World’s first Chinese LGBTQ museum spotlights overlooked community

On one side of the world, activist and artist Xiangqi Chen could be punished for her LGBTQ activism. But on the other, she is lauded as a trailblazer – the architect behind the first-of-its-kind Chinese queer art museum. The irony that she left her home in China and found a public platform for her LGBTQ artistic expression in San Francisco’s Chinatown – the United States’ oldest – is not lost on her. “Here in San Francisco Chinatown, I continued my journey and met so many like-minded community members and friends,” Chen says through an interpreter. “It kind of actually encouraged me and gave me lots of strength to do what I know is my mission, my calling.” The Out Museum opened with a rainbow-ribbon cutting at the end of May 2026 – between Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Pride Month. Situated across from the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum, the bilingual museum spotlights a demographic that has long felt invisible. It seems like an ideal fit in the progressive city at a time when some US cities, states and the federal government are restricting or abolishing certain LGBTQ rights. For now, the museum is only open on Saturdays and comprises one room with fewer than a dozen artworks by artists from China and the Chinese diaspora. But there is hope to expand the museum’s exhibits and days of operation. A platform for Chinese artists to tell their stories Six years ago, while still living in China, Chen launched a Kickstarter for a proposed museum, and more than 2,000 people donated on the platform. But she knew it probably would not be built there. In 2022, she went to the US as a visiting scholar at Georgetown University in Washington. In 2024, she gained attention in San Francisco for her role in an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum. That led to a residency with the Chinese Culture Centre of San Francisco. The organisation was “proud to be the incubating space for the Out Museum prototype”, executive director Jenny Leung said in an email. The level of support that followed amazed Chen. “I got so many chances to connect with the local Asian-American queer community and even the Chinatown community in general,” she says. Interest soon followed from long-time collaborators and younger artists who reached out via Instagram. They are represented in the inaugural exhibition, which includes photography, zines and an interactive installation in which visitors use thread to trace their journey of self-discovery. For Hong Kong-born artist Dixon Ngai, the museum offers a platform to tell his story as mainstream media typically overlooks the Chinese LGBTQ community, he says. He contributed a hand-painted, Chinese porcelain wine pot inspired by the Cantonese opera Di Nu Hua, or “The Flower Princess”. Ngai says the Out Museum is very specific to the experience of the Chinese queer community, allowing “more people to hear our voice”. Support from the Chinese-immigrant community Since the museum’s opening, Chen has been “100 per cent moved” by unexpected feedback from one particular demographic: Chinese immigrants, both queer and straight, who have lived in California for decades. A 60-year-old transgender man who visited shared how he immigrated to the US in the 1970s for crucial gender-affirming care. There was also a mother looking to connect with her gay adult son. “She later emailed me saying that she’s so grateful for all the events the art museum has organised,” Chen says. “Her son came out to her, and she’s very proud of her son, and she wants to express gratitude.” These reactions are proof that the museum is elevating the visibility of Chinese, Chinese-American and Asian-American LGBTQ people, says author and activist Helen Zia, a museum advisory board member. It also shows how attitudes have shifted, she says, as it would have been difficult to mount even 20 years ago. “There were Asian churches who would have demonstrations week after week with thousands of people just condemning same-sex couples,” Zia says, recalling the response from the Chinese community in 2008 when she handed out pro-gay marriage fliers in Oakland’s Chinatown. “We got people yelling at us, spitting.” Later that year, Zia and her wife were among many couples who wed after the California Supreme Court rejected a same-sex marriage ban. Even today, she says the museum’s presence sends a needed message. “See our humanity,” Zia says. “Here’s the beautiful art that we create and imagine and contribute to the world.” How is LGBTQ life in mainland China versus the US? Being homosexual in China means living under the radar and facing discriminatory policies. The Chinese Psychiatric Association might have stopped listing homosexuality as a mental disorder in 2001, but LGBTQ couples still cannot marry or adopt children. They are also limited in their right to advocate publicly. When Chen lived in Shanghai, she ran a grass-roots centre for lesbians. One of the reasons she left was because, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government started cracking down on spaces for LGBTQ activism. She probably could not even put on an art show, let alone a museum. “From 2013 to 2015, that kind of art exhibition by queer artists [could] exist, but only if you didn’t explicitly show or tell the audience that your work or yourself identify as queer or LGBTQ,” Chen says. “But not nowadays.” That Shanghai centre is where Zia met Chen a decade ago. Zia was doing research for a book and toured the centre. “She’s been just incredibly brave in China, creating a centre that attracted a lot of state attention,” Zia says. A key difference Chen has noticed among American-born Chinese LGBTQ people versus those in China is that they are more educated about gender and sexual identity and have more access to support. The Chinese artists say the social landscape in the US is a breath of fresh air. “Here in San Francisco, in California, we enjoy the air of freedom, there are equal human rights, there is security,” Ngai says. “So, we are very proud to be ourselves.”

World’s first Chinese LGBTQ museum spotlights overlooked community

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Out Museum in San Francisco’s Chinatown gives artists from China and the Chinese diaspora a platform to tell their stories

Out Museum in San Francisco’s Chinatown gives artists from China and the Chinese diaspora a platform to tell their stories