Responding to a situation in which a security guard asked two women at an exhibit to stop holding hands, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco has proclaimed Sunday, July 24, as a special hand-holding day.
According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, confirmed by museum Executive Director Connie Wolf, the July 17 incident occurred when a guard told the two women they could not hold hands, even though the CJM has no such prohibition.
The couple refused, demanding to speak to a museum authority. The guard was a temporary worker, hired for the day by the independent company contracted to provide museum security, Wolf said.
“We’re an incredibly welcoming and open institution,” Wolf said. “It’s never happened before, and will never happen again.”
The incident occurred at the exhibit “Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories,” which opened May 12 and runs through Sept. 6. Stein was a lesbian.
“It is ironic that this happened with the Gertrude Stein exhibition,” Wolf said, “yet I want people to know even though it has that twist, we’re taking it very seriously.”
To reinforce the point, the museum is having a hand-holding celebration day on Sunday, July 24. Wolf said guards will “welcome all those who hold hands” that day.
The informal hand-holding event will coincide with a previously scheduled “LGBT Family Morning of Stein,” for which the museum will open early.
Running from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., the event is open to all families with children. Guests will include three lesbian and/or gay musical groups. In addition, there will be tea and pastries, and families and children will be able to make poetry magnets and artful roses.
Wolf said that full-time museum security personnel undergo extensive sensitivity training, and that same training will now apply to part-time security officers as well. The museum has a long history of outreach and cooperation with the LGBT community, she added.