Reprinted with permission from History Happens

The second week of November is observed as Transgender Awareness week and leads up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance on the 20th, which memorializes victims of transphobic violence. This has been another perilous year for trans people: more were murdered in the first seven months of 2020 than all of last year, and trans people of color are still disproportionately victims of violent crime. As part of our commitment to Transgender Awareness Week, the GLBT Historical Society’s archivists have organized two new primary-source sets on trans men and trans women in the Online Resources area of our website. And we’ve caught up with Aria Sa’id, […]

One grins knowingly at a friend over the camera’s shoulder, caught up in the joy of the moment. Another strikes an imposing pose in a pink beard. A third fixes the camera with an inscrutable gaze, daring us to ask a forbidden question. These are three of the iconic photographs of drag queens taken by San Francisco photographer Roz Joseph (1926–2019) that will be on display from September 21, when the GLBT Historical Society unveils an online selection of images drawn from its 2015 exhibition “Reigning Queens: The Lost Photos of Roz Joseph.” Joseph, who passed away in December of […]

WorkshopLeaving a Legacy: Financial Estate Planning Friday, September 412:00–1:00 p.m.Online programFreeCareful financial planning ensures that our legacies live on by providing for our spouses, partners, children, relatives and friends. The second event in our two-part series offering estate-planning tools and resources for LGBTQ people, this workshop focuses on a range of financial-planning strategies and instruments. Attorney Alma Soongi Beck will discuss wills, living trusts, powers of attorney, marriage and domestic-partnership considerations, document language for nonbinary and transgender people, property tax, and co-ownership issues for unmarried couples who are not domestic partners. This event will include a Q & A session. […]

It all started with an impromptu march and a picnic. On June 27, 1970 a small band of hippies and “hair fairies” marched down Polk Street, then San Francisco’s most prominent LGBTQ area, to celebrate an event they called “Christopher Street Liberation Day.” The following afternoon, celebrants congregated for a “Gay-In” picnic in Speedway Meadows at Golden Gate Park. These two modest gatherings inaugurated the annual celebration we now know as San Francisco Pride. As difficult as it is to believe that every single Pride participant in 1970 could fit into a small area of the park, it’s also remarkable […]

Dykes on Bikes zooming by on motorcycles wearing leather jackets. A little boy holding a sign professing his love for his trans parent. Hundreds of thousands of people crowding into San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza. These are but three of the images on display in a new photography exhibition, “50 Years of Pride,” opening online on May 15 on the GLBT Historical Society’s website. The exhibition is presented by the society and the San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries with the support of San Francisco Pride, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. In addition its online incarnation, the exhibition will ultimately […]

Upcoming Online Events Fighting BackLove in the Time of COVID-19: Pandemic Sex Wednesday, May 66:00–7:30 p.m.Online forumFree | $5.00 suggested donation What about sex? The AIDS epidemic transformed the way that members of the LGBTQ community — and indeed people around the globe — discussed and practiced sexual activity. Technology has radically changed the ways that people meet. And now, COVID-19. A panel of sex educators, activists and a historian will consider how we find connection, sex and love in the era of coronavirus, applying lessons learned from HIV/AIDS prevention efforts to help strategize safer-sex options in the present. Some questions […]