out of the closet and into the street exhibition

Out of the Closet and Into the Street: Posters of LGBTQ Struggle

July 3, 2010 - September 26, 2010

Venue: ONE Archives Gallery & Museum
Location: 626 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069 USA
Website: www.politicalgraphics.org

Gallery Hours:
Friday: 4:30-8:30
Saturday & Sunday: 1-5

Despite decades of affirmation and positive role models engendered by the LGBTQ liberation movements, discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation continues. Hospitals still refuse to allow lesbians and gays to be with their sick or dying partners by restricting visitation to “family” only. Same-sex couples are denied equal inheritance rights, pensions and health-care benefits, and lesbian and gay parents are often denied custody of their children. Violent attacks and homicides against members of the LGBTQ community continue and recent legal gains are tentative and subject to reversal—Californian’s right to marriage equality was taken away; open lesbians and gays continue to be excluded from the military; and as recently as February 2010, the Governor of Virginia signed an executive order deliberately removing gays and lesbians as a protected class in state-wide hiring procedures.

For more than 40 years, political posters have been one of the primary art forms to challenge the oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals and communities. Whether institutionalized through legislation or conducted culturally through physical violence or psychological negativity, this exhibition focuses on homophobia as a violation of human rights and uses the power of graphics to expose injustice, defend rights and celebrate victories.