our History

Since 1985, the GLBT Historical Society has been committed to preserving and sharing LGBTQ history. We have grown significantly since our founding, from a living room full of boxes to professionally managed archive. With more than 1,000 archival collections and over 26,000 museum visitors each year, the society is now an international leader in the field of LGBTQ history, and one of the most important queer cultural institutions in the world.

As we celebrate the our history, we look confidently towards the future. Support the future of LGBTQ history by making a donation today!

1985

On March 16, more than 60 people attend a public meeting at the old San Francisco Main Library (now the Asian Art Museum) to propose establishing an association to document and promote understanding of Bay Area queer history. The meeting, organized by Eric Garber, Jim Gordon, Terry Henderling, Ellen Klages, Greg Pennington and Willie Walker, built on smaller gatherings that had started the previous fall, and included members of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project, which had begun in the late 1970s, and the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Periodical Archives, which had begun in 1983. On May 18, the membership votes to name the organization the San Francisco Bay Area Gay and Lesbian Historical Society and elects the first board of directors, including co-chairs Ilene Brettholz and Willie Walker (1949–2004).

1986

The society quickly starts sharing its resources, by putting on its first exhibitions: displays at a reunion of the Society for Individual Rights and at the San Francisco Urban Fair.

In the same year, the society receives the holdings of the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Periodical Archives, creating the nucleus of its Periodicals Collection.

1987

The society rents a storage locker to accommodate further accessions, having already outgrown its storage space in the living room of co-founder Willie Walker.

The society receives a trove of irreplaceable material from scholar and activist Will Roscoe, including the records of Gay American Indians, the first LGBTQ American Indian liberation organization, founded in July 1975.

In October, members carry the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society banner in the second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

1989

Responding to a request from the Historical Society, San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos declares June as “Gay and Lesbian History Month” in the city.

1990

The society changes its name to the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California to reflect a wider geographical scope for its collections, and moves into the Redstone Building on 16th Street, its first rented office space.

1991

The society accessions a major collection from Louis Sullivan (1951–1991), a pioneering gay and transgender activist and historian, a founding member of the GLBT Historical Society, and the founder of the group now known as FTM International. The collection includes correspondence, photos, essays, poems and diaries, some of which were reprinted in 2019 as We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan.

1993

The estate of Crawford Wayne Barton (1943–1993) donates an enormous collection, following the photographer’s death from AIDS. The photos in the collection offer a rare glimpse into gay life in 1970s San Francisco, and a significant number have since been digitized.

1994

The society acquires the extensive papers of activists Del Martin (1921–2008) and Phyllis Lyon (1924-2020). The collection includes the complete records of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization in the United States, and The Ladder, the organization’s monthly magazine. The donation is one of the many extensive archival collections held by the historical society that document decades of LGBTQ organizing and activism.

1996

Thirty-five years after he became the first openly gay candidate for public office, José Julio Sarria (1922–2013) donates a considerable archival collection to the society. The collection documents more than a half century of his life, including his political candidacy; his work as a founding member of the League for Civil Education, the Society for Individual Rights, and the Tavern Guild; and his role as “Her Royal Majesty, Empress of San Francisco, José I, The Widow Norton,” the persona he adopted as the founder of the Imperial Court System.

1997

The society helps to mark the centenary of the world’s first homosexual-rights organization by lending around 30 items to the monumental “Goodbye to Berlin?” exhibition mounted by the Schwules Museum at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. This collaboration is one of dozens that have made the society’s collections available and accessible to audiences around the world.

1998

Donald Lucas (1926–2003) donates the records of the national office of the Mattachine Society, one of the earliest gay rights organizations in the United States.

1999

The society changes its name again to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society, commonly referred to as the GLBT Historical Society. The new name more clearly reflects the society’s longstanding commitment to collections and programs representing the full diversity of the LGBTQ community.

The Historical Society launches an annual series of exhibitions titled “Making a Case for Community History.” Under the guidance of exhibitions coordinator Paul Gabriel, community members curate displays during San Francisco Pride in June, from 1999-2001.

2000

Maggi Rubenstein, a longtime bisexual activist and sexologist known as the “Godmother of Sex Ed,” donates a collection covering more than a quarter century of her life. Rubenstein, who came out as bisexual in 1969, co-founded the Glide Memorial Church's National Sex Forum, the San Francisco Sex Information Hotline, the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, the San Francisco Bisexual Center, BI-POL and the Bay Area Bi Network.

2001

Twenty years after its first national convention, the National Association of Black and White Men Together (NABWMT) donates a significant collection of organizational history to the society. The Association is a gay multiracial, multicultural, political and social organization, founded in 1980, with more than 30 chapters around the U.S.

2002

With a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, the society conserves and digitizes material from the Harold T. O’Neal Collection, a collection of 8mm home movies of LGBTQ people made from 1939 to 1989.

The society receives a donation of pioneering activist Harvey Milk’s (1930–1978) personal artifacts, clothing and memorabilia that trace his life from the 1960s until his assassination. As an elected member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, most of Milk’s political papers are held by the San Francisco Public Library.

2003

The society moves to 657 Mission St. in the South of Market district. At the new location, the organization establishes its first dedicated galleries with an exhibition on the life and death of Harvey Milk. Photo shows the gallery space, with the suit Milk was wearing on the day of his assassination in the foreground.

2004

The society hires Terence Kissack, Ph.D., as its second executive director.

2006

The society receives the papers of social worker and theater performer Robert Coffman (1917-2005). An early member of Theatre Rhinoceros, he appeared in dozens of plays, including the landmark The A.I.D.S. Show: Artists Involved in Death and Survival in 1984 and Unfinished Business: The New A.I.D.S. Show, in 1985. 

After its closure in 2005, the Filipino Task Force on AIDS (FTFA) entrusts its organizational records to the historical society. Established in 1988, FTFA was dedicated to ending the risk of HIV/AIDS in the Filipino community, offering a comprehensive range of HIV/AIDS-related services to Filipinos and Asian-Pacific Islanders in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area.

2007

Paul Boneberg is hired for the post of executive director, following Terence Kissack’s resignation.

2009

The society works to improve access to LGBTQ history by launching an online searchable database of the obituaries from the Bay Area Reporter, the country’s longest continuously published LGBTQ newspaper, starting with the first such article published in 1972. Many of the obituaries reflect the catastrophic toll of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco from the early 1980s through the late 1990s.

2010

Further building its digital collections, the society begins making audio files available online, starting with recordings of more than 250 hours of content from weekly Bay Area gay radio programs produced by journalist Randy Alfred from 1973 to 1984.

2013

Adding to its holdings of early LGBTQ activism, the society receives a collection from the Society for Individual Rights (S.I.R). Founded in 1964, S.I.R. promoted a sense of queer community and provided social and legal services, including the production of the “Pocket Lawyer” to help inform people of their rights when under arrest.

In November, the society launches a project to document sites associated with LGBTQ history in San Francisco. Consultants Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson direct the project. The nearly 400-page report is approved in 2015 by the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission and is a formally recognized historic context statement.

2014

The society receives the BML Video collection, which includes more than 400 video tapes of Bay Area LGBT social and recreational events from 1977 to 2002. The collection, some of which has since been digitized, offers a rare look at contests, athletic competitions, award shows and fundraisers, parades, drag shows and more.

2017

The society creates the San Francisco ACT UP Oral History Project, a two-year initiative under the direction of historian Joey Plaster to chronicle, preserve and share the history of AIDS direct-action groups in the city.

The estate of Gilbert Baker (1951–2017), designer of the rainbow flag and passionate advocate for LGBTQ rights, donates a considerable archival collection to the society. The collection documents more than a half century of Baker’s political activism, artistic creations and personal life. The collection forms the basis for an exhibition, “Performance, Protest and Politics: The Art of Gilber Baker,” on display at the GLBT Historical Society museum until April 5, 2020.

2018

The society continues making its collections accessible by providing digital access. In January, it debuts an online archive of the Bay Area Reporter, a weekly LGBTQ newspaper published in San Francisco. The society also digitizes a selection of its archival holdings related to the AIDS epidemic and posts them online for researchers, in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco Public Library.

Three decades after his death, the Society accessions a collection documenting the life of Sylvester (1947–1988), a famed African American genderqueer disco performer and singer-songwriter. The collection contains performance costumes, family photographs, press materials, awards, albums, and personal items.

2019

San Francisco Mayor London Breed publicly supports the society’s efforts to create the world’s first full-scale LGBTQ museum and research center. “I am excited to be here to celebrate the GLBT Museum that we are hoping will open in San Francisco because it is long overdue…We know we need a place in San Francisco. Curating and documenting LGBT history is critical to the success of San Francisco.”

2019

Ahead of schedule for the Vision 2020 campaign, the society completes a study showing that the plan to create a new LGBTQ museum and research center is not only feasible, but necessary.

In June, the GLBT Historical Society joins the Committee on LGBT History in co-hosting Queer History Conference 2019, a national conference at San Francisco State University.

2020

Mayor London Breed pledges significant financial support from the City and County of San Francisco to opening a full-scale museum of LGBTQ history and culture. With support from local and statewide elected officials, as well as broad-based interest and investment in the project, the society moves confidently into the next phase of its campaign.

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Credits and Authorship

This timeline was adapted by the GLBT Historical Society from research conducted by Gerard Koskovich.

Gerard Koskovich is a San Francisco–based historian, curator and rare book dealer. A founding member of the GLBT Historical Society, he has been active in the movement to create LGBTQ archives and museums for nearly four decades and has curated numerous exhibitions on queer history and culture. Koskovich has presented and published widely in English and French, most recently with a focus on the history of queer history as a cultural practice in the United States and on LGBTQ place-based history, preservation and intangible cultural heritage. Follow him on Instagram at @gkoskovich.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the following individuals for providing memories, documents and assistance with illustrations: Lauren Cuttler, Sasha Cuttler, Linnea Due, Paula Jabloner, Paula Lichtenberg, Ruth Mahaney, Greg Pennington, Gayle Rubin and Sharon Ullman.