#glbt historical society

[jamisonwieser]

I'm getting new neighbors. GLBT Historical Society is moving out of a tiny space off Castro Street, and moving into a huge 11,000 square feet space at my corner.

Ending a two-decades-long search for a suitable site, city officials have landed on a massive two-story shopping center in San Francisco's Castro district as the permanent home for a LGBTQ history museum and archival center. The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the $11.6 million purchase of the property in the coming weeks. It will pave the way for the GLBT Historical Society to move into the vacant second floor of the Market & Noe Center at 2280 Market Street, likely sometime in 2025. The nonprofit currently rents a jewel box of a gallery space on 18th Street in the heart of the city's LGBTQ neighborhood and leases space for its archives and offices in a downtown office building.

For all the doom, gloom, and empty storefronts, this was the last vacancy on my block to be filled.

[vintagesapphics]

women kissing at the 1990 National Bisexual Conference in San Francisco, CA

[maryjanedoex]

Lorraine Hurdle (1922-2014) was a Black lesbian woman who served in the United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in Germany during World War II.

[candywormz]

Take me back (Castro Street Fair, San Francisco)

Photographs by Crawford Wayne Barton, courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society

[lesboevils]

with pride month approaching and my old archival links post being broken into several annoying sections. here are some useful starting places on lgbt history.

disclaimer: most of this has to do with usamerican history / are in english my apologies, this is just what i had on hand. if you have more please feel free to add them or dm them to me.

the act up oral history project

the lesbian herstory archives

the transgender archives of the university of victoria

the digital transgender archives

glbt historical society

lgbtq digital collaboratory

anything that moves

the bisexual manifesto (1990)

samuel proctor oral history project

a full master post of lesile feinberg's works (stone butch blues included ) by @genderoutlaws

the queer zine archive

dyke march compilation

paris is burning ( documentary )

how to survive a plague ( documentary )

united in anger: a history of ACT UP ( documentary )

screaming queens ( documentary )

the celluloid closet ( documentary )

one institute

audre lorde's poetry collection

aqurives

bi women's quarterly (1/2)

[lesbianlenses]

Lorraine Hurdle, a Black lesbian woman and WWII veteran, donated her extensive archive to the GLBT Historical Society. Her photos give a rare look inside 1940s military lesbian life. Here she is later in life, proudly presenting her office and garden.

[queerasfact]

Happy birthday Ruth Ellis!

Lesbian centenarian Ruth Ellis was born on 23 July 1899 and lived until 5 October 2000. Despite having no queer role-models, Ruth came out as a lesbian in her teens, and in the 1930s, she began a relationship with Babe Franklin.

Ruth and Babe were together for 30 years, with their home in Detroit forming a centre for queer Black life, and a refuge for queer Black people in the years before the Civil Rights movement and Stonewall.

In 1999, when she turned 100, Ruth was celebrated as the USA’s oldest living out lesbian.

Check out our podcast on Ruth to learn more

[Image by Daniel Nicoletta, source GLBT Historical Society]

[whatevergreen]

12th Annual International Two Spirit Gathering Attendees, San Francisco, 1999

Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS)'s float in the 2008 San Francisco Pride parade.

Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS), Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society, San Francisco CA

[dykes4timrand]

on growing up queer in a small town, a meddling kids webweave for @enby-ralsei for the pride @jrwi-art-exchange hope you like it, happy pride !!!!!!!!!

gilbert baker pride flag - glbt historical society // blood in the bayou: the elderbrain // heartbreak town - the chicks // @/richard siken on twitter // where i be & you just might - danez smith // jesus at the gay bar - jay hulme // gay like me: a father writes to his son - richie jackson // blood in the bayou: metamorphosis // fast car - tracy chapman // love poem to a butch woman - deborah a. miranda // @/ladygagasuperf on twitter // a glimpse - walt witman // how to be queer in a small town // peace news archive/university of bradford special collections

[shitty-tma-aus]

au where instead of the magnus institute, theyre archivists at the glbt historical society. there are still horrors but theyre all gay

this is just canon. are you new here

[physiqueandfantasy]

When it rains it pours. I’m picking up 7 more boxes of vintage magazines today from a friend today. He was cleaning out a friend’s apartment and found hundreds of magazines.

I’m getting to an interesting point where I’m starting to get duplicates of magazines and I’m not sure what to do with them. Maybe I’ll set up an online store or something. The problem is that all the regular outlets, (eBay, Etsy, Meta) have really restrictive content policies and they take a pretty huge percentage of the sale.

Also I am friends with a few people that work at the SF GLBT historical society and they absolutely do not need more gay porn for their collection.

[camisoledadparis]

San Francisco residents and visitors: Looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow evening (January 16) for exceptional program at the GLBT Historical Society Museum (@glbt_history):

My friend the Belgian historian Michael Rosenfeld will present his new book, "The Italian Invert: A Gay Man's Intimate Confessions to Emile Zola" (Columbia University Press).

Join us at the museum for a look into the life of the "Italian invert," Michael's archival research and the enduring significance of 19th-century queer life and culture. Michael will offer an overview of the book — and I'll interview Michael and will facilitate the Q&A.

The program is cosponsored by the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco and the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at San Francisco State University .

For full details and to reserve advance tickets, see link in bio.

BACKGROUND

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 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.

Michael Rosenfeld's new book offers a translation of the unexpurgated original autobiography and a historical discussion of its sources and context.

[handsomegeniusoffline]

1. Westboro Baptist Church girl standing on the flag, photographer unknown

2. "Dyke" 1993, Catherine Opie

3. Police conduct a raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York on June 28, 1969, Getty Images

4. Portrait of Marsha P. Johnson, photographer unknown

5. IF I DIE OF AIDS-FORGET BURIAL-JUST DROP MY BODY ON THE STEPS OF THE F.D.A 1988, David Wojnarowicz

6. Stormé DeLarverie, The Jewel Box Revue

7. Original pride flag by Gilbert Baker on display at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco

8. The first legal same-sex marriage ceremony in the USA, February 12, 2004, between Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Liz Mangelsdorf/The Chronicle

Images created using colored pencils and sticker paper, all 3x3" or smaller.

[californiastatelibrary]

Meet Lorraine Hurdle, a Black lesbian woman who served in the United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in Germany during World War II. She was born in 1922 and passed away in 2014. 

Photos via The GLBT Historical Society. 

[gayest-historian]

Rainbow Flag Creation

Sorry for disapearing for a bit but I'm back again!

Today I'll be talking about the history of the rainbow flag as a symbol for queer people. It all started with Gillbert Baker, an artist, gay man and drag queen. After an honorable discharge from the military he taught himself to sew to pass the time. He later met Harvey Milk, an extremely influential figure that will get his own post, in 1974. Milk challenged him to create a flag for the queer community which would later be used in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25 of 1978. When speaking about his choice to create a flag in an interview he said the following:

"Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’"

- Gillbert Baker

The original pride flag had 8 stripes, each with their own meanings: Pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, teal for magic indigo for serenity and violet for spirit. This flag has been criticized, as many are, for having arbitrary colour meanings but that's a discussion for another day.

Later on, the pink stripe was removed due to difficulty with finding dyes for it so it could be more widely produced. The teal was also removed so that the flag would have an even number of stripes.

A portion of the first rainbow pride flag (pictured below) now lives in the GLBT Historical Society Museum and Archives in San Fransisco. It seems to be the only surviving remnant of the once 30ft by 60ft flag.

Eventually I plan to go more in-depth on the life of Gillbert Baker himself but for now this will do. I hope this taught you something new!

Edits: Originally said teal stripe was taken out due to dye difficulties like pink

[iphigeniacomplex]

rejoice! the glbt historical society has a digital archive collecting the writing of camille moran, a transgender activist for psychiatric survivor rights who advocated for the removal of gender identity disorder from the dsm

you may be familiar with moran from her statement in the fall '93 issue of ex-patient newsletter dendron, "why a transgendered woman calls for psychiatry's destruction". (if not, it can be accessed here, on page 17.) her writing on the psychiatric abuse she experienced as a transgender woman is crucial reading for anyone interested in the psychiatric survivors movement or anti-psychiatric perspectives.