Exploring the breadth of the Asian LGBT experience

Founded in 1980, the mission of The History Project is to document and preserve Boston’s LGBT history, and to share that information with the public. Our work includes Public Faces/Private Lives, a groundbreaking exhibit on pre-Stonewall LGBT history, which became the book Improper Bostonians, widely regarded as the most thoroughly researched and comprehensive work of local gay history ever published in the United States.

The History Project has a long-standing commitment to preserve the stories of under-documented LGBT communities, which we have previously honored through exhibits devoted to Boston’s Latino/a and African-American LGBT communities. The Queer East continues that tradition by providing LGBT people of Asian descent from the Boston area with the opportunity to relate stories of their struggles and achievements in their own words.

We chose to present The Queer East as an online exhibit as a way of giving hope to the thousands of LGBT Asians who live in countries where they risk rejection, disapproval, or imprisonment if they express their sexuality openly. For many of these individuals, our exhibit will represent the first time that they will have encountered LGBT people of Asian descent who are free to discuss their sexual identity publicly.

We are working to expand The Queer East to encompass approximately 12 profiles spanning the breadth of the Asian experience from Calcutta to Cambodia, and from Seoul to Sri Lanka. If you are moved by the profiles we have created on the current site, we hope you will be inspired to make a donation to help cover the costs associated with producing those additional profiles.