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Often referred to as San Francisco's "queer Smithsonian," the GLBT Historical Society houses one of the world's largest collections of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender historical materials. The society's GLBT History Museum is the first full-scale, stand-alone museum of its kind in the United States.

Sponsorships: Museum sponsorship provides essential support to one the GLBT community’s most significant cultural institutions — and offers visibility and other benefits to sponsors. For full details, click here.

Membership & Donations: To become a member or make a donation, click here.

MUSEUM HOURS
Monday – Saturday:
11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Sunday: Noon – 5 p.m.

MUSEUM LOCATION
4127 18th St. • San Francisco

MUSEUM HOME PAGE
www.glbthistorymuseum.org

Museum Store: Shop Online

Looking for that perfect gift for the history buff in your life? The GLBT History Museum's new online store offers it all. To start shopping, click here.

Out of the Boxes and Onto the Net!

We're digitizing our amazing audiovisual collections and putting them on the Internet for you to see and hear. Check out our first offering, the entire run of the 1980s radio series The Gay Life. Click here.GayBackMachine

Sponsors

Presenting Sponsor

Levi's logo

Platinum Sponsors

Real Bad

Badlands & Toad Hall
Bob Ross Foundation
David R. Kessler, MD
Human Rights Campaign
Walgreens

Union Bank

Gold Sponsors
Al Baum & Robert Holgate
John Bell & Jason Spicer
Harvey's
Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee
Honey Soundsystem
Bob Michitarian

Donate to the GLBT Historical Society

Museum Store
Current Newsletter

Upcoming Events at
The GLBT History Museum

Harvey Milk Day
Free Admission,
Special Tours & Displays

Wednesday, May 22
11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Harvey Milk

California marks Harvey Milk's birthday, May 22, as an annual statewide day of significance. The GLBT History Museum will honor the occasion this year by offering free admission to all visitors. In addition, the museum is extending a special welcome to Bay Area schools.

  • Tours highlighting Harvey Milk will be provided every hour on the hour from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Teachers and student groups can schedule other times by contacting the museum.
  • The Main Gallery screen will show rare video clips of Milk from the GLBT Historical Society archives.
  • Throughout the week of May 20, the exhibit of Milk's belongings in the Front Gallery will feature a vintage tape recorder playing Milk's political will.

The museum includes materials about Milk and the 1970s in San Francisco not only in the Front Gallery display, but also in "Our Vast Queer Past" in the Main Gallery and "Legendary" in the Corner Gallery. A new gallery guide set for release on Harvey Milk Day will make it easy for visitors to discover this content.

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Panel Discussions
Valencia: How a New Film
Sees Queer San Francisco

Valencia

A special three-part program featuring filmmakers charged with bringing Michelle Tea's award-winning autobiographical novel Valencia (2000) to the screen. Set in queer San Francisco in the 1990s, Valencia premieres at Frameline 37 in the third week of June. In a project headed by Tea and Hilary Goldberg, the movie was created by 18 filmmakers, each of whom created a short based on a chapter from the book.

In conversation with the author, the filmmakers will discuss pre- and post-gentrification San Francisco, nostalgia and fantasy, activism and desire, debauchery and subversion — and how those elements are represented in the film. The panels are set for 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Admission: $5.00 (general); $3.00 (California students); free for members.

Thursday, June 20
What Were the Queer '90s?
A discussion of the influence of San Francisco's 1990s queer life on the city's GLBT community today. The panel includes Valencia filmmakers who were and were not around for the 1990s party: Aubree Bernier-Clarke, Lares Feliciano, Silas Howard, Alexa Shae and Samuael Topiary.

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Monday, June 24
My Michelle
A look at choices made by Valencia filmmakers who cast outside the box for their vision of the character of Michelle, using claymation buffalo, blow-up dolls, drag queens and Angelina Jolie; with Jerry Lee Abram, Cheryl Dunye, Hilary Goldberg, Chris Vargas and Greg Youmans.

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Wednesday, June 26
Debauchery and Romance in Valencia
An exploration of the highs and lows of portraying debauchery on screen, as well as the uses of hedonism in life and art; with Bug Davidson, Michelle Lawlor, Sara St. Martin Lynne, Sharon Rubenstein and Courtney Trouble.

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Exhibitions & Programs
GLBT History Museum

4127 18th St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
Phone: (415) 621-1107
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Archives, Reading Room &
Administrative Offices

GLBT Historical Society
657 Mission St., Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: (415) 777-5455
Fax: (415) 777-5576

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society collects, preserves, and interprets the history of GLBT people and the communities that support them. We sponsor exhibitions and programs on an ongoing basis.