From soaring joy to deep grief, beaming pride to livid outrage, the journalists and photographers of the Bay Area Reporter (B.A.R.) have captured the entire range of human emotions for five decades. They have intently, and often artfully, documented San Francisco’s LGBTQ breaking news, celebrated city milestones, crafted critically acclaimed cover stories, publicized parties, shaped public opinion, inspired activism and brought together a community and family.

Today, the B.A.R. remains a nationally respected newspaper at the forefront of groundbreaking issues, providing immediate online updates as well as producing a weekly print publication.

Stories of Our Movement: Bay Area Reporter at 50 not only documents the evolution of the paper, but also the ways that the BAR has helped to shape, interpret and define the interests of its increasingly heterogeneous readership, as the LGBTQ movement has evolved over the last half-century in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“I have been reading the Bay Area Reporter since I arrived in San Francisco in October, 1977 and have regularly contributed photographs since 1987.

To prepare for this exhibition I went through every issue of the paper, page by page, noting and photographing every cover, important events, transformational issues, first appearances by columnists, creative and significant advertising, and features about artists and entertainers.

Also as a photographer, I need to attend events and meet people in person, so I was able to add this perspective of direct experience to complement the headlines.” R.G.

This exhibition is curated by Rick Gerharter, a community-based photojournalist whose vivid photographs have appeared in diverse outlets—most regularly in the B.A.R. for nearly 35 years.

Gerharter has carefully selected historic headlines, cover images, poignant articles and ads from the paper’s extensive digital archives.

Early on, the Bay Area Reporter’s founders invested in professionalizing the paper by employing trained journalists, paid staff and qualified, knowledgeable reviewers. What started as a mimeographed newsletter evolved into a print newspaper with improved production quality, extensive use of color and creative designs reflecting the styles of the time.

Above is a timeline of the Bay Area Reporter's masthead designs from 1971 to 2021.

The LGBTQ community has gained more diverse recognition in a half-century, from the gays and lesbians of the 1970s to the increasing visibility of transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer and other self-identified people and beautifully complex intersectional identities.

Queer cultures have also grown more diverse; for example, the leather community has incorporated a broader spectrum of kink and fetish identities. One constant for five decades has been the continued vitality of the drag performance scene. Yet, even drag has diversified from the glamour of traditional queens to embrace multiple forms of gender-bending performance.

The Bay Area Reporter has enabled its readers to build communities, establish networks and construct chosen families.

For many LGBTQ people, living their lives openly and with integrity has been fraught with challenges.

The paper has been a vital lifeline for facilitating personal intimacy and professional connections through multiple avenues: BARTalk (personal ads), sex-venue advertising and news of sex-positive events.

“Hookup, escort and dating ads that started as small, printed classifieds turned into display ads with photos, and then advertisements for phone sex and BARtalk appeared, and finally the sexual ecosystem evolved into today’s online hookup sites—which has resulted in the virtual elimination of all personal ads in current issues.” R.G.

Since the early days of what was then called the “Gay Liberation Movement,” the Bay Area Reporter's journalists have held political and community leaders accountable for their actions and promises.

Most political candidates for local office make it a point to engage the B.A.R.’s editorial board. Its editorials and endorsements have also strengthened the political voice and power of the community.

The B.A.R has provided an interactive forum for debate as one of the few gay papers to print letters to the editor almost from the beginning—as early as issue number 4—so that readers could express their feelings both on the paper’s content and issues at large.

The community has challenged, confronted, and greatly mitigated the impact of HIV/AIDS and other health crises. Activism has led to safer streets and improved police relations.

The GLBT Historical Society in cooperation with the Bay Area Reporter has created a searchable online database of all obituaries that have appeared in the Bay Area Reporter since it began publishing them in 1972.

While the fight to end discrimination in the workplace, schools, hospitals and society at large continues, LGBTQ people have made nearly unimaginable gains in the past fifty years, achieving major legislative and judicial victories that have recognized basic human rights and reduced discrimination.

The LGBTQ movement continues to evolve and to fight for its rights. And the Bay Area Reporter continues to galvanize the community to advocate, organize, create, challenge, socialize and party—to keep composing and narrating the multitude of stories that make up our complex, vibrant history.

Rick Gerharter is a San Francisco-based photojournalist who has documented the queer communities of San Francisco and beyond for nearly 35 years. He has been regularly published in the Bay Area Reporter of San Francisco since 1987. Gerharter’s extensive editorial work and travel photography documents performing arts, portraits, architecture and LGBTQ life, and has appeared in a wide variety of periodicals, newspapers, books, films and exhibitions. He is also a contributor to Getty Images. His work is in the collection of the James C. Hormel Center at the San Francisco Public Library and the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco. For more information about Gerharter, visit https://www.rickgerharterphotos.com.