On one side of the world, activist and artist Xiangqi Chen could be punished for her LGBTQ activism. But on the other, she is lauded as a trailblazer – the architect behind the first-of-its-kind Chinese queer art museum.

“Here in San Francisco Chinatown, I continued my journey and met so many like-minded community members and friends,” Chen says through an interpreter. “It kind of actually encouraged me and gave me lots of strength to do what I know is my mission, my calling.”

Situated across from the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum, the bilingual museum spotlights a demographic that has long felt invisible. It seems like an ideal fit in the progressive city at a time when some US cities, states and the federal government are restricting or abolishing certain LGBTQ rights.