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Proud Heritage, the online LGBT history museum is launched

Our history goes live

Thursday, 24 April 2008

We’ve all been there – memories of the night before, the week we’ve just had, the month we loved or the decade time forgot becoming a little hazy. Our histories blurred round the edges as we try to remember when, where and why. For the LGBT community history is an important thing, bringing as it does visibility and recognition. So much of our history is secret untold as those before us kept quite about the lives they lead due to fear of prosecution, legal or personal.

Proud Heritage aim to change all that as they become the first national online LGBT museum. And they’ve made a good start, going live this month they are now seriously open for business. Jack Gilbert, executive director of Proud Heritage is one proud man. A feeling he shared with Real City Network. “For me this is more than just a staging post to creating a physical presence, which our clear goal. Proud Heritage is seeking to reformulate how a museum can be in the 21st Century. The launch of the online museum is the first public step in what has already been a three-year journey to create a national museum reflecting British lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans history and cultural ancestry in all its rich diversity."

"It’s cutting edge, and not just for being queer! The internet creates new ways to collect, share and exhibit our own life experiences, local history and collective memory. Together. It will help develop professional and community networks, disseminate ideas and good practices, and help build regional collections. But most of all it makes collecting, interpreting and exhibiting a shared, interactive experience combining documents, objects and user generated content, including images and video."

A view shared by those in the museums business with Nick Poole, Director of the Collections Trust, which is responsible for setting the standards in British museums, commenting on the launch, "Proud Heritage is not only an important step forward for the UK's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. It is also leading the way in showing the cultural heritage sector how we can work more openly with all communities.” Sharon Ament, Director of Public Engagement at The Natural History Museum, is another museum lover deeply impressed saying of the launch saying, "The Natural History Museum really values diversity, both natural diversity and cultural diversity. We are supportive of initiatives such as Proud Heritage and recognise the value that gay and lesbian people make to culture and scientific endeavour, this contribution merits wider recognition and deeper exploration."

With an emphasis on our history, (we’re the ones who make it after all) and the chance for all in the LGBT community to contribute to Proud Heritage this is one museum that is seriously alive. We suggested you take a trip down Proud Heritage's memory lane soon.

www.proudheritage.org