Australia's first dedicated queer museum has opened its doors to the public, coinciding with the first day of Sydney WorldPride.
The museum is located at Green Park in Darlinghurst, across the road from St Vincent's Hospital, and at a space at the National Art School.
Qtopia chief executive Greg Fisher wants visitors to have a safe place to explore their identity and walk away feeling more confident about who they are.
"At the end of the day, they feel more empowered as an individual [and] more understanding of their past, so that they can be more confident as to who they are today," Mr Fisher said.
He said the aim of the museum is to memorialise the past, to celebrate where LGBTQIA+ people have come from and where they are now.
A celebration of progress
Housed inside the bandstand at Green Park is a contemporary look at queer culture.
Exhibits in the upstairs area document the battle for rights experienced by campaigners since the 1970s.
In the downstairs area of the bandstand is a re-creation of a gay nightclub as found in King's Cross and Oxford Street, two nightlife districts just short walks away from the museum.
"Being in Green Park it's the funnel between Kings Cross and Oxford Street," Mr Fisher said.
The location is also very close to other significant sites in the city's queer history.
Across the road from Green Park is the eastern wall of the National Art School which was a famous pick-up spot.
'A lot of loss, but a lot of love'
Opposite the park is also St Vincent's Hospital which housed the first treatment and care facility in Australia dedicated to treating HIV/AIDS patients in the 1980s.
Qtopia has re-created Ward 17 South at the National Art School, linked to the Green Park with a pathway of tiles with the museum's "Q" branding on Burton Street.
The exhibit is a more intense and solemn reminder of the harrowing reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
It features a hospital bed and drip feed from the old ward, as well as video interviews from survivors and medical professionals.
"It holds the grief that all of us who lived through that time will always carry," said curator Dr Liz Bradshaw.
"In the end it's actually a very hopeful story about a modern medicine miracle and a story about people."
Dr Bradshaw wants the exhibit to stand as a testimony to the compassion shown by the Sisters of Charity and doctors such as professors Ron Penny and David Cooper who helped bring about what became the treatment for HIV/AIDS.
"I want people to hear the story of the survivors and what they went through, and the story of hope that followed," Dr Bradshaw said.
"It's a lot of loss, but also a lot of love."
A promise fulfilled
The chair of Qtopia is David Polson AM, one of the first 400 men diagnosed with HIV in Australia.
He credits the care given to him by Professor Cooper with saving his life at Ward 17 South.
Mr Polson made it his mission to realise Professor Cooper's vision for an AIDS museum.
"Today is also the manifestation of the late Professor David Cooper's vision, a vision to not forget the past and use it to inform the future," Mr Polson said at the launch of the museum on Thursday.
"Professor David Cooper saved my life with great care and compassion. He guided me through 28 drug trials, which all were horrendous. And sure, they resulted in problems with my health, but I'm here, I'm alive."
Qtopia hopes to move into the old Darlinghurst Police Station as a permanent location following WorldPride.
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