The Suzan Daniel Fund, gay/lesbian archive and documentation centre, celebrates its nineteenth year of existence this year. This not-for-profit organisation started out in Ghent on 8 May 1996 after months of intensive preparation.

The organisation was named after Suzan Daniel (b.1918, Brussels), pseudonym for Suzanne De Pues, the woman who in 1953 courageously started the first Belgian gay/lesbian group, the Centre Culturel Belge (C.C.B.) Cultuur Centrum België.

From the outset some clear and explicit choices were made.

In the first place the organization wants to collect, order and make available all kinds of materials from the gay/lesbian and transgender past to interested people. The protection of the private lives of people concerned is always an important matter.

Another important aspect that we cherish is the creation of an “archival consciousness” within our public :  we try to make aware that traces from the gay & lesbian past are important and that these materials are stored with us.

Women and men are equally represented on the Board of Directors of the Suzan Daniel Fund (male/female parity). At this time two men and two women fulfil this task.

The organisation is also pluralist and independent: it has no ties with political groups nor confessional organizations.

In order to preserve this gay/lesbian and transgender cultural heritage under optimal circumstances the organisation has opted to collaborate with existing, professionally run and recognized archives and documentation centres.

To this effect a protocol of collaboration has been drafted. This was done starting from the conviction that the history of the lesbian & gay movement is part and parcel of the broader social history of other liberation and social movements that have fought for more just societal relations.

We also try to spread the word about us by being present on certain gay/lesbian events through the year and through simple word of mouth

The Suzan Daniel Fund is an organization of volunteers with few financial resources. Nevertheless we have achieved  a great deal in the past ten years despite these modest means. In  2004 we received the annual “Homofolieprijs” from the Holebifederatie in recognition of our continuous effort in the field.

Now twenty years later, the Suzan Daniel Fund has become irreplaceable within the archival landscape of gay/lesbian Belgium. Nevertheless it remains one of our main goals to obtain sustained funding.