Early Bird Tickets Available Now!
Saturday, October 18, 2025
The Westin St. Francis, San Francisco
Cocktails: 6:00 p.m. | Dinner: 7:00 p.m.
Early Bird General Admission: $225
Early Bird Table Captain (Table of 10): $2250
* Early bird pricing ends 11:59pm PT, Mon., Aug. 25 *
Interested in Sponsoring Reunion?
Individual Sponsorships
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Photos: Guests and honorees from Reunion on October 19, 2024. Photos by Colin Hussey and Niko Storment.
ABOUT REUNION
This year's celebration marks the Society's 40th anniversary from our beginnings in March 1985.
Since 1990, the GLBT Historical Society’s annual gala has brought together hundreds of LGBTQ+ and allied community members from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, in support of the Society’s mission.
Reunion also recognizes the extraordinary contributions of individuals and organizations making a difference to our understanding of LGBTQ+ history and culture and improving the lives of LGBTQ+ community members.
This year, we are honored to present History Maker Awards to Cheryl Dunye & Sean Dorsey, in recognition of their trailblazing careers.
Hosted by the unforgettable duo of Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany, the evening and will include a cocktail reception, three-course dinner, program, silent auction, and the opportunity to connect with your community.
Please join us as we commemorate this historic milestone.
Read the full Press Release announcing our 2025 Gala History Maker Award honorees.
About this year’s Honorees
Sean Dorsey
Sean Dorsey is an Emmy award-winning choreographer, dancer, writer, educator and activist. Long recognized as the U.S.’ first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, Dorsey has toured his work to more than 35 cities across the US and abroad – and taught with his explicitly trans-positive pedagogy in more than 40 cities.
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Dorsey is a Doris Duke Artist, a United States Artists Fellow, and a Dance/USA Artist Fellow. He has been awarded an Emmy Award, five Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, and the Goldie Award for Performance. In 2019, he became the first openly-transgender person on the cover of Dance Magazine. Dorsey is the first openly-transgender US artist to be presented by The Joyce Theater (NYC), American Dance Festival and many other major stages.
As a transgender, white, disabled/Hard-of-hearing and queer longtime social practice artist, Dorsey creates his works over 2-3 years in deep relationship with/in community. Dorsey’s dances are powerful explorations of human experience – a fusion of full-throttle dance, luscious partnering, intimate storytelling and theater. Highly physical, accessible, rooted in story, and danced with precision and guts and deep humanity, Dorsey’s works have been praised as “exquisite…poignant and important” (BalletTanz), “trailblazing” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “evocative, compelling, elegant” (LA Weekly).
As a teaching artist, Dorsey leads workshops, classes and DREAM LABS with a trans-positive pedagogy – and centers and celebrates gender non-conforming and trans bodies, voices and aesthetics.
Dorsey is the founder and Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions, a San Francisco-based arts organization that invests in the creative expression and cultural leadership of transgender and gender-nonconforming communities. Fresh Meat creates and commissions new work, presents performing arts programs, conducts education and engagement, and advocates for intersectional justice and equity in the Arts.
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye is a Liberian-American director, producer, and writer who emerged as part of the "queer new wave" of young filmmakers of the 1990s. She is known as the first out black lesbian to ever direct a feature film with her 1996 film The Watermelon Woman, which won the Teddy Award for Best Feature at the Berlin International Film Festival.
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She has made over 15 films, including MOMMY IS COMING, THE OWLS, MY BABY’S DADDY, and HBO’s STRANGER INSIDE, which garnered her an Independent Spirit award nomination for best director. In 2015, Dunye’s multi-award-winning short film, BLACK IS BLUE (2014), was named one of the top five “Must See Feminist Films” by IndieWire. In 2016, Dunye received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Filmmaking. She is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Often set within a domestic or personal context, her stories foreground issues of race, sexuality, and identity, and are peppered with deconstructive elements, with characters directly addressing the camera and making ironic references to the production itself. These devices, and her appearance in her own films blur the distinctions between fiction and "real life”. Dunye’s work is defined by her distinctive narrative voice, a hybrid of documentary and fiction dubbed "Dunyementary" style.
In recent years, Cheryl has entered a new wave of her career as a director for episodic television, first by joining Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey for two episodes on Season 2 and Producing Director for Season 4 of OWN’s QUEEN SUGAR, CLAWS for TNT, THE CHI for Showtime, DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, UMBRELLA ACADEMY and BRIDGERTON for Netflix, DAVID MAKES MAN for OWN, ALL RISE AND THE EQUALIZER for CBS, and LOVECRAFT COUNTRY for HBO, for which her “Strange Case” episode received a 52nd NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series and has been named one of the best episodes in 2020 by The Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Tonight. More recently, Cheryl directed episodes for YOU and THE HUNTING WIVES for Netflix.
In 2018, she launched her Oakland-based production company called JINGLETOWN FILMS, which is actively developing — THE GILDA STORIES, an adaptation of the beloved 1991 queer vampire novel by Jewelle Gomez, and the feature-length version of her award-winning short, BLACK IS BLUE.
TICKET INFORMATION
Early Bird General Admission: $225
Your support comes with one (1) ticket to all the fun at the gala!
Early Bird Table Captain (Table of 10): $2250
Your support comes with ten (10) tickets, grouped together at a table, for all the fun for you and your guests at the gala.
ABOUT THIS YEAR’S HOSTS
Sister Roma - The Most Photographed Nun In The World ™
Sister Roma has been one of the most outspoken and globally recognized members of San Francisco's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for nearly four decades, dedicating more than half her life to community service, activism, and fundraising.
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She has helped raise over $1M for charity and created social movements, including Drag Up! Fight Back!, the #MyNameIs campaign, and Sisters Care: Safety First, Sexy Second, to name a few. She has served as the Grand Marshal of Pride in San Francisco, Prague, and Shanghai, and named SF Most Notable Drag Queen (2011), Bay Area Best Activist (2014), SFAF Cleve Jones Leadership Award (2019), and honored as a 2023 Pride Honoree by the California State Legislature LGBT Caucus.
But don't get it twisted, this Sister is no Saint! Her colorful wit and sharp tongue have made Roma one of San Francisco’s favorite entertainers and emcees, landing her front and center on the main stages of the SF Pride, Folsom Street Fiar, and Easter in the Park where she emcees the infamous Hunky Jesus Contest. Roma is blessed to travel the globe as an LGBTQ ambassador, performer, and event host, striving to uphold her Sisterly vows to expiate stigmatic guilt and promulgate universal joy. For those who question her title as The Most Photographed Nun In The World™ Roma has one thing to say: Google it!
Honey Mahogany
Honey is a co-founder of San Francisco's Transgender District, the first legally recognized transgender neighborhood in the world, and a co-owner of the Stud Bar, SF’s oldest LGBT venue.
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Honey Mahogany received her Masters in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley and has spent 20 years working in social change and public policy. Honey worked as a legislative aide and then became chief of staff to then Supervisor Matt Haney at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She later worked as Haney’s District Director at the California State Assembly. Honey was elected to her local Democratic Party and eventually became chair, making her the first transgender person to serve as chair of any local Democratic Party in the US. In 2024 Honey served as a delegate to the Democratic National Committee, and she continues to serve as a delegate to the California Democratic Party. Honey also appeared on Season 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, is a founding queen of Drag Story Hour, and a singer with nu-metal group Commando having performed at SXSW and headlined Noise Pop and several other festivals. Honey currently works as the Director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives in San Francisco. Her work has earned her Sainthood from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and awards from numerous organizations including Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, The GLIDE Center for Social Justice, and the Women's Foundation of California. Most recently, she was recognized as a 2025 Woman of the Year by the State of California.
INTERESTED IN SPONSORING REUNION?
Sponsoring the gala helps us preserve and celebrate LGBTQ+ history and culture. It also ensures that you and your guests can be part of this special evening dedicated to uplifting the many histories, identities, and experiences that shape our community.
Read about our sponsorship opportunities:
For more information on gala sponsorship opportunities, including customizing your support and unique activations, please contact Brad Snyder, Director of Development & Communications, brad@glbthistory.org or 415.777.5455 x009
Presenting Sponsor
lead Sponsors
Karen Merzenich & Ross Fubini
platinum Sponsors
Rick Brown
Robert Holgate
Peter Lundberg & James Mowdy
gold Sponsors
Sasha Aickin & Doni Gewirtzmen
Patrick Batt on behalf of the Castro Community Meeting Room
Horizons Foundation
Esperanza Macias & Gwenn Craig
Jason Seifer & Brian Ayer
SILVER Sponsors
Randy Alfred | TJ Firpo & Ben Bowler
Kaiser Permanente | Aurelie van der Cruisse
Lena Wong
bronze Sponsors
Roberto Ordeñana & Ryan M. King
Brad Snyder & Christopher Bellanca