LOCATION
GLBT Historical Society Museum
4127 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
ADMISSION
$15 admission; Free for GLBT Historical Society Members
While every city’s neighborhoods change, few have experienced such thorough erasure from collective memory as San Francisco’s original gayborhoods. The gender-nonconforming stage acts of the Barbary Coast made North Beach home to some of the city’s earliest queer spaces. The Tenderloin was ground zero for the Gay Liberation Front and remains a hub for trans activism and culture. Polk Street hosted the discos of Sylvester, the drunken tales of Tennessee Williams, and more than a hundred queer-owned bookstores, clothing shops, bathhouses, and bars.
So why do we only talk about The Castro?
Join Unspeakable Vice’s Shawn Sprockett in conversation with Dr. Nan Alamilla Boyd, Marga Gomez, and Carolina Osoria as they discuss these often forgotten histories—and consider the reasons that have caused them to fade from public memory.
Speakers
MODERATOR: Shawn Sprockett (he/him) is an Adjunct Professor at the California College of Arts in the graduate Interaction Design program, where he teaches visual design and creative thinking. He started developing Unspeakable Vice, a volunteer-based queer history walking tour project, in 2018. The project explores lesser known stories of LGBTQ San Francisco, particularly the influence of People of Color and women in the development of queer culture and activism.
Carolina Osoria (Wixáritari mestizaje), is a PhD Candidate and Program Associate at the Transgender District. Much of her field work and research is centered around Feminist, Medieval, Gender and Critical Race Studies. Her work is rooted within researching Indigenous, non-Christian, queer and trans representations within pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial literature, poetics, and Inquisitional records with an emphasis on the modalities used to enact modern systems power, through a hemispheric lens.
Marga Gomez (she/her), one of the first openly lesbian comedians in the nation, got her start in the Queer cabarets of San Francisco. She is preparing for the October premiere of her 15th solo play “Spanish Stew” at San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theater Center. She has also been presented Off-Broadway, nationally and internationally. Gomez is the recipient of a GLAAD Media Award for Theatre and a 2022 fellowship from United States Artists as well as a 2024 San Francisco Arts Council Grant. Learn more at margagomez.com
Dr. Nan Alamilla Boyd (she/her) has a B.A. in history from UC Berkeley (1986) and a PhD in American Studies from Brown University (1995). She is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University where she teaches courses in the history of sexuality, queer theory, historical methodology, and urban studies. Her book, Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 (University of California Press, 2003), charts the rise of gay and lesbian politics in San Francisco and draws from the 45 oral histories she conducted as part of her research. Her second book, Bodies of Evidence: the Practice of Queer Oral History (Oxford, 2012), co-edited with Horacio N. Roque Ramírez, pairs fourteen oral history excerpts alongside commentaries by oral historians. Nan is currently at work on a third book project, The G-Spot: Tourism and Gentrification in San Francisco. This book-in-progress links the history of tourism to gentrification by exploring the commodification of four San Francisco neighborhoods (Chinatown, North Beach, Castro, Fillmore). Nan has been a long-term volunteer at the GLBT Historical Society. She founded the Historical Society’s oral history project in 1992, co-chaired the Archives Committee from 2004-2008, and served two terms on the Board of Directors.
Members Perks
Interested in becoming a member of the GLBT Historical Society? Members enjoy all sorts of perks, including free access to this event. Learn more.