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04/23/2009
Heather has two mommies, one reliable Fort Lauderdale home
It's a good day for the archivally-minded gays of Fort Lauderdale, FL:
The Stonewall Library and Archives, a collection of gay-themed materials that was the subject of political controversy two years ago, celebrates its grand opening in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday.
Gay-themed library celebrates opening in Fort Lauderdale [Miami Herald]
Here's hoping this stone wall can resist the bricks that its opponents will surely sh*t.
Your thoughts
My BF is on the Board of SLA so I am a bit biased, but, we should indeed be celebrating that this place exists.
Not only is it a lending library where you can get a copy of almost anything gay-related that you may or may not be able to find at your local public library, perhaps even more valuable is the service that SLA is doing for the LGBT Community to catalog our history.
The archives at the SLA is where literally tons of early gay periodicals from around the country are being indexed and archived for history, along with other memorabilia like pride stuff, buttons, photos, etc., to preserve the history of the LGBT Community and our movement through time. Even some of the early gay erotica or just about anything else that helps tell the story of gay history is being preserved there for us so it is not lost. It is a truly amazing place.
And to be housed in a public building, too, is no small feat! It's in an old branch public library that has been leased by the City to the SLA, with the approval of both the City Commission and the County Commission as well. (The hearings before the City Commission was where the former Mayor Naugle objected to leasing the building to the SLA based upon the erotica being cataloged in the archives amounted to smut that was inappropriate to be housed in a City-owned building, even though the archives is not part of the lending library and not open to the general public.) And yes, as part of the build-out of the facility, they put in a real "stone wall" in front.
Posted by: JWSwift | Apr 23, 2009 5:25:34 PM
"but, we should indeed be celebrating that this place exists."
Huh? What gave you the idea that we're *not* celebrating it?
Posted by: G-A-Y | Apr 23, 2009 5:32:35 PM
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