News and Events

For Immediate Release
January 17, 2007

Contact: Don Romesburg, 415.850.8580


“WHAT DO QUEER NEIGHBORHOODS DO FOR CITIES?”
Second Roundtable in New Series
Queer in the City: GLBT Neighborhoods and Urban Planning
Co-sponsored by GLBT Historical Society and Castro Coalition 

SAN FRANCISCO —On Tuesday, January 30, from 6-8 pm, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society will host “What Do Queer Neighborhood Do for Cities?” This roundtable with community leaders is the second in a groundbreaking series, “Queer in the City: GLBT Neighborhoods and Urban Planning,” that the GLBT Historical Society will run through spring.

“What Do Queer Neighborhoods Do for Cities?” will explore the function of GLBT neighborhoods within the greater urban contexts that they shape. It will bring together businesspeople, leaders in San Francisco ’s tourist promotion, activists, and scholars to explore the political, cultural, and economic values of queer neighborhoods for cities. This dialogue will help develop consciousness around why such neighborhoods bring vitality to cities and how governments  and communities should value them.

Panelists will include:

  • Steve Adams, Sterling Bank Vice President and leader in the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro (MUMC)

  • Nan Alamilla Boyd, Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, Sonoma State University , author of Wide Open Town : A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965, and GLBTHS Board Member

  • Joe D’Alessandro, CEO of the San Francisco Convention and
    Visitors Bureau

  • Ben Peacock, Ph.D. candidate in Medical Anthropology at University of California , Berkeley and San Francisco
“Queer in the City” emerges amidst an upsurge of dialogue about the potentially imperiled future of the Castro as a GLBT neighborhood and global destination. Major redevelopment plans may profoundly alter the Castro’s demography and cultural landscape in ways that could both benefit the community and, potentially, threaten it. Series co-sponsor the Castro Coalition has formed to ensure that GLBT neighborhood issues lead “community improvement” efforts.

The first roundtable in the series, “Are Gay Neighborhoods Worth Saving?”, was a standing-room only successful conversation with longtime Castro residents, community housing activists, architects, and urban planners. Panelists and audience members weighed the question of whether or not spaces such as the Castro are worth fighting for, given both their inclusions and possibilities and exclusions and perils.

The next panel, scheduled for February 27 is entitled “What Makes Neighborhoods Queer?” It will bring together activists, authors, preservationists, and scholars, including Don Reuter, an expert on the rise and imperilment of U.S. gay neighborhoods; Dawn Philips, an East Bay activist for people of color and housing rights; and University of Michigan professor Gayle Rubin discussing the South of Market area as an alternate view of queer neighborhood.

WHAT: “What Do Queer Neighborhoods Do For Cities?” roundtable discussion. Free and open to the public, including refreshments.

WHEN: 6-8 pm, Tuesday, January 30, 2007

WHERE: GLBT Historical Society, 657 Mission Street, Suite 300 (btwn. New Montgomery/Third), San Francisco . One block from the Montgomery BART/MUNI station. Inexpensive city parking nearby on Third (btwn. Folsom/Howard).

The mission of the GLBT Historical Society is to increase public understanding, appreciation, and affirmation of the history and culture of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other sexual minority individuals and communities. For more information, call 415.777.5455 or visit www.glbthistory.org.