Act up versus straighten up: Public policy and queer community-based activism

This chapter examines issues of historic preservation, public health, and anti-discrimination politics to illustrate how tensions, complementarities, and even cooperation between portions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities, academic researchers, and professionals have advanced the integration of LGBTQ concerns into state policies and practices. Academic researchers and queer preservation professionals played a critical role in bridging the worlds of grassroots community activism, non-profit advocacy groups, and public agencies charged with responsibility for the protection of the nation's cultural heritage. In San Francisco, a grassroots coalition known as Friends of 1800 that formed to preserve a historic building which served as a gay cultural and community center soon widened its mission to include a survey of places significant to LGBTQ heritage in the city. Community-based groups blazed the path for queer preservation in an era before public agencies recognized LGBTQ issues as an acceptable element in the state's cultural heritage agenda.