San Francisco

Fifty years of queer San Francisco. One unforgettable night to celebrate it all. A historic venue in the heart of a legendary neighborhood, The Castro Theatre has seen a lot. Still, it has never seen a night quite like this one. San Francisco Pride and Peaches Christ Productions invite you to Built This City: An SF Pride Variety Spectacular. Join us for the official kickoff to Pride 2026, a full-throttle celebration of 50 Years of Queer San Francisco. We’re taking over the newly-renovated Castro Theatre for a one-night event that is as bold, brilliant, and beautifully queer as this city has always been. On […]

On View March 12 | The Museum Opening this month: Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care, 1970–1995. This new exhibition, curated and co-presented by the Bay Area Lesbian Archives (BALA), traces the everyday efforts of Bay Area lesbians who refused erasure and built community networks rooted in care, solidarity, and economic self-determination. From women-run cafés and bookstores to credit unions and service businesses, these were more than small enterprises — they became networks of mutual aid sustaining entire communities. Grassroots tools made these worlds visible to one another: self-published directories, maps, flyers, menus, and ephemera connecting people to jobs, housing, political spaces, […]

AUTHOR TALK THE EINSTEIN OF SEX Thursday, December 11 | 6:00pmGLBT Historical Society Musuem Over a century ago, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld — the “Einstein of Sex” — revolutionized how we understand gender and sexuality. Nearly 100 years after the Nazis burned his books and destroyed his institute, his vision of fluid, expansive identity remains powerfully relevant. Join the GLBT Historical Society for an Author Talk & Book Signing with journalist Daniel Brook, in conversation with historian and Society founding member Gerard Koskovich. Brook will share new insights from Hirschfeld’s 1931 Bay Area visit, including his tour of San Quentin and his advocacy for Black transgender inmates targeted by discriminatory […]

The Consulate General of Ireland and the Rainbow Honor Walk (www.rainbowhonorwalk.org) will commemorate the life and legacy of Roger Casement — Irish patriot, humanitarian, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer — with a bronze plaque installed on San Francisco’s world famous “Gay Main Street.” The plaque will be unveiled at 4pm on Tuesday, October 28, in the Bank of America Plaza at 501 Castro Street, joining 44 other permanent tributes to notable LGBTQ+ individuals who have shaped world history and culture. “We are gratified to work with the Rainbow Honor Walk and the United Irish Societies to celebrate the life of Roger Casement, an Irish patriot and  peerless human […]

Opening next month, and co-presented with the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive, this exhibition celebrates Black, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander trans and gender nonconforming people who lived authentically despite racism, homophobia, transphobia, and class prejudice. The exhibition highlights both performance and everyday expressions of identity, with works ranging from studio portraits of gender impersonators at Finocchio’s and the touring Jewel Box Revue to activist materials and self-portraits. Featured figures include trailblazing performer Stormé DeLarverie, beloved activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Cuban-born Finocchio’s star David de Alba, artist and writer Red Jordan Arobateau, and many more.

Opening May 15 at the GLBT Historical Society Museum, Éamon McGivern’s A/History presents new paintings by San Francisco-based artist Éamon McGivern. Rooted in a philosophy of portraiture that embraces empathy as a creative act, A/History draws from McGivern’s personal memory and research in the GLBT Historical Society archives. The resulting portraits reflect on the lives and legacies of queer and trans elders whose absence—from political violence, transphobia, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic—continues to shape contemporary life. Through painterly interpretation and archival reference, the exhibition invites reflection on memory, representation, and the multifaceted nature of human identity. Come experience this powerful new work at the intersection of art, memory, […]

During this milestone year marking the 40th anniversary of the GLBT Historical Society, it’s important to reflect on our past, present and future. It was on March 16, 1985, when more than 60 people gathered at the San Francisco Public Library, answering a call from Eric Garber, Jim Gordon, Terry Henderling, Ellen Klages, Greg Pennington, and Willie Walker who built on smaller gatherings that had started the previous fall and included members of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project and the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Periodical Archives. They weren’t gathering that day just to build an archive; they were making a bold declaration: LGBTQ+ history matters. At a […]