a bar that we met our friends at. Those are all the kinds of objects that sometimes get forgotten, but especially in the age before there was digital photography everywhere. That’s how we save and share their stories,” says Garfield. “If a neighbor, a friend, a family member, a loved one has played a role in this history, even at the most intimate level, please share that with MOHAI.”

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