Stonewall Library and Archivies

IT’S A GREAT PLACE TO LOOK AND GET AN EDUCATION, In the building there are two other places to visit, a library of fort lauderdale and an art gallery. So it’s all free and it offers three places to get an education. There are usually exhibits every month or so. Enjoy

I had to stop by and check out what is the largest gay lending library in the world as well as a remarkable achievement of the gay community. Its setting is somewhat of an associated yet at the same time unassociated part of the Broward County Library system, being located in one of the systems satellite buildings but having a totally separate entrance and essentially being a separate facility It is staffed by volunteers from the gay community and houses something like 18,000 various literary and other works, all of a gay orientation along with items, matters, and archives involving gay history both locally and nationally.
Stonewall offers a particularly neat, orderly well run friendly environment for anyone researching or just interested in anything having to do with past or present gay matters. Stonewall contains materials and information not found anywhere else and stands as a statement by the gay community of its existence, past and present, as well as its relevancy.
There are other gay libraries and archives notably in Chicago and Los Angeles, but not entirely the same in regards to content or purpose. Hence, Stonewall stands alone, being what it is, without any equal, and as such I can’t award it anything less than my five stars (it’s as good as it gets) award.
On a funny note, I found myself confused in that some of the items and materials contain various initials such as GLBT, LGBT, BLGT, LGBTIQ supposedly with each initial meant to identify a particular sexual orientation. In attempting to determine the various meanings or what each is meant to identify only got me all the more confused as well as lost in a never ending gay alphabet soup which one source best summed up and referenced as being the gay QUILTBAG (Queer/​Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans, Bisexual, Asexual, Gay). Until then, I honestly had no idea how many sexual preferences one could have or be identified with.
So, if you ever get bored with nothing better to do and get your jollies tormenting gay librarians, like I do (wink), you can drop in at the Stonewall asking their assistance in ascertaining and deciphering various sex identification initials.

The Stonewall Library & Archives is an extraordinary publicly accessible cultural and educational resource that preserves, interprets and shares the remarkable heritage of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. More than that, they serve as an epicenter of enlightenment for our community and have played a significant role in building bridges of cultural understanding in the LGBT community and beyond.
The Stonewall Library & Archives provides a unique cultural and intellectual alternative in the community and through its collections, programs and services they honor and explore the past while striving to engage, inform and inspire the next generation of our community’s leaders.
From its founding in 1973, the Stonewall Library & Archives has grown into the largest lending library of its kind in the United States. Their circulating library holdings now number over 18,000 books and audio-​visual materials. Their archives document a century of LGBT cultural and social history with an emphasis on the southeastern United States and contain more than 5,000 items including periodicals, oral history collections, business and association records, manuscripts, and relevant ephemera. Their library and archival collections have been professionally catalogued and are maintained according to accepted conservation and preservation standards.