the newsletter of the GLBT Historical Society (San Francisco) www.glbthistory.org

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A Cry for Freedom: Exploring the Castro’s Gay Migration

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The California Migration Museum recently launched a free, immersive audio tourwhich explores how an era of migration to the Castro transformed a sleepy Irish Catholic enclave into a queer homeland. We interviewed Gabby Santas from the project to learn more about the process of creating the tour, and how our archives played a pivotal role in shaping the content. Tell us a bit about the Castro tour. Gabby Santas: At Home in the Castro – our audio tour of San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood – departs from 1957, when Mike, or “Maurice” Gerry opens a hair salon on Castro Street, becoming the first openly […]

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Light Amidst Hard Times: Exploring the Mary Richards Collection

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Rafael Franco worked in the GLBT Historical Society archives this summer, helping us process a vital collection of recorded interviews. We interviewed Rafael about his time in the archives, and the surprising material he uncovered. Can you tell us about your time in the archives? Rafael Franco: I worked with the Mary Richards Collection, which houses audio recordings she made as a freelance writer for the San Francisco-based LGBTQ newspaper, the Bay Area Reporter. The recordings are from the 1980s and 1990s and touch on topics such as the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, AIDS fundraisers, queer nightlife in […]

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Repairing the Loss of the First Queer Archives

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Ninety years ago this month, the Nazis staged their first book-burning in Berlin. The gathering on May 10, 1933, saw hundreds of supporters of the regime march into a square in front of the 18th-century building housing the city’s first public library and across the street from one of Germany’s leading universities. The crowd threw cartloads of books onto a huge bonfire, the flames lighting the night sky as Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels gave a speech attacking Jewish and “un-German” authors. Many of us learned about this grim event in high-school history classes, where it’s often portrayed as an example […]

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Upcoming Events at SF GLBT Historical Society

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Drag Up! Fight Back! March & RallyMarch & Rally Saturday, April 8, 202311:00 AM–1:00 PMSan Francisco City Hall Join Sister Roma, Alex U. Inn, D’Arcy Drollinger, Honey Mahogany, and many more for a rally, march, and live show in protest of recent anti-drag and anti-trans legislation. Legislation has been proposed and passed in states nationwide, targeting gender-affirming care, drag performers, and queer culture. As a result, our stories are being banned from public libraries, our trans kids and their parents are being criminalized, and any acknowledgment of our existence is being outlawed in classrooms.  This event is organized by The […]

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Continuing the Dream: Reflections on 38 years of collecting SF LGBTQ history

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On March 16, the GLBT Historical Society marks 38 years since our founding. To celebrate the occasion, we are thrilled to provide an interview with Greg Pennington, a founding member of the Society. To learn more about our history, visit glbthistory.org/timeline. Was there a specific event that spurred you and the other founders to organize in 1985? I moved to San Francisco in March 1977 as part of the wave of gay men that came here in the late 70’s. I heard about the election of Harvey Milk and George Moscone and wanted to live somewhere where I could truly be […]

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Understanding and Preserving Pain and Joy

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From August 1965 until the end of 1966, a youth group called Vanguard met in the Glide Memorial Church in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. It is the first known queer youth organization in the United States, and most of its members were queer street youth. The GLBT Historical Society had digitized V, the magazine published by Vanguard, so when I found it I was entranced. I needed to understand the youth who published it. I visited the archives in person in January 2022, not long after hitting a wall in my research. My senior history thesis was titled, “A […]

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“An Impulse to Jump Into Things”: A Life of LGBTQ and Latinx Advocacy

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Longtime GLBT Historical Society supporter and board member Lito Sandoval has been involved in LGBTQ advocacy work for over three decades. A Bay Area native, he has worked with organizations as varied as ACT UP, AGUILAS, and the Queer Latinx Social Club, which he founded. To kickstart the New Year and celebrate Lito’s final few months on our board, we sat down for a chat about his life and career. How did you get involved with HIV/AIDS activism? LS: I moved to San Francisco in 1988, when the AIDS crisis was already full blown. To be honest, I wanted to […]

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Would You Be Caught Dead in That Outfit? The Powerful Fashion of Translatinas: New exhibit at SF’s GLBT Historical Society

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There are those of us with more conservative fashion tastes, others who are willing to be more fashion-forward. But the question “Would you be caught dead in that outfit?” isn’t just one that you’d whisper to a friend on a shopping expedition—or behind a bridesmaid’s back at a wedding. For members of San Francisco’s Translatina community, the question is less an interrogative than a defiant statement. Artists Julián Delgado Lopera, who curated the 2016 exhibition Noche de Ambiente with the GLBT Historical Society, and Rebeka Rodriguez are unveiling their new exhibition Would You Be Caught Dead In That Outfit?/¡Que Perra […]

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The Artistry of Leather and Desire: Archives Acquire Tool Box Mural

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Striking in its composition, this superb painted mural is yellowed with age and nicotine stains but still brims with sexual energy. The figures are seemingly drawn from a wide cross-section of mid-century society. A tattooed man in a sleeveless T-shirt fixes the viewer with a gaze suggestive of desire. A more bourgeois-looking fellow wears a striped turtleneck, while in the background a man in a full suit and tie looks on. To the left of center, a man wearing a leather cross-stitched shirt gazes at the rear end of a nearby patron, while in the very center a broad-shouldered man […]

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Hidden Gems From the Society’s Archival Vault

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Queeriosity CornerFriday, February 46:00–7:30 p.m. PTOnline program$5 | Free for members GLBT Historical Society archives staff members will present a veritable treasure trove of hidden LGBTQ history gems from the archives vault. Curatorial specialist Ramón Silvestre, reference archivist Isaac Fellman and project archivist Megan Needels have selected some of the most unusual and surprising material objects in the archives, and the trio will discuss their historical significance. The program culminates with the unveiling of a recently acquired artifact from the Tool Box Bar, SoMa’s most influential leather bar of the early 1960s, that has never been seen by the public. “Queeriosity Corner” is […]

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