Past Events
Many of our recent educational forums, programs and events have been recorded on video and are available for viewing online. Scroll down for information on these programs and links to video recordings where available. Click on the link in the event title to see complete details for each event.
2024
Film Screening | Day With(out) Art 2024: Red Reminds Me...
December 12, 2024
The GLBT Historical Society is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2024 by presenting Red Reminds Me…, a program of seven videos reflecting the emotional spectrum of living with HIV today.
Red Reminds Me… will feature newly commissioned videos by Gian Cruz (Philippines), Milko Delgado (Panama), Imani Harrington (USA), David Oscar Harvey (USA), Mariana Iacono and Juan De La Mar (Argentina/Colombia), Nixie (Belgium), Vasilios Papapitsios (USA).
Give Us the Word: Queer Yesterday, Today and Forever
November 7, 2024
Speakers: Crystal Mason, Ms. Momos (Therese Davis), Mason J., Tijanna O. Eaton, Joshua Merchant
On Thursday, November 7th, the GLBT Historical Society and Queer Rebel Productions presents "Give Us The Word: Queer Yesterday, Today, and Forever", a powerful literary exploration of Queer and Trans BIPOC history.
Held at the GLBT Historical Society Museum, this event is curated by Crystal Mason and features four talented writers crafting new works inspired by the museum's exhibition, “Queer Past Becomes Present.” The evening will celebrate how queer history shapes our present and inspires future generations to build inclusive communities that embrace diversity. Following the readings, a short panel discussion will offer insight into the creative process and the ways in which history continues to fuel queer and trans resilience.
Join us for an unforgettable evening of storytelling, reflection, and celebration of Queer and Trans BIPOC voices!
Read for Filth: Celebrating Banned Books & James Baldwins' 100th Birthday
September 19, 2024
Performers: Afrika America (Emcee), Anthony Rollins-Mullens, Coco Buttah
Join the GLBT Historical Society and Books Not Bans for a celebration of banned books and the works of James Baldwin! A Black and gay writer, activist, and one of the most incisive and eloquent voices at the intersections of racial justice and queer acceptance, James Baldwin would have turned 100 this year in August, and we are highlighting his work, legacy, and impact on literature and queer history, amid a time when his work and other Black and queer creative legacies are being banned and challenged throughout the country.
Come to the GLBT Historical Society Museum for an evening of live readings from Baldwin’s works, drag performances inspired by Baldwin and the music and LGBTQ artists he surrounded himself with, and a discussion on the power of literature and performance toward liberation.
Film Screening | 30th Anniversary of "Straight for the Money: Interviews with Queer Sex Workers"
June 20, 2024
Speaker: Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa
In conjunction with the exhibit Erotic Resistance: Performance, Art, and Activism in San Francisco Strip Clubs (1960s–1990s), this special event commemorates the 30th anniversary of the iconic documentary Straight for the Money: Interviews with Queer Sex Workers (1994) by Hima B. The film offers unique perspectives on sex work from queer women who share the insights they gained working in this predominantly heterosexual- and male-dominated industry.
Straight for the Money premiered in 1994 at Frameline: The San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival. It screened at the 1994 Whitney Biennial and at the same venue that year for a separate program titled, “From India to America: New Directions in Indian Film and Video.” In the mid-1990s, the filmmaker self-distributed the film during its run on the international film festival circuit featuring LGBTQ, South Asian, and women directors.
Hima B. directs social issue documentary films centering on the contemporary realities that LGBTQ BIPOC women and girls face. She is currently directing a feature documentary about a gun violence survivor exploring love, in spite of her gun-inflicted disability.
Curator and author Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa will introduce the film and facilitate a discussion with the audience afterward.
June 7, 2024
Speaker: Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa
Erotic Resistance: Performance, Art, and Activism in San Francisco Strip Clubs (1960s-1990s) preserves the memory of the city’s bohemian past and its essential role in the development of American adult entertainment. It highlights the contributions of queer women, trans women, and women of color who were instrumental in the city's labor history, as well as its LGBTQ and sex workers' rights movements. In the 1960s, topless entertainment became legal in the city for the first time in US history, though cross-dressing continued to be criminalized. In the 1990s, stripper-artist-activists led the first successful class action lawsuits and efforts to unionize. The exhibit sheds light on intersectional communities in the making and the women who played a critical role in this history, which has often been hidden from view.
On view are artworks, performance documents, and other ephemera pertaining to women that were interviewed for this research project or whose archives are still in the process of being co-constructed by individuals and collecting institutions alike.
This exhibit is titled after Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa’s dissertation, now published as Erotic Resistance: The Struggle for the Soul of San Francisco (University of California Press, 2024). During her research, she encountered objects in the GLBT Historical Society’s archives that are featured in this exhibition and that tell the story of the cross-pollination of LGBTQ venues, strip clubs, and burlesque theaters by sex worker and LGBTQ communities alike, during the latter part of the twentieth century.
Memory Keepers Initiative #3: Raising The Curtain on San Francisco's Queer Arts Legacy
April 18, 2024
Speakers: Leigh Pfeffer (moderator), Seth Eisen, Jewelle Gomez, Scrumbly Koledwyn
On April 18th, the GLBT Historical Society will host the third Memory Keepers Initiative program with the San Francisco Gay Mens’ Chorus - a vital evening uplifting the authentic, first-person narratives of LGBTQ artists from the Bay Area. This evening will feature elders, activists and trailblazers through a curated discussion and storytelling, ensuring our often distorted or erased queer histories are preserved in their own powerful voices for generations to come.
Memory Keepers Initiative brings our cherished queer elders into conversation with today's LGBTQ community and allies, fostering a dialogue that spans activism, art, community, politics, and beyond. After years of pioneering efforts in LGBTQ rights, it's time to honor our heroes and ensure their invaluable stories are shared and celebrated for generations to come.
Opening Reception | You Are Here: Claiming Your Place in History
April 11, 2024
For hundreds of years, small minded groups have sought to erase LGBTQ people from the landscape and to write us out of history. At the same time as our enemies have sought to erase us, we have kept our stories alive for each other. Shared through oral traditions, hidden in plain sight through codes and secret languages, and carefully passed down from generation-to-generation we have kept our stories alive for centuries.
You Are Here is an intentionally incomplete exhibition, offering a timeline of some important moments in LGBTQ history, and the work to preserve those stories. Visitors are invited to share a memory they want to live on by adding them to the timeline, help us imagine what comes next by declaring a hope for the future.
Gay Power, Gay Politics: 44 Years Later
April 4, 2024
Speakers: Randy Alfred, Myron Caringal
In 1980, documentary series CBS Reports broadcast an episode called “Gay Power, Gay Politics.” Although CBS described the program as a report on the growing influence of the LGBTQ community in San Francisco politics, the show was so biased that the National News Council, a media watchdog organization, found that the CBS show misled viewers and violated journalistic standards. After widespread outrage, CBS apologized on air. Media historians recognize it as the first public apology for distorted coverage of gays and lesbians by a national news organization and a major turning point in coverage throughout the media. Biased coverage still abounds. What are the lessons for today?
This event will screen the entire, unedited broadcast, followed by a discussion reflecting on the circumstances of how the show came to be, the response from the LGBTQ community and journalist Randy Alfred’s 20-page complaint filed to the National News Council that led to CBS’s 1980 apology. This event will chart the evolution of coverage of LGBTQ people in the media and how journalistic methods have changed in regards to our community.
Virtual Event | Archives for Educators
March 19, 2024
Speakers: Kelsi Evans, Isaac Fellman, Devin McGeehan Muchmore
In this virtual event, the staff of the GLBT Historical Society’s Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives & Special Collections discussed how educators can engage with LGBTQ archival material in their classrooms and curricula. The team discussed how educators can use our extensive collections, including digitized primary sources, in their classrooms, and provided guidance on resources available for K-12 educators looking to incorporate LGBTQ topics into their classes, including lesson plans, sample assignments, and source sets.
This is the second of two public events. This event series is supported by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
Author Talk | Let the Record Show: An Evening with Sarah Schulman
March 13, 2024
Speakers: Sarah Schulman, Lito Sandoval
In just six years, ACT UP New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, changed the world. Armed with rancor, desperation, intelligence, and creativity, it took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on the corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. They stormed the FDA and NIH in Washington, DC, and started needle exchange programs in New York; they took over Grand Central Terminal and fought to change the legal definition of AIDS to include women; they transformed the American insurance industry, weaponized art and advertising to push their agenda, and battled—and beat—The New York Times, the Catholic Church, and the pharmaceutical industry. Their activism, in its complex and intersectional power, transformed the lives of people with AIDS and the bigoted society that had abandoned them.
Join the GLBT Historical Society and Fabulosa Books in hosting Sarah Schulman for an author talk and reading from Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993. Based on more than two hundred interviews with ACT UP members and rich with lessons for today’s activists, Let the Record Show is a revelatory exploration—and long-overdue reassessment—of the coalition’s inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture. Schulman, one of the most revered queer writers and thinkers of her generation, explores the how and the why, examining, with her characteristic rigor and bite, how a group of desperate outcasts changed America forever, and in the process created a livable future for generations of people across the world.
Schulman will be joined by former GLBT Historical Society Board Chair and former Secretary of ACT UP San Francisco, Lito Sandoval, for an audience Q&A, followed by a book signing.
Exhibition Opening | API Family Wall of Pride
January 19, 2024
Curated in collaboration with Asian and Pacific Islander Family Pride, the Wall of Pride exhibition invites visitors to dive into stories from parents and families who, through their courage and faith, reclaimed the strong family ties and proud sense of interdependence so characteristic of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) families.
This exhibition showcases stories of pride and acceptance from a diverse array of families. The Wall of Pride honors parents and families who unconditionally love their children regardless of social stigma.
We hope this exhibition serves as a beacon of hope for those living in unwelcoming environments, and as a resource for those looking to connect to their community. In addition to stories from welcoming families, this exhibition includes a resource center with information about local organizations that serve API LGBTQ+ communities.
This exhibition opens Friday, January 19 and will remain on display through summer 2024. Click here for more information about the exhibition.
2023
Workshop | No Straight Lines: Making Queer Comics & Zines
November 2, 2023
Speakers: Ajuan Mance, Rhea Ewing
Join visual artists Ajuan Mance and Rhea Ewing for a workshop with the GLBT Historical Society diving into the power of showcasing queer stories and culture via comics. Utilizing themes of identity, community, and queer culture explored in our latest exhibition, Curve Magazine Cartoons: A Dyke Strippers’ Retrospective, participants will be introduced to the basics of creating autobiographical and personally resonant comic strips and zines using accessible materials. This event will begin with a conversation between our two speakers on their own experiences and work in the medium, and then will move into an interactive DIY workshop inviting LGBTQ+ people to create short memoir comics about themselves, their lives, their experiences and memories.
This event is co-sponsored by The Curve Foundation and Bay Area Queer Zine Fest.
Virtual Event | Archives for Artists
October 24, 2023
Speakers: Kelsi Evans, Isaac Fellman, Devin McGeehan Muchmore
In this virtual event, the staff of the GLBT Historical Society’s Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives & Special Collections discussed how artists can search our extensive collections, including digitized photographs, activist newsletters, oral histories, paintings, drag, and other materials, for their projects. They also answered common questions about copyright, reproductions, and licensing. This event provided tools to incorporate historical material into creative work.
This is the first of two public events. The second event will focus on archives for educators. This event series is supported by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
Dialogue of Inclusivity: Exploring the LGBTQ+ Histories of Zürich and San Francisco
October 5, 2023
Speakers: Zürich Mayor Corine Mauch, SF Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Natalia Guecheva
Join us for an important and introspective conversation on LGBTQ+ histories with Zurich Mayor Corine Mauch at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro. At 10:15 AM on Thursday, October 5, Mayor Mauch will hold an insightful on-stage discussion about her personal experience with LGBTQ+ topics as well as about the history of the Queer scene in Zurich and its evolution to the current day. This event will also serve as a chance to explore how Zurich and San Francisco can further share their commitment to fostering diverse and welcoming communities within their cities.
This event is part of a larger celebration marking 20 years of the San Francisco-Zurich sister city partnership. To join us in the celebrations and discover the full range of our 20th anniversary events, please click here to visit the Swiss Impact website.
Hi Spots in a Low Dive: The Home Movies of Doris Fish
August 10, 2023
Speakers: Phillip R. Ford, Ms. Bob Davis
Phillip R. Ford, director of the cult film classic Vegas in Space (1991), served most of the 1980s as "honorary straight man" in the legendary San Francisco drag troupe Sluts A-Go-Go. Collaborating with his mentor and friend, the legendary drag queen Doris Fish, along with Miss X and “Tippi”, he created and co-starred in some celebrated drag theater, both on nightclub and legitimate stages, which are still lovingly remembered today by those who were there.
Doris Fish hailed from Sydney but relocated mostly full time to San Francisco in the late 70s. Ford was a young filmmaker of 21 when he met Fish, who soon recruited him to direct her feature film obsession Vegas in Space. Little did they know the next decade of their lives would be given over to the toils and triumphs that awaited. Driving under the influence of glamour, film theory and an addictive love of vivid colors and bad acting, they devoted all of their time, money and youth to the completion of Doris and Phillip’s cinematic fantasy. Vegas in Space famously took nine years to complete and created a sensation at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, appeared at festivals worldwide, and was broadcast on USA Network’s Up All Night. The film today is a greater cult phenomenon than when it was released, having inspired generations of young queens the world over to dedicate themselves to follow their own artistic dreams.
In Hi Spots in a Low Dive: The Home Movies of Doris Fish, Ford presents a selection of greatest hits from his extensive “home movie” collection of videos from stage and TV performances together with many glimpses behind-the-scenes. Live onstage he shares his stories and reminiscences, along with a fabulous assortment of video hits from San Francisco in the 1980s, a rather forgotten period of drag theater history. Among the high spots are clips from Nightclub of the Living Dead, The Happy Hour Show, Bad Seed, Gay Cable Network and The Sluts A-Go-Go All Star Gang Bang and Who Does That Bitch Think She Is?.
Exhibition Opening: Curve Magazine Cartoons: A Dyke Strippers’ Retrospective
July 13, 2023
Speakers: Julia Rosenzweig, Frances “Franco” Stevens
This event celebrates the launch of a new exhibition, “Curve Magazine Cartoons: A Dyke Strippers’ Retrospective.” The program will include remarks from curator Julia Rosenzweig and light refreshments. This exhibition will include pieces from the archives of Curve magazine and the GLBT Historical Society.
The landscape of lesbian cartoons in the 1990s was small yet vibrant; full of passion, satire, self-deprecation, and deep-cutting political and social commentary. Publishing these cartoons in the early years of Curve magazine (which was named Deneuve magazine between 1991-1995) was a natural fit, aligning with the pivotal lesbian publication’s cheeky voice and journalistic integrity, and enhancing both the aesthetics of the pages and its witty content. In the 1990s, these alternative artists had few platforms to publish their voices and their art. Curve magazine is proud to have been at the forefront of amplifying these marginalized voices and allowing them to further spread lesbian representation, culture, and humor.
This exhibition opens Thursday, July 13 and will remain on display through fall 2023. Click here for more information about the exhibition.
April 28, 2023
Speakers: Craig Seligman, Ms. Bob Davis
In WHO DOES THAT BITCH THINK SHE IS: Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag, author Craig Seligman dives into the short but abundant life of Doris Fish (born Philip Mills in 1952). There were effectively three Dorises—the quiet visual artist, the glorious drag queen, and the hunky male sex worker who supported the other two. He started performing in Sydney in 1972 as a member of Sylvia and the Synthetics, a psycho troupe that represented the first anarchic flowering of queer creative energy in the post-Stonewall era. After moving to San Francisco in the mid-’70s, he became the driving force behind years of sidesplitting drag shows that were loved as much as you can love throwaway trash—which is what everybody thought they were. No one, Doris included, perceived them as political theater, when in fact they were accomplishing satire’s deepest dream: not just to rail against society, but to change it. Seligman recounts a dynamic period in queer history — from Stonewall to AIDS — giving insight into how our ideas about gender have broadened to make drag the phenomenon we know it as today.
In conversation with Ms. Bob Davis, founder and director of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive and curator of the GLBT Historical Society’s Doris Fish: Ego as Artform exhibition, Seligman will discuss the life of this outrageous performer and artist and how we can reflect on Doris Fish’s legacy as a guide and inspiration in the fight against current conservative backlash against drag.
Exhibition Opening | Doris Fish: Ego as Artform
April 21, 2023
Speakers: Ms. Bob Davis
This event celebrates the launch of a new exhibition, “Doris Fish: Ego as Artform.” The program will include remarks from curator Ms. Bob Davis and light refreshments. This exhibition will include pieces from Fish’s personal and professional life, and showcase the power of drag to change the world.
Doris Fish was an Australian-born drag performer, actor, writer and artist who split his time between Sydney, Australia and San Francisco, California. He co-wrote and starred in the cult classic film “Vegas in Space,” performed with the drag group Sluts-A-Go-Go, protested the exclusion of drag performers from Pride parades, and increased national visibility of drag by appearing on a wide-selling greeting-card series and a number of talk shows. Fish became one of the most prominent and beloved drag queens in 1980s San Francisco until his death from AIDS complications in 1991.
The exhibition coincides with the release of a new book by Craig Seligman, Who Does That Bitch Think She Is?: Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag. Seligman and Davis will be hosting a book talk on Friday, April 28. For tickets and more information, click here.
This exhibition opens Friday, April 21 and will remain on display through fall 2023. Click here for more information about the exhibition.
Exhibition Opening & Book Launch | Matchmaking in the Archive
March 24, 2023
Speakers: E.G. Crichton
LGBTQ people owe a lot to past generations, yet our historical inheritances are still too often lost or buried. Working with the archives of the GLBT Historical Society, artist E.G. Crichton decided to do something to bridge this generational loss of memory.
This event celebrates the launch of E.G.’s new book, Matchmaking in the Archive: 19 Conversations with the Dead and 3 Encounters with Ghosts and a companion exhibition at the GLBT Historical Society museum. The program will include a panel with project participants and light refreshments.
2022
Community Event | Into the Vault: A Behind-The Scenes Look at the Archives
May 13, 2022
Speakers: Kelsi Evans, Isaac Fellman, Megan Needels
You’ve seen highlights from our archival collections on social media and in programs. Now this program takes you on a behind-the-scenes look at the work of the GLBT Historical Society archivists. You’ll learn how archival staff preserve and share LGBTQ historical material, including processing collections, managing donations, digitizing records and more. You’ll get a peek into the vault, where the archivists will share some of their favorite pieces. Finally, we introduce a new workshop program we are launching this year that provides free archival skills training to the public. Speakers include Kelsi Evans, our director of archives and special collections; Isaac Fellman, reference archivist; and Megan Needels, project archivist. They are joined by members of our Archives Working Group, a volunteer advisory group consisting of local archivists, historians and others in related fields.
Mighty Reels | Shining Queer Blue Light on LGBTQ Life
March 4, 2022
Speaker: John Carr
Last year the GLBT Historical Society digitized a unique archival collection, the Daniel A. Smith and Queer Blue Light Videotapes, which consists of nearly 100 half-inch videotapes recorded by the Queer Blue Light (QBL) Collective. QBL was a grassroots guerilla project that documented the politics and culture of the local LGBTQ community in the 1970s. While the majority of the tapes document QBL activities, they also contain footage by QBL members of friends relaxing together and living everyday life. In this installment of our “Mighty Reels” program series, we screened some of our favorite tapes and spoke with John Carr, a longtime friend of Daniel Smith, who is featured in the footage as the host of a 1980 “Leap Day” dinner party. He discusses how viewing the footage was like “finding the Rosetta Stone” of his life in 1970s queer San Francisco.
Author Talk | Uncovering the Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement
February 25, 2022
Speaker: Wendy L. Rouse
The traditional narrative of women’s suffrage history sanitized the lives of lesbian and queer suffragists, leading to the erasure of the queer history of the movement. Yet, it was often queer suffragists who helped propel the movement forward, as they challenged the gender and sexual norms of their day. In this talk showcasing her newest book, Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement (NYU Press, 2021) historian Wendy Rouse shared the results of her efforts to recover the queer history of the fight for the vote.
Queeriosity Corner | Hidden Gems From the Society’s Vault
February 4, 2022
Speakers: Isaac Fellman, Megan Needels, Ramón Silvestre
GLBT Historical Society archives staff members presented 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 selected some of the most unusual and surprising material objects in the archives and discussed their historical significance. The program culminated 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.
Author Talk | Brewing a Boycott: Where LGBTQ and Labor Activism Intersect
January 21, 2022
Speakers: Allyson Brantley, Miriam Frank
Historians Miriam Frank and Allyson Brantley discussed the long and interwoven history of LGBTQ and labor activism through the lens of Brantley’s new book, Brewing a Boycott: How a Grassroots Coalition Fought Coors and Remade American Consumer Activism (University of North Carolina Press, 2021). Drawing on oral histories and archival collections, including those held by the GLBT Historical Society, Brantley details how activists across the nation, from gay liberationists to Chicano activists and union members, built supportive, vibrant coalitions. Over decades of organizing and coalition-building from the 1950s to the 1990s, they molded the boycott into a powerful means of political protest, challenging the Coors Brewing Company’s antiunion, discriminatory, anti-LGBTQ practices and conservative political ties. This talk will examine the particular success of the boycott in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and consider its impact in light of contemporary ongoing conversations about consumer power and corporate buyouts.