On one side of the world, activist and artist Xiangqi Chen could be punished for her LGBTQ activism. But on the other, she is lauded as a trailblazer – the architect behind the first-of-its-kind Chinese queer art museum.The irony that she left her home in China and found a public platform for her LGBTQ artistic expression in San Francisco’s Chinatown – the United States’ oldest – is not lost on her.“Here in San Francisco Chinatown, I continued my journey and met so many like-minded community members and friends,” Chen says through an interpreter. “It kind of actually encouraged me and gave me lots of strength to do what I know is my mission, my calling.”Out Museum founder Xiangqi Chen admires “Collective Notation”, an interactive installation displayed at the museum on June 22, 2026. Photo: APSituated across from the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum, the bilingual museum spotlights a demographic that has long felt invisible. It seems like an ideal fit in the progressive city at a time when some US cities, states and the federal government are restricting or abolishing certain LGBTQ rights.
World’s first Chinese LGBTQ museum spotlights overlooked community
Out Museum in San Francisco’s Chinatown gives artists from China and the Chinese diaspora a platform to tell their stories.
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