Bicentennial Debates Put LGBTQ+ Histories Front and Center

As America nears its 250th birthday, LGBTQ+ artists and advocates in Philadelphia and across the country push to expand the celebratory narrative to include marginalized histories from the 1970s onward. Exhibits like This Is (Not) a Celebration foreground archival materials and queer activists, while other groups stage events aimed at a broader reckoning of who counts in American history. The conversation runs alongside debates about political attempts to rewrite history, provocative campaigns to emphasize a multicultural national identity, and a broader question of whether the bicentennial can be a celebration or a catalyst for confronting past and present inequalities.