Bay Area Reporter: South Bay LGBTQ history project seeks physical space

A virtual LGBTQ history project in Silicon Valley is looking for a physical space three years after it first debuted online. But finding a downtown San Jose location it can afford has been difficult to secure.

The Queer Silicon Valley website went live ahead of LGBTQ History Month in October 2023, as the Bay Area Reporter noted at the time. It features archival documents, personal narratives, photographs, interviews, and videos of the LGBTQ+ community in Santa Clara County as well as San Mateo County.

Gay former Santa Clara County supervisor Ken Yeager oversees the project as its director and continues to add to the online exhibition. In particular, he has been conducting interviews with LGBTQ politicians and other out leaders in the South Bay and posting features about them to the website, which can be found at queersiliconvalley.org.

Yeager now hopes to use $250,000 in state funding allocated to the foundation this year toward leasing a storefront for the LGBTQ archival project. His former colleague on the county board and now a state legislator, Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), had secured the fiscal support in the state budget earlier this year.