Kylie Minono wants you to know that this is the best time to make a contribution to support the GLBT Historical Society! Thanks to matching funds from our incredible Board of Directors, every donation made by 12/31 will be matched - dollar for dollar - up to $50,000.
Visit www.glbthistory.org/donate to make your contribution and double your impact.
Halloween 1968 at the Ramrod in San Francisco.
This video shows a costume contest held at an iconic gay leather bar in San Francisco's South of Market district. Located at 1225 Folsom, the Ramrod opened in 1967 and was immortalized in the film “The Laughing Policeman.” This footage was shot by Henri Leleu (1907-1996) who was a prolific photographer and videographer active in San Francisco’s leather scene. Our archives hold hundreds of photos and videos from Leleu that provide an incredible glimpse into the gay world that existed in the 1960s.
Today, the location of the Ramrod is home to Driftwood, a cozy, neighborhood cocktail bar with great local beers, fun music and good friends.
Explore more from our vast queer past at www.glbthistory.org
Video: “Halloween at the Ramrod 1968,” Leleu (Henri) Films, 1997-13, GLBT Historical Society.
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Our newest exhibition, "Matchmaking in the Archive," explores the vital connections between past generations and LGBTQ people alive today. Curator E.G. Crichton matched living individuals to the archives of 25 people whose lives are embedded in our archives and invited them to create a response to their collections. This exhibition includes some of their responses, as well as beautiful portraits E.G. made of living participants as they interacted with their archival matches.
This exhibition celebrates the launch of "Matchmaking in the Archive: 19 Conversations with the Dead and 3 Encounters with Ghosts," E.G.'s book about the project, part of the new Q+Public series from Rutgers University Press.
Visit www.glbthistory.org/museum to get tickets to see the exhibition, or go to www.glbthistory.org/shop to purchase a copy of the book today.
Author Event | Laura Hall and "Affliction: Growing Up with a Closeted Gay Dad"
Author Laura Hall will discuss 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.
Attendees who purchase copies of Affliction: Growing Up with a Closeted Gay Dad from the GLBT Historical Society’s Bookshop.org page will receive a personalized autographed bookplate from Hall. Please send an email with your ticket confirmation and Bookshop.org receipt to [email protected], with information on how you would like yours personalized, by August 23.
For more information about Affliction, see the publisher’s webpage here: https://shewritespress.com/product/affliction/.
SPEAKERS
Laura Hall (she/her/hers) was born and raised in a small city on the San Francisco peninsula. After receiving her BA and MA in landscape architecture at University of California at Berkeley, she went on to teach for the school’s Extension program and build an urban-design professional practice where her projects included community facilitation in Northern California communities and rebuilding plans for Mississippi Gulf Coast towns following the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She currently works in EPA’s Region 9 Tribal, Intergovernmental, and Policy Division in San Fran
Queer Culture Club | Catching Up with Cal Callahan
Join the Queer Culture Club each month online as GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick interviews queer culture-makers one-on-one - authors and playwrights, historians and activists, artists and archivists - the folks who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and the future. Broadcast live on the second Tuesday of each month, we’ll talk about each culture-maker’s work, their process, their inspirations, hopes and dreams.
July: For this month’s installation of Queer Culture Club, Terry will be interviewing Cal Callahan, the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural district Manager.
Speakers:
Cal Callahan (he/him/his) is not a Bay Area native but after forty years *may* be considered a permanent transplant. A veteran of HIV/AIDS action, he has worked in the nonprofit sector for twenty-five years and is currently the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District Manager. He lives in Oakland with his husband Richard.
Terry Beswick (he/him/his) has served as executive director of the GLBT Historical Society since 2016. At the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, he was a founding member of the local ACT UP and was the first national coordinator of ACT NOW, the national AIDS activist network. He advocated for HIV/AIDS research and treatment with Project Inform, the Human Rights Campaign and the White House Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. After the advent of effective treatments for HIV, Beswick worked as a journalist for the Bay Area Reporter and other LGBTQ community publications. More recently, he spearheaded a successful campaign to save and renovate the Castro Country Club for the queer recovery community and co-founded the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. He holds an MFA in playwriting from San Francisco State University. Beswick has been named a Community Grand Marshal for the 50th Anniversary San Francisco LGBTQ Pride Parade and Celebration in 2020.
Frameline 45 Sizzle Wheel
It’s June and that’s officially Frameline season! This year the festival includes both in-person events, from June 10 to June 27, and streaming events, from June 17 to June 27. Streaming films are given virtual “screenings” at specific days and times, but are available to ticketholders for the entire ten-day period of June 17–27.
This trailer is Frameline's "sizzle wheel" launching the festival this morning.
The GLBT Historical Society is promoting three films at this year’s festival of interest to fans of LGBTQ history. For more information, go to https://www.frameline.org/festival.
“Can You Bring It”: During the ravages of AIDS in 1980s New York, two young gay men funneled their love and talent into the formation of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The impact of their work still sends ripples through the art world today, as poignantly depicted in the absorbing Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters. The official screening takes place on June 19 at 4:00 p.m.
"P.S. Burn This Letter Please." More than 60 years before RuPaul made it mainstream, the drag queen scene existed mainly underground—but with no less glitter or glory. These courageous queens of the 1950s risked both arrest and assault for their female impersonations. The 2014 discovery of a treasure trove of letters written by a group of New York City drag queens led filmmakers Jennifer Tiexiera and Michael Seligman on a five-year journey to resurrect that history and shine a new spotlight on today’s drag elders. The official screening takes place on June 26 at 1:00 p.m.
"Nelly Queen: The Life & Times of José Sarria." The right to congregate. Out LGBTQ politicians. The Imperial Courts. All have a common root in the inimitable José Sarria. Directed by Sarria’s long-time friend Joseph R. Castel, Nelly Queen (2020) documents the public personas and private losses that shaped one of the most influential queens of our community. Vintage footage, including mat
Author Talk | The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams
RESCHEDULED FROM 5/21/2021
Queer Culture Club | Catching up with Natalia Vigil
Join the Queer Culture Club each month online as GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick interviews queer culture-makers one-on-one - authors and playwrights, historians and activists, artists and archivists - the folks who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and the future. Broadcast live on the second Tuesday of each month, we’ll talk about each culture-makers work, their process, their inspirations, hopes and dreams.
SPEAKERS:
Natalia M. Vigil is a queer Xicana writer with native heritage, multimedia curator, and big sister of six, born and raised in San Francisco. She is an arts administrator passionate about community-driven creativity and cultural preservation through artist sustainability. She is the Executive Director of the Queer Cultural Center of San Francisco and the co-founder of Still Here San Francisco for which she was honored as a Local Hero by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.
Queer Culture Club | Street Sex Photos with Mark I. Chester
Emily Hobson Introduces "Fighting Back: Lessons From AIDS for COVID-19"
Dr. Eric Cervini Introduces "Fighting Back: Lessons From AIDS for COVID-19"
Podcasting LGBTQ History, Part 2
