Atlanta Civil Rights Museum Expands LGBT Focus

When it opened a year and a half ago, Atlanta's Center for Civil and Human Rights incorporated the LGBT equality push within its exhibits on racial and gender equality. The museum is now going further, launching the LGBT Institute to not only record gay and trans rights, but help obtain them.

The Institute has an executive director and a board made up of individuals active in the LGBT movement; they hope to work with universities and LGBT organizations to further equality, especially in the South. Specifically, the museum hopes to improve "lived equality," a term that refers to the everyday experiences, not necessarily high-profile legal or political battles, of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

"Marriage does not make life wonderful for all," boardmember Tim'm West told the Associated Press. "For some, it's the one box to check. For others, there are four or five more that we need to work on."

The Institute will still help record our history; a new exhibit will look at the progression of Atlanta LGBT life following the 1969 Stonewall uprising. Watch a report on the museum's opening below.