When Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis campaigned for the Republican Presidential candidate in 2023,  he rapidly built up a robust anti-LBGTQ record, including signing a bathroom segregation bill into law. He also restricted access to trans health care, threatened business licenses for venues allowing minors into drag performances, and enacted an infamous “don’t say gay” law that forbids classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation. Earlier this year, he allowed the removal of rainbow crossings in Orlando, which were part of the Pulse memorial.

It therefore came as no real surprise that the Stonewall National Museum, Archives and Library in Fort Lauderdale is now fighting for survival.  After more than 5 decades of chronicling the L.G.B.T.Q. community by collecting and sharing its history, it is facing a hostile political environment and a financial crisis that may force it to find another home.

As well as having to cope with De Santis anti-L.G.B.T.Q. policies the Museum has been hampered by recent budget shortfalls attributed to The Orange Man in The White House’s crackdown on diversity programs. Also under this present Administration, corporations have also pulled back on sponsorships for national L.G.B.T.Q. groups like the Stonewall museum, which began as a small collection in 1973.

The Museum Chair Robert Keston has said about the cuts to its $1 million annual budget, “In federal and state funds, we are down 100 percent.” Among the funding that has been cut off, he said, are grants of $10,000 to $25,000 that the organization received annually from both the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal Education Department; a $50,000 grant from the Florida State Department’s Division of Arts and Culture; and annual grants of $25,000 to $50,000 from Florida Humanities, a nonprofit state affiliate of the N.E.H.

Donations from individuals, including from the estates of deceased supporters, have helped Stonewall offset some of the losses. “With our cautious spending, we are holding our own but cautious not to take on more than we can,” Mr. Kesten said, adding that he has not filled three vacancies at the museum.