The 14 Gayest Things at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

by Carrie and Mey

Back in June, Mey was planning her trip to LA for the summer and tweeted about how she was crying just thinking about how much she loves the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. And Carrie read that tweet and was immediately transported back to the wonders of childhood, when she spent countless afternoons roaming among said dinosaurs in between visits to the Rainforest Room. So we (Mey and Carrie) made a plan to go to the museum and relive memories and cry.

Turns out, that place is also pretty gay. Or maybe it’s just that we’re pretty gay now? Either way, though, we had an amazing (or maybe “amGAYzing??? – Mey) day and made a number of delightfully queer discoveries, which we’ve cataloged and brought back to the lab for analysis. (Carrie wrote this last sentence, you can tell because she’s a bigger nerd than me – Mey)


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14. We can’t decide if this looks like a heart or a broken heart (guess which one of us is on each side of this argument), which is a pretty apt metaphor for being a queer woman.


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13. They ripped this headline straight from a sign at a Planned Parenthood protest. Or a Lifetime movie.


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12. Museum display? Or lesbian bed and breakfast?


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11. Too easy, we know, sorry, we had to.


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10. Vegetarianism: calling card of our people since the Cretaceous Period.


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9. We had a long debate about whether vegetarianism or communal living was gayer. Ultimately the separatist commune won out. Scientists will discover this same evidence when excavating A-Camp locations thousands of years from now.


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8. You know, just like the one you have with your roommate/best gal pal!


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7. Professor Percy Pelican, the museum’s resident animatronic bird specialist, inspired many a young gay’s modern-day gender expression and general affect. Educational in so many ways – including ones the curators never intended. Thanks, Prof!


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6. Dealing with men has driven many of us to “rarely leave our seaside home,” y’know?


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5. “Where did we go? What did we do? I think we made something entirely new.” “And it wasn’t quite me, and it wasn’t quite you, I think it was someone entirely new.”


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4. Matriarchy now, matriarchy forever.


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3. Alternative lifestyle haircuts were all the rage among pterosaurs. Looking sharp, indeed.


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2. I mean


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1. But at the end of the day the gayest thing on display was, of course, us.

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Mey

Mey Rude is a fat, trans, Latina lesbian living in LA. She's a writer, journalist, and a trans consultant and sensitivity reader. You can follow her on twitter, or go to her website if you want to hire her.

Mey has written 572 articles for us.

21 Comments

  1. Now, you’re making me wanna go to a museum (I haven’t been to one since Tim Burton had his stuff on display here in L.A)! ^^;

    Had to share on my FB! Anyway, I’m glad you had a great day! XX

    • Did he also have his stuff on display there? Cause I went to the one he had at LACMA, but if I known he had it there too I would have love to gone again.

  2. it’s like this article was written with me specifically in mind because i am the biggest museum ho and The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles is one of my favorites. If you’re still hanging around LA, I highly recommend the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), especially the rain room. Take a selfie with the spaghetti tubes and urban lights display for me!

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