Stonewall National Museum & Archives

Stonewall National Museum & Archives holds more than 34,000 items of LGBTQ+ history — books, periodicals, art, photographs, and personal papers — making it the largest queer lending library in the United States and one of the most significant LGBTQ+ archives anywhere. That such an institution lives fifteen minutes from the bars of Wilton Drive says everything about what this corner of Florida actually is.

The museum side rotates exhibitions of art and archival material through the year, while the library side does something rarer: it lends. This is living history you can check out, not just view behind glass — six decades of queer books, magazines, and ephemera that most cities’ collections never assembled and many are actively erasing. In an era of book bans, a lending library of queer history is quietly one of the most radical institutions in the state, and it runs on memberships, donations, and volunteers as it works toward a larger future home.

Plan around the schedule, which varies by day: closed Tuesdays, open 11am to 5pm most weekdays, Thursdays late until 8pm, and short weekend hours of 11am to 3pm. You’ll find it at 1300 E Sunrise Blvd in Fort Lauderdale, minutes south of the Drive.

Pair the visit with the Pride Center for the full picture of how this community preserves itself — then head back to the Drive knowing exactly whose shoulders the party stands on.