Past Events 2021

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.

The Engagement: The Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage

December 10, 2021

Speaker: Sasha Issenberg

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, legalizing such marriages across the United States. But the road to that momentous decision was much longer than many know. Author Sasha Issenberg presents his new book The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage (Pantheon Books, 2021). His definitive account of this monumental civil-rights struggle vividly guides us along same-sex marriage’s unexpected path from the unimaginable to the inevitable. The Engagement’s richly detailed narrative follows the coast-to-coast conflict through courtrooms and war rooms, bedrooms and boardrooms, to shed light on every aspect of a political and legal controversy that resolutely divided Americans.

Two-Spirit Identities: Language, Community and Tradition

November 19, 2021

Speakers: Sam Campbell, Faun Harjo, J. Miko Thomas (Landa Lakes), Amelia Vigil

In honor of both Native American Heritage Month and Transgender Awareness Week in November, this program brought together a panel of Two-Spirit people for a conversation about the rich complexity of Two-Spirit identity. Panelists explored the various ways that Two-Spirit people construct their identities through tribal affiliation and LGBTQ terminology, including under the transgender umbrella. They also considered how queerness in indigenous communities has been historically defined and understood and how these traditions have been maintained or adapted in the present.

A GLBT Historical Society Virtual Town Hall

November 16, 2021

Speakers: Yves Averous, Tali Bray, Kelsi Evans, Ben Gilliam, Kyle Levinger, Rigoberto Marquez, Mason J., Leigh Pfeffer, Maria Powers, Francisco Rosas, Mark Sawchuk, Andrew Shaffer

Members of the staff and board of the GLBT Historical Society participated in this virtual town hall to describe some highlights from the past year, provide updates about current projects and initiatives, and share exciting plans for the future. They also took questions from supporters and members of the public.

Queeriosity Corner: Genderfuck and Drag Fine Art

November 5, 2021

Speakers: Anthony Cianciolo, Ms. Bob Davis, Stevyn Polk, Ramón Silvestre

In this installment of our “Queeriosity Corner” program series, GLBT Historical Society museum registrar and curatorial specialist Ramón Silvestre and a panel of queer art scholars present some of the fine artworks in the society’s collections that highlight the creativity, colorful palette and lives of prominent drag artists working at the height of the AIDS crisis. From Doris Fish’s evocative portrait of Ambi Sextrous to the surreal, sometimes grotesque mixed-media artworks of Jerome Caja, this program examines how genderfuck and drag artists confronted a pandemic through artwork.

“Queeriosity Corner” is a quarterly program series led by Silvestre that showcases treasured physical objects from the archives. Each program in the series explores a few select items in this collection, which includes paintings, sculptures, objects, costumes, drawings, posters, photographs and ephemera, most of which have never been on public display. The series also features conversations with other museum professionals on display and curation best practices, institutional partnerships and related topics, all in delightfully entertaining queer show-and-tell format.

Panel Discussion | Who Was Sally Gearhart? Remembering a Lesbian Legend

October 29, 2021

Speakers: Deborah Craig, Dorothy Haecker, Ruth Mahaney, Cherríe Moraga

Sally Gearhart (1931–2021) was a teacher, feminist, science-fiction writer, and political activist who passed away in July, 2021. In 1973, she became the first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was hired by San Francisco State University, where she helped establish one of the first women’s and gender studies programs in the country. Among her contributions to the struggle for LGBTQ rights was her fight against Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, a 1978 California ballot measure that would have prevented LGBTQ people from teaching in the state’s public schools. This panel discussion and celebration of Gearhart’s life brought together four women who worked closely with Gearhart. They explored topics including Gearhart’s contributions to feminism and gay rights; her academic work; her literary and creative output, including the 1978 work The Wanderground; her interventions on the subject of religion and communications; and how her background in theater and communications shaped her activism, with an overall emphasis on capturing Gearhart’s delightfully quirky and humorous personality.

Author Talk | The Power of Language: Unpacking Diversity and Intersectionality in LGBTQ Culture

October 22, 2021

Speaker: Chloe Davis

Author Chloe Davis will discusses her new book The Queens’ English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases (Clarkson Potter, 2021). Her talk explores how language shapes culture; highlights the diverse communities and intersectional identities that make up our LGBTQ community; unpacks the beautiful complexity of queer history; and foregrounds the importance of empowering, providing resources for, and making visible queer, gay, Black and trans identities.

Community Event | Reunion: The GLBT Historical Society Gala

October 21, 2021

Hosted by Sister Roma and Juanita MORE!, Reunion was an evening of fabulous entertainment, inspiring presentations and a heartfelt celebration of LGBTQ history makers. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our Gala was again presented virtually. Click above to enjoy the show.

Panel Discussion | Under the Rainbow: How History Is Made

September 16, 2021

Speakers: James J. Ferrigan, Eric Gonzaba, Melissa Leventon, Andrew Shaeffer (moderator)

From books and movies to museum exhibitions and art installations, we are continually interacting with objects from history. Many people are unfamiliar with the behind-the-scenes work that takes place to authenticate, contextualize and present a single object for display, work that can take months or even years. In this event, a panel of experts focused on the original 1978 rainbow flag, a fragment of which was recently discovered and is now on display at the GLBT Historical Society Museum. Panelists explored the segment’s origins and long journey home, providing a look behind the curtain and under the rainbow in a program that considered how history is made, from discovery to display.

Queer Culture Club | Catching Up With Mimi Demissew

September 9, 2021

Speakers: Terry Beswick, Mimi Demissew

GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick interviews Mimi Demissew, the recently appointed executive director of Our Family Coalition. Demissew has a extensive background in organizational development and strategic planning, having dedicated over two decades to sexual and gender-minority advocacy in the Washington, D.C. area. This is the September installment of “Queer Culture Club,” our monthly series each second Thursday that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month, Beswick interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

Mighty Reels | Body and Soul: Film From the Gay Games

September 3, 2021

Speaker: Jim Provenzano

Right off the heels of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, this installment in our program series “Mighty Reels” focused on remarkable film footage from the first few gatherings of the Gay Games. This worldwide competition for LGBTQ athletes first took place in San Francisco in 1982. Patterned after the Olympics and now held every four years in a different city, the Games were originally called the Gay Olympics until a lawsuit filed by the International Olympic Committee just weeks before the event began forced a last-minute name change. In its early years, which overlapped with the worst years of the AIDS crisis, the Games’ mission of celebrating LGBTQ sports achievement and the queer body was especially vital. Today the Games remain a significant athletic and cultural event that provides queer athletes from around the world a joyous forum to excel.

Highlighting home movies, drag performances, amateur documentaries, and interviews with queer history-makers, “Mighty Reels” is a quarterly program series that provides an intimate look at the LGBTQ past straight from the camera lens. Each program in the series features a screening of footage from the archives, followed by a discussion with historians, community members and activists on the significance of these images.

Author Talk | Affliction: Growing Up With A Closeted Gay Dad

August 20, 2021

Speaker: Laura Hall

Author Laura Hall discusses her new memoir, Affliction: Growing Up With a Closeted Gay Dad (She Writes Press, 2021) which recounts the life story of her gay father, Ralph, from 1918 to 2008. Hall was 24 when her father came out to her in 1975. She learned that in the late 1930s, her father had been in a relationship with a musician in Los Angeles. But two arrests for homosexual activity sent him back into the closet, prompted him to enlist in the Army and ultimately led him to marry a woman. With a panoramic sweep covering the conservative Central Valley oilfield culture of Ralph Hall’s youth, to his double life in postwar America, to his care for dying friends during the AIDS crisis, Affliction is a window into the life of a man who felt that he had no choice but to live in the shadows. The memoir also recounts how her father’s secret became a path to Hall’s own healing.

Queer Culture Club | Catching Up With Susan Stryker

August 12, 2021

Speakers: Susan Stryker, Terry Beswick

GLBT Historical Society executive director Terry Beswick interviews Susan Stryker, a historian, writer, director and producer who has helped define and shape the cultural conversation on transgender topics for over 20 years. A former executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, she is best known for her pioneering archival research that rediscovered the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, which she explored with co-director Victor Silverman in the 2005 documentary Screaming Queens. Since then, she has co-produced, consulted on or appeared in numerous high-profile projects exploring transgender history and culture. This is the August installment of “Queer Culture Club,” our monthly series each second Thursday that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month, Beswick interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

Queeriosity Corner | It’s Gayme Time! Board Games From the Art & Artifacts Collection

August 6, 2021

Speakers: Isaac Fellman, Ramón Silvestre

In this installment of our “Queeriosity Corner” program series, GLBT Historical Society museum registrar and curatorial specialist Ramón Silvestre and reference archivist Isaac Fellman present some of the most purely fun pieces in the Art and Artifacts Collection: a set of LGBTQ board games from the 1970s and 1980s. Whimsical, satirical and risqué, the games include a rare “Gay Monopoly” set, produced for a very limited time before Parker Brothers sued the creators for copyright infringement. You’ll also embark on a queer tour of the United States in “Cruise America” and come out of the closet with the tongue-in-cheek “Twinkees and Trolls.”

Curator Tour | Queeriosities: A Curatorial Survey

July 23, 2021

Speakers: Nalini Elias, Ramón Silvestre

The GLBT Historical Society’s Art and Artifacts collection is the focus of the online exhibition “Queeriosities: Treasures from the Art and Artifacts Collection,” which opened on Monday, July 26. This special advance preview tour of the exhibition was led by Ramón Silvestre, the society’s museum registrar and curatorial specialist, and Nalini Elias, director of exhibitions and museum experience. Ramon and Nalini provide a sneak peek at an extraordinary collection of unusual, quaint and at times outright ridiculous treasures that illustrate the sheer depth and breadth of the queer stories in our archival vault.

Queer Culture Club | Catching Up With Cal Callahan

July 8, 2021

Speakers: Cal Callahan, Terry Beswick

GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick interviews Cal Callahan, the district manager of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District. Established in 2018, the district is one of three LGBTQ-related cultural districts in San Francisco, along with the Transgender District and the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. This is the July installment of “Queer Culture Club,” our monthly series each second Thursday that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month, Beswick interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

Panel Discussion | The Doodler: A Closer Look at the Story Behind the Podcast

June 18, 2021

Speakers: Tom Ammiano, Kevin Fagan, Melissa Stevens Honrath, Anne Kronenberg

Nearly 50 years ago, a monster terrorized San Francisco’s gay community. He was coined “the Doodler” and is believed to have killed as many people as the Zodiac Killer, possibly more, and yet never achieved the same notoriety. Even as the LGBTQ movement roared to life in the city, the Doodler haunted its queer nightlife scene in 1974 and 1975. Plagued by complicated evidence, a frightened public, and hesitation from victims’ friends and associates—who feared involvement would out them to family and employers—the investigation went cold, and the killer was never caught. At this event, San Francisco Chronicle journalist and podcast host Kevin Fagan sat down with LGBTQ-rights activist Tom Ammiano and others involved in the case to discuss his eight-part podcast and story series, and reflect on how the Doodler got away with murder in a tumultuous era.

Kevin Fagan and a collaborator, Michael Taylor, are now working on additional podcasts and a book about the Doodler. They are seeking information on a man who was well known in San Francisco LGBTQ social circles in the 1970s who was known only by his nickname, “The Diplomat.” He may have worked for one of the foreign consulates in San Francisco and was known to frequent gay clubs and bars in the city. If you have information about the Diplomat or about the Doodler case, you can contact them at (415) 298-2752.

Queer Culture Club | Talking SF Pride With Fred Lopez & Carolyn Wysinger

June 10, 2021

Speakers: Fred Lopez, Carolyn Wysinger, Terry Beswick

GLBT Historical Society executive director Terry Beswick interviews the leaders behind San Francisco Pride, Board President Carolyn Wysinger and Executive Director Fred Lopez. Managing this huge event every year is always an enormous undertaking, and Lopez and Wysinger discuss how they are steering Pride celebrations in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the June installment of “Queer Culture Club,” our monthly series each second Thursday that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month, Beswick interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

Mighty Reels | Pride Footage Through the Years

June 4, 2021

In the first event of our new program series “Mighty Reels,” we screen a selection of video footage of San Francisco Pride celebrations of years past, drawn from the GLBT Historical Society’s archives. The footage allows us to trace the evolution of Pride over the past half-century, bearing witness to the annual display of joy, performance art, social commentary and community-building. Historian and GLBT Historical Society founding member Gerard Koskovich leads a conversation interpreting and exploring the clips after the screening. Koskovich was also the co-curator of the society’s 2020 exhibition about the first decade of Pride, Labor of Love: The Birth of San Francisco Pride.

Press Event | The GLBT Historical Society Unveils the Original 1978 Rainbow Flag

June 4, 2021

In April 2021 the GLBT Historical Society acquired a priceless queer artifact: a segment of one of the two original rainbow flags first hoisted in San Francisco on June 25, 1978, for Gay Freedom Day. The flag was created by Gilbert Baker and hand-stitched and dyed with the help of volunteers and friends, including Lynn Segerblom (Faerie Argyle Rainbow), James McNamara, Glenne McElhinney, Joe Duran, Paul Langlotz and others. The society formally unveiled the flag to the public at this press event in San Francisco on June 4. Mayor London Breed; District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman; State Senator Scott Weiner; GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick; GLBT Historical Society Board Member Tina Valentin Aguirre; and Board Chair Maria Powers all made remarks.

Author Talk | The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams

May 27, 2021

Author, historian and OutHistory.org founder Jonathan Ned Katz discussed his new book, The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams (Chicago Review Press, 2021), the story of the daring Jewish lesbian activist Eve Adams. Drawing on startling evidence while carefully distinguishing fact from fiction, Katz presents the first biography of Adams. Born into a Jewish family in Poland, Adams emigrated to the United States in 1912 and befriended anarchists, sold radical publications, and ran lesbian-and-gay-friendly speakeasies in Chicago and New York. In 1925 she risked it all to write and publish a book entitled Lesbian Love, presenting brief portraits of two dozen women (Katz’s book also reprints the long-lost-text of Lesbian Love). Adams’s bold activism caught the attention of the young J. Edgar Hoover and the Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI), leading to her surveillance and arrest. In a case that pitted immigration officials, the New York City police, and a biased informer against her, Adams was convicted of publishing an obscene work and of attempting sex with a policewoman deployed to entrap her. Jailed and deported back to Europe, Adams was ultimately murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz.

Queer Culture Club | Catching Up With Natalia Vigil

May 13, 2021

Speakers: Natalia Vigil, Terry Beswick

GLBT Historical Society executive director Terry Beswick interviewed queer Xicana writer and multimedia curator Natalia Vigil, who recently assumed the position of executive director of the Queer Cultural Center. She discusses her new position, her work and her involvement in the upcoming 2021 Queer Arts Festival. This is the May installment of “Queer Culture Club,” our monthly series each second Thursday that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month, Beswick interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

Queeriosity Corner | Meet the Mayor of Castro Street

May 7, 2021

Speakers: Daniel Nicoletta, Ramón Silvestre

In the inaugural event of our new program series, “Queeriosity Corner,” GLBT Historical Society museum registrar and curatorial specialist Ramón Silvestre provides an intimate, in-depth look at items in the archives’ extensive Harvey Milk Collection, in time for Harvey Milk Day on May 22. Among these rare items are Milk’s barber/dentist chair from the Castro Camera store, the props featured in a candid photograph taken by Daniel Nicoletta and other items that provide a glimpse at the man behind Milk’s political persona. Silvestre is joined by Nicoletta, who discusses the photograph and shares his own experiences with Milk.

“Queeriosity Corner” is a quarterly program series led by Silvestre that showcases treasured physical objects from the archives’ Art and Artifacts collection. Each program in the series explores a few select items in this collection, which includes paintings, sculptures, objects, costumes, drawings, posters, photographs and ephemera, most of which have never been on public display. The series also features conversations with other museum professionals on display and curation best practices, institutional partnerships and related topics, all in delightfully entertaining queer show-and-tell format.

Artist Talk | The God of San Francisco: Queer History Through Poetry

April 23, 2021

Speakers: Natasha Dennerstein, Dazié Grego-Sykes, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, Jacques J. Rancourt, James J. Siegel

In honor of National Poetry Month in April, poet James J. Siegel read excerpts from his new poetry collection The God of San Francisco (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020), a poetic exploration of San Francisco’s queer history from the North Beach drag scene to Twin Peaks Tavern in the Castro, from the triumphant election of Harvey Milk to the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic. Siegel is joined by queer poets Natasha Dennerstein, Dazié Grego-Sykes, Baruch Porras-Hernandez and Jacques J. Rancourt, reading poems that explore our personal connections to LGBTQ history, our queer ancestors and the ongoing fight for equality.

Panel Discussion | Archiving Lesbian Memories, Stewarding Lesbian Futures

April 16, 2021

Speakers: Jen Jack Gieseking, Cait McKinney, Briona Simone Jones, Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz

In honor of Lesbian Visibility Day, a panel of scholars in fields ranging from geography and communication to English and archival studies introduced four different projects that focus on caring for lesbian herstories, ideas and stories. What narratives, forms of community, ideas about space and experiences of sexuality are most visible, and how can practices like archiving, anthologizing, mapping and researching shift these terms? The panelists drew connections among these projects to think about the stories we can bring to imagining lesbian herstories and futures.

Queer Culture Club | Catching Up With Joe Castel

April 8, 2021

Speakers: Joe Castel, Terry Beswick

GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick interviews director, producer, screenwriter and playwright Joe Castel, whose body of work explores Latinx and LGBTQ history and identity. Castel also discusses his newest documentary, Nelly Queen: The Life and Times of José Sarria (2020). This is the April installment of “Queer Culture Club,” our monthly series each second Thursday that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month, Beswick interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

Living History Discussion | The Bay Area Reporter at 50: Writing the First Draft of History

April 2, 2021

Speakers: Marga Gomez, Paul David Henderson, Sharon McNight, Henry A. “Hank” Plante, Gwen Smith, Michael Yamashita, Terry Beswick

For a half-century, the Bay Area Reporter (BAR) has provided coverage of San Francisco and the Bay Area’s LGBTQ community. In this special discussion commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication that has become the community’s newspaper of record, a group of activists, writers and culture-makers recount their relationship to and history of the BAR. The panel is moderated by Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, and panelists include Gwen Smith, “Transmission” columnist for the BAR; Hank Plante, an award-winning, veteran Bay Area journalist; Paul Henderson, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability (SFDPA); Marga Gomez, an award-winning Latinx performer and comic; Sharon McNight, a Tony-nominated singer and performer; and Michael Yamashita, the BAR’s publisher.

Queer Culture Club | Catching Up With Shayne Watson

March 11, 2021

Speakers: Shayne Watson, Terry Beswick

GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick interviews architectural history and historic preservation planning consultant Shayne Watson, the owner of Watson Heritage Consulting. Watson coauthored the Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco (2016) and, with Beswick, was the cochair of the San Francisco LGBTQ Cultural Heritage Strategy (2020). This is the March installment of “Queer Culture Club,” our monthly series each second Thursday that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month, Beswick interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

Author Talk | Last Night at the Telegraph Club

March 6, 2021

Speakers: Malinda Lo, Amy Sueyoshi

Award-winning young-adult author Malinda Lo read selections from and discussed her new novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Dutton Books, 2021), a queer coming-of-age story set in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s. The story traces the blossoming of love between seventeen year-old Lily Hu and Kathleen Miller in a Chinatown beset by Red-Scare paranoia and deportation threats. Lo shares details from her research into the midcentury LGBTQ community at the GLBT Historical Society’s archives, and discusses the novel and its historical inspirations with historian Amy Sueyoshi, a professor at San Francisco State University whose research specializes in Asian American and sexuality studies.

Panel Discussion | Preserving LGBTQ Historic Places

February 19, 2021

Speakers: Jeffrey A. “Free” Harris, Andrew Shaffer (moderator), Shayne Watson

Preserving and landmarking historic sites associated with significant events and people is critically important to promoting an understanding of our shared history. This is especially so for the LGBTQ community, much of whose history has been occluded or deliberately erased. Architectural and preservation experts Jeffrey “Free” Harris and Shayne Watson discuss how historians identify and prioritize LGBTQ sites worthy of preservation, and consider the steps involved in preservation and landmarking efforts. Among the topics highlighted were sites of significant Black queer history and ongoing efforts to preserve the Lyon-Martin House in San Francisco.

Queer Culture Club | Catching Up With Dazié Grego-Sykes

February 11, 2021

Speakers: Dazié Grego-Sykes, Terry Beswick

In this month’s installment of the Queer Culture Club, GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick interviews Oakland-based performance artist, educator, author and activist Dazié Grego-Sykes, the associate artistic director for the Tenderloin-based performance ensemble “Skywatchers.” Mr. Grego-Sykes is well known for his two solo plays Am I a Man and Nigga-Roo, as well as his 2017 poetry collection Black Faggotry. Queer Culture Club is a monthly conversation that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each program interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, creative process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

Illustrated Talk | Rainbow High: LGBTQ Stories in Aerospace History

February 5, 2021

Speaker: Sean Mobley

Throughout the history of aviation, from Leonardo Da Vinci to Major Margaret Witt, LGBTQ people have designed and flown aircraft, pursued the dream of space flight and risked their lives for their country. In this exciting talk, Sean Mobley, the volunteer coordinator at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, shares the histories of some key LGBTQ pioneers in aerospace history. He also discusses figures in the aerospace industry who have worked to advance the cause of LGBTQ equality.

Queer Culture Club | Catching Up With Mark I. Chester & Street Sex Photos

January 14, 2021

Speakers: Mark I. Chester, Terry Beswick

Our new program series in 2021 is the “Queer Culture Club,” a monthly conversation on the second Thursday of each month that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. These programs feature GLBT Historical Society executive director Terry Beswick as he interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams. In this first installment, cosponsored by the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District, legendary San Francisco gay “radical sex” photographer Mark I. Chester discusses his new book of contemporary photography, Street Sex Photos (2021). The book documents gay men’s sexual lives in the South of Market district of San Francisco in an era when the neighborhood was, in Chester’s words, “like a giant supermarket of the sexual underground.”

Past Events 2021

MUSEUM

ARCHIVES