The LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project is working to solidify a diverse narrative of Sacramento’s queer history

By Hannah Ross | Solving Sacramento Samuel Williams (left), a participant in the LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project stipend program and City of Sacramento Preservation Planner Henry Feuss (right), table at Sacramento Pride, revealing the first draft of the project June 8, 2024. Madelaine Church, Solving Sacramento The first draft of the LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project Historic Context Statement (HCS) was unveiled online and at the Sacramento LGBT Community Center’s booth at Sacramento Pride June 8. The document offers the public a preliminary look at the findings of a year-long historical investigation underway with the City of Sacramento’s Community Development Department’s Historic Preservation program.  Similar to the city’s African American Experience Project, conducted last year and recently awarded a California Preservation Foundation award, the LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project seeks to solidify the presence and impact of a historically marginalized community in the mainstream of Sacramento history.  Henry Feuss, preservation planner for the City of Sacramento, says this document will serve as a framework for future preservation work, providing an important overview of an under-documented history that highlights key sites in local queer history like the headquarters of “Mom, Guess What…!” — Sacramento’s gay and lesbian magazine of the ’70s and ’80s....