Walking onto the 19.3-acre campus of the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side was a respite, and a revelation. As a proud Chicagoan and an inductee into the Chicago LGBTQ Hall of Fame, I didn’t step onto the grounds expecting to experience all of the queer history I saw on full display.
Partnering with GLAAD for a special edition of my podcast Queer News, I wanted to share the center through my eyes and celebrate how LGBTQ life was celebrated not only in the museum but across the campus. What I experienced was a bold, unapologetic declaration: LGBTQ+ history isn’t an afterthought in the American story; it is woven directly into its bedrock.
The moment you step into the main atrium, that truth hits you. You’re immediately stopped in your tracks by a breathtaking, 38-foot masterpiece created by Black and gay artist Mark Bradford, “The City of Big Shoulders.” It dominates the space while warmly inviting you in, embodying Bradford’s vision for the piece when he reflected, “I want people to lay their stories on top of the map. It can be what you want it to be. The painting becomes yours.”
And it’s true. Look close and you’ll see hidden messages the artist left for us. You can map your neighborhood; you can follow the train routes. It’s stunning.
That spirit of public ownership carries all the way outside to Home Court, the center’s full-size basketball court and community center, where beloved local queer icon Sam Kirk collaborated with Dorian Sylvain for the vibrant “Pass it Forward” mural.
Sam is a friend, and told me that the collaboration spotlighted commitment to community.
“We are always trying to figure out how we bring the voices of our residents into the work, and how we want Chicago reflected in it,” Sam said. “As a born and raised South Sider, a kid from a working-class family, I never imagined being an artist, let alone having my work in a presidential center, but that’s the beauty of possibility.”
Seeing local, queer Black and Brown artistry anchored right here on the South Side made my heart swell with pride.
Moving deeper into the exhibits, history becomes remarkably tangible and deeply personal. Displayed alongside presidential documents are sacred relics of our collective resistance: civil rights leader Bayard Rustin’s gold-plated pocket watch, a gift from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose engraved inscription thanking Rustin for organizing the landmark 1963 March on Washington is available for museum visitors to touch.
There’s Gilbert Baker’s hand-dyed rainbow flag, a gift to President Obama at the White House Pride event in 2013.
And a pristine 1964 copy of The Ladder, the pioneering lesbian magazine that served as a vital lifeline when simply existing was a risk, where Lorraine Hansberry would submit articles under a pen name, Emily Jones. Queer history, and the people who helped write it and make it, are incorporated into exhibits on moments and movements that changed our country and our world.
These treasures sit alongside exhibits chronicling major victories for LGBTQ+ Americans like the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the stories of gay veterans who helped overturn it; the fight for marriage equality with the stories of Edith Windsor and Jim Obergefell, whose relationships grounded and launched the national legalization of marriage equality; and a photo of the White House lit in rainbow colors to celebrate those legal victories. All serve as a powerful reminder that our rights were hard-won from the ground up.
A quote from President Obama’s remarks from the day the Obergefell decision was announced takes up an entire wall: “For all our differences, we are one people, stronger together than we could ever be alone. That’s always been our story.”
What makes this center so special is how it deliberately shifts and centers the spotlight on everyday people. During the opening ceremony, President Obama urged visitors to “skip the clips of my speeches, you have heard them all before,” and instead listen to “the stories of ordinary citizens who helped make change happen.” First Lady Michelle Obama described progress as an “arduous, unglamorous march up that mountain—one foot after another, day after day.” But just as importantly, she reminded us to pause and “fully absorb the elation of achieving something together.”
In a world where our stories are too often censored or erased, seeing our liberation enshrined inside a presidential library feels like a quiet revolution. To make sure you don’t miss a single artifact, mural, or milestone on your own journey through the space, I put together a downloadable LGBTQ+ Obama Center Checklist over on our Queer News Substack. You can also listen to the full special edition tour via Queer News on YouTube, and when you visit the Center, it’s my hope that you’ll support the local businesses in the area too. As Michelle Obama noted at the grand opening on Juneteenth, hope is a choice. And we can make that choice every single day.
Anna DeShawn is your favorite queer radio personality, social entrepreneur, and host of the Ambie award-winning podcast, Queer News. She was inducted into the Chicago LGBTQ Hall of Fame in 2023 for her unwavering commitment to the LGBTQ community.