Celebrating Queers in STEAM

Here at the Burke Museum, we celebrate and embrace many beautiful identities. To publicly celebrate queer identity and normalize queerness in the workplace, especially during a time of great threat and marginalization, we offered a “Queers in STEAM” event in February 2025.

The event focused on our LGBTQIA2S+ identifying colleagues, showcasing the work and interests of the staff, students, and volunteers working in STEAM and STEAM-supporting jobs at the museum.

It’s about visibility and representation.

During the event, every floor of the building was vibrating with pride. Queer people were given the space to be themselves and show up however they needed. The focus was on the good work being done every day and the opportunity to connect over shared lived experiences.

This is what we need right now.

There are myriad ways to provide support and activism for the queer community, and throughout the day we heard people saying, “This is what I needed right now.” Intentional gathering and community care is needed right now. An inherent sense of belonging is needed right now. Learning about personal pronouns while coloring paper ammonites with Pride flag colors is needed right now. A whiteboard covered in Polaroids of smiling queer folks declaring their identities to remind us we are not alone is needed right now.

This is what institutional spaces like museums are for. Within museum walls is where learning and human connection need to flourish. This is a place for gathering, for joy, for healing and, above all, coming together as a community to celebrate the diversity of this world.