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.
2026
Panel | The Business of Care: Lesbian Economies Across Time
March 19, 2026
Speakers: Dr. Kerby Lynch (Moderator), Joan Antonuccio, Sharon De la Peña Davenport, Kin Folkz
Lesbian businesses have never been just businesses. They have been sites of creativity, survival, mutual aid, and collective imagination.
Join us for an evening of conversation exploring the lesbian businesses, networks, and mutual aid infrastructures that shaped Bay Area community life — and what their legacy means for us today.
Presented in conjunction with Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care, 1970–1995, this panel brings together organizers, historians, and community builders to reflect on what it took to cultivate spaces of survival and self-determination — and how that work continues.
At the center of the conversation is the Brick Hut Café in Berkeley — a lesbian-owned, collectively operated restaurant that became a political home, community anchor, and lived example of feminist ethics of care in action. From hiring practices to protest closures, the Brick Hut embodied a vision of economy rooted in shared values and collective responsibility.
Today's organizers continue this work across queer media networks, open mic nights, public art, and nightlife — transferring knowledge and cultivating the know-how required to access collective queer power.
What does it take to build spaces that hold us and last?
In Their Own Words: Trans People of Color Speak from the Video Archives
February 5, 2026
Speakers: Ms. Bob Davis
Drawn from the GLBT Historical Society collections, this program was an evening of rare archival footage spotlighting Black, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander trans and gender-nonconforming people speaking about their lives, identities, and activism, including excerpts from Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria (alongside extended interviews with trailblazing figures featured in the film) and candid clips capturing everyday trans and gender-nonconforming life in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
This event was presented in celebration of our featured exhibition, I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live, co-presented with the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive and on view through February 15, 2026. The exhibition honors trans and gender-nonconforming trailblazers of color who lived boldly and authentically despite racism, homophobia, transphobia, and class prejudice.
2025
Author Talk | The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Visionary of Weimar Berlin
December 11, 2025
Speakers: Gerard Koskovich (Moderator), Daniel Brook
More than a century ago, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld — the “Einstein of Sex” — became renowned for his groundbreaking theory of sexual relativity. Nearly 100 years after the Nazis burned his books and hounded him from the queer mecca he helped build, Hirschfeld’s vision of sexuality and gender as continual and fluid, rather than rigid binaries, has never been more important.
Join the GLBT Historical Society for an Author Talk and book signing with journalist Daniel Brook, in conversation with historian and Society founding member, Gerard Koskovich. Brook will highlight Hirschfeld’s 1931 visit to the Bay Area, including a tour of San Quentin State Prison, during which he advocated for Black transgender inmates ensnared by California's capriciously enforced law against consensual oral sex.
Speaking Of: The State of Drag
November 20, 2025
Speakers: Shawn Sprockett (Moderator), Sister T’aint A Virgin, VERA!, Vin Seaman
Visit a gay bar in New York, Los Angeles, or even Nashville on a random weeknight and you might stumble onto a drag performance. In San Francisco, by contrast, drag is more deliberate — highly advertised, less spontaneous, and concentrated in only a few venues.
What can the community do to make this iconic subculture more abundant here? And how can we foster a greater diversity of drag expression in the city?
Join Unspeakable Vice’s Shawn Sprockett and a slate of local luminaries as they explore the past, present, and future of drag in San Francisco — and discuss how queer art can be better supported by the queer community.
Virtual Panel | Hidden Histories: Queer Lives in the American South
October 30, 2025
Speakers: Jonathan Coleman, PhD., Jean Donohue, Molly June Roquet
During October 2025, the GLBT Historical Society in partnership with the Faulker Morgan Archive and Media Working Group hosted virtual screenings for for a groundbreaking film trilogy exploring the rich, overlooked history of LGBTQ+ communities in the American South spanning 150 years. Throughout LGBTQ History Month, each of the three films premiered for streaming a week apart for watching through the end of October, culminating in a live virtual panel discussion with the filmmaker and historians.
Following the third film, award-winning filmmaker Jean Donohue was joined by scholars and archivists from the Faulkner-Morgan Archive and the GLBT Historical Society for a virtual panel discussion, reflecting on the films and discussing the importance of preserving queer histories around the country, the challenges and unique considerations for their respective geographical focus, and answered audience questions.
Virtual Event | Alive in the Archives
September 10, 2025
Speakers: Alex Melody Burnett, Martín H. González Romero
At this free virtual event, the 2023 and 2024 Allan Bérubé Research Stipend recipients discussed their exciting research projects and spoke about their experiences doing archival research in the rich archival holdings of the GLBT Historical Society.
Contested Curriculum: LGBTQ History Goes to School
September 4, 2025
Speakers: Dr. Don Romesburg, Carolyn Laub, Rick Oculto
On the heels of the recent publication of his newest book, Contested Curriculum: LGBTQ History Goes to School, advocate and scholar Don Romesburg will discuss the surprisingly long journey to bring LGBTQ-inclusive history education to U.S. K-12 schools.
In this moment of systematic erasure of queer and trans histories and public lives, it is more vital than ever that we understand the past so that we may chart a path forward. Professor Romesburg will also join fellow LGBTQ-inclusive education activists and professionals Rick Oculto and Carolyn Laub to give practical tips on how to incorporate LGBTQ history when inclusive education is under siege—both contemporary suggestions for how to do this work and how we incorporate the lessons from the history of this fight.
Speaking Of: The Castro Fog - Why We Forget Our Other Gayborhoods
August 21, 2025
Speaker: Shawn Sprockett (Moderator), Carolina Osoria, Marga Gomez
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.
Intergenerational Inspiration: Trans Artists Envision a More Expansive Future
August 7, 2025
Speakers: Éamon McGivern, Sloane Holzer, JoJo, Sasha Fuentes
Join us for an evening of conversation and reflection with artist Éamon McGivern, whose exhibition A/History, currently on view at The Museum, explores trans identity through archival materials, personal memory, and painterly interpretation.
McGivern will be joined by a panel of fellow trans artists and friends for a dynamic discussion on the influences, inspirations, and legacies that shape their work.
Together, these panelists will explore how “transcestors”—trans and gender-expansive figures from history—inform contemporary identity and creative expression. The conversation will highlight intergenerational connections, the process of developing the self with or without precedent, and the ways trans artists draw on the past to envision more expansive futures.
Author Talk | Black. Fat. Femme
June 12, 2025
Speakers: Jonathan P. Higgins, Elena Gross
Join the GLBT Historical Society for an evening with author Dr. Jonathan P. Higgins discussing their new book, Black. Fat. Femme: Revealing the Power of Visibly Queer Voices in Media and How to Love Yourself, a celebration of queer voices in the media and beyond. With a foreword by Latrice Royale of RuPaul’s Drag Race and HBO’s We’re Here fame, the book delivers an honest look at how Higgins and others who are often overlooked in the world have come to understand their identities, and the important role Black, Fat, Femme predecessors like Andre Leon Talley, Miss Lawrence and Ms. J have played in helping people like us learn what’s possible.
The book and Dr. Higgins’ talk explores the representation of marginalized people, and why Black Fat Femme people are so often left out and erased from LGBTQ+ conversations.
Film Screening & Discussion | SALLY! @ The Roxie Theater
April 21, 2025
Speakers: Leigh Pfeffer (Moderator), Deborah Craig, Ruth Mahaney, M Tillotson
Presented in celebration of Lesbian Visibility Week, join the GLBT Historical Society in partnership with The Roxie Theater and Bay Area Lesbian Archives for a screening of the documentary, “Sally!”, followed by a post-show discussion on the importance of archiving lesbian lives, triumphs, and activism.
“Sally!” the feature documentary begins with Sally Gearhart at the height of her powers in the 1970s. She was one of second-wave feminism’s most beloved icons, penned a cult classic fantasy novel about a female utopia and fought one of history’s greatest battles for queer rights shoulder-to-shoulder with Harvey Milk. But fast forward to 2008 and Sally has been largely forgotten by history—not to mention erased from the Hollywood film “Milk.” Yet rather than simply resurrecting her legacy and glorifying one woman’s story, “Sally!” now takes a more collectivist turn. The film traces Sally’s life trajectory through the eyes of the exceptional women who fought for justice by her side, revealing that Sally not only instigated the political movements that made her famous but was also deeply shaped by them. Finally, when we revisit Sally in 2014, she is living alone on Women’s Land, without the community she helped create. What happened and what will become of her legacy?
March 13, 2025
Speakers: Mariette Pathy Allen, Ms. Bob Davis, Jesse Egner
Join renowned photographer and artist Mariette Pathy Allen inconversation with Ms. Bob Davis and Jesse Egner as they discuss Mariette's latest book, I Was The Girl: Art by Vicky West, published by MATTE Editions.
For nearly five decades, Mariette Pathy Allen has captured the lives and stories of gender-non-conforming communities through herlens. Mariette’s newest book, co-edited by Jesse Egner, preserves and honors the legacy of Vicky West, a groundbreaking transgender illustrator and artist. Vicky co-founded Drag Magazine in 1971, a pioneering publication that celebrated trans and drag culture while advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility. Vicky served as art director of Drag Magazine from its inception in 1971 until its final issue in 1983. In addition to her work with Drag Magazine, Vicky, known as Dirk in her male identity, had a distinguished career as an executive art director at Abrams Books until her retirement in 2000.
This book features 64 of Vicky’s original illustrations, including some of her iconic Drag Magazine covers, exploring themes of beauty, femininity, fashion, fantasy, and desire, often with playful naughtiness and wry humor. In addition to these illustrations, the book includes 18 intimate photographs of Vicky taken by Mariette, as well as written contributions, including an essay by Ms. Bob Davis, that explore Vicky's experiences, cultural context, and artistic process.
Illustrated Talk | The Very Queer Life of "The Italian Invert"
January 16, 2025
Speakers: Gerard Koskovich (Moderator), Michael Rosenfeld
In 1889, a 23 year old queer Italian wrote to celebrated French novelist Émile Zola about his desires, his loves and his hesitations regarding his gender identity. The young man bares his soul and hopes the novelist will create a character in his image.
Zola instead passed the autobiography along to a medical doctor, who published parts of the text. The beautifully written coming-of-age tale is a rare first-person testimony documenting how queer men cruised in an era before apps, reveals what they did once they “matched” and demonstrates that love between men indeed existed at that time.
Antwerp-based historian Michael Rosenfeld's new book offers a translation of the unexpurgated original autobiography and a historical discussion of its sources and context: The Italian Invert: A Gay Man's Intimate Confession to Emile Zola (Columbia University Press).
Join us at the GLBT Historical Society Museum on Thursday, January 16, 2025, for a look into the life of the "Italian invert," Rosenfeld's archival research and the enduring significance of 19th-century queer life and culture. Rosenfeld will offer an overview of the book and will take part in a conversation with historian Gerard Koskovich.
This event is co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco and the Department of Modern Language & Literatures at San Francisco State University.