Exhibitions

Illegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall

June 21, 2019 – July 6, 2021

National Museum of American History
1300 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC

2nd Floor, Center

See on Map Floor Plan

In June 1969, LGBTQ+ community members resisted a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a bar in lower Manhattan. This event and others from that time were pivotal to the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. The museum marks this 50th anniversary with a display featuring objects from its collections that put the history of that memorable event within a larger and longer experience of being gay.