On June 27, 1969 a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village. For the police it was a routine raid on a gay bar, but this time the patrons decided to resist, setting off three days of protest that are now credited with launching the modern gay rights movement.

Pre-Revolutionary Queer brings together a diverse collection of artwork, photographs, rare newsletters, magazines, and books from the Institute’s archives to document the existence of a vibrant but largely underground GLBT culture in the United States and Europe prior to the Stonewall rebellion.

Featured artists include Paul Cadmus, George Platt Lynes, Sam Steward, Suzanne Ballivet, Jean Cocteau, Leonor Fini, Andrey Avinoff, Mike Miksche, Etienne, and Tom of Finland, as well as physique photographers Al Urban, Lon of New York, Bruce of LA, Bob Mizer, and Don Whitman.

In honor of this exhibition, the Tom of Finland Foundation will be donating an original study of Tom's to the Kinsey Institute's permanent collection.