06/19/2026
Freedom, delivered late.
On June 19, 1865, the end of slavery finally reached the people it had been promised to. That freedom, late as it was, is what made the first documented Black q***r lives in America possible: possible to live in the open, and possible to write down.
Our newest exhibit in the online South Coast LGBTQ+ Museum, "Freedom, Delivered Late: Juneteenth and the long work of Black q***r liberation," follows that thread. From William Dorsey Swann, born enslaved and the first person known to call himself a "queen of drag," to the Combahee River Collective, who took their name from Harriet Tubman's Combahee River raid.
Juneteenth and Pride do not share a root. They share a month, and they share a people who have had to win the same freedoms more than once.
In honor of Juneteenth and the incredible contributions made by Black Americans, it is the South Coast LGBTQ+ Museum's most deeply sourced exhibit, and it is open now.
Walk through it: sclgbtqnetwork.org/museum
A project of the South Coast LGBTQ+ Network.
