News :: History

LGBT History Month: SF trans cultural district slowly moves forward

LGBT History Month: SF trans cultural district slowly moves forward

  • by Alex Madison
  • Oct 24, 2018

It's been a little over a year since San Francisco designated the nation's first transgender cultural district in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood.

LGBT History Month: Tea with no shade

LGBT History Month: Tea with no shade

  • by Rebecca Huff
  • Oct 24, 2018

A gloomy, rainy Sunday in September couldn't stop what was originally planned as an outdoor tea dance among the trees and fountains of Washington Park in Cincinnati.

LGBT History Month: 50 years on, busting the myths of Stonewall

LGBT History Month: 50 years on, busting the myths of Stonewall

  • by Mark Segal
  • Oct 17, 2018

Each of us who were at Stonewall has a different view of the event, which will turn 50 next year.

LGBT History Month: Emma Jones wasn't real, but gay parties were

LGBT History Month: Emma Jones wasn't real, but gay parties were

  • by Graham Brunk
  • Oct 17, 2018

Emma Jones was one of the greatest LGBT allies in the 1960s in northern Florida. Too bad she didn't actually exist.

LGBT History Month: Lesbian erasure, part 2: History shows lesbianism used to be embraced, until it wasn't

LGBT History Month: Lesbian erasure, part 2: History shows lesbianism used to be embraced, until it wasn't

  • by Victoria A. Brownworth
  • Oct 10, 2018

Examples of lesbian sexuality are all over early American history. The 19th century saw myriad reasons why lesbianism was actually embraced, right up until the turn of the 20th century, when it wasn't.

LGBT History Month: Part 1: Defining lesbianism: Looking at lesbian erasure

LGBT History Month: Part 1: Defining lesbianism: Looking at lesbian erasure

  • by Victoria A. Brownworth
  • Oct 10, 2018

Lesbians, like gay men, have always existed.

LGBT History Month: Former PA gov was an unlikely advocate for gay rights

LGBT History Month: Former PA gov was an unlikely advocate for gay rights

  • by William Burton
  • Oct 10, 2018

In April 1975, a groundbreaking event occurred in the fight for gay and lesbian equal rights.

LGBT History Month: LDS ancestry database to add same-sex families

LGBT History Month: LDS ancestry database to add same-sex families

  • by Cynthia Laird
  • Oct 3, 2018

LGBTs interested in family history received interesting news in June: beginning next year, the world's largest genealogy organization, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will release a redesigned website that will include same-sex families.

LGBT History Month: Archive documents late SF mayor Moscone's close LGBT ties

LGBT History Month: Archive documents late SF mayor Moscone's close LGBT ties

  • by Matthew S. Bajko
  • Oct 3, 2018

In June 1977 an irate San Francisco resident mailed off a letter to then-mayor George Moscone. The focus of his ire was the planned Pride celebration at the end of the month.

North Beach highlights its LGBT history

North Beach highlights its LGBT history

  • by Matthew S. Bajko
  • Feb 21, 2018

For several months in 1984 Sean Martinfield served as the master of ceremonies at the famed Finocchio's female impersonators cabaret in North Beach.

CA Panel Backs Historic Listing for Women's Building

CA Panel Backs Historic Listing for Women's Building

  • by Matthew S. Bajko
  • Feb 14, 2018

A state panel is supporting the San Francisco Women's Building's request to become a national historic site.

North Beach CBD to unveil LGBT historic plaques

North Beach CBD to unveil LGBT historic plaques

  • by Matthew S. Bajko
  • Feb 1, 2018

Sidewalk markers at the site of three historic LGBT businesses that once operated in North Beach will be unveiled at a ceremony in mid-February.

BARchive :: Purple Reign

BARchive :: Purple Reign

  • by Michael lanagan
  • May 7, 2017

In a few short years North Beach was ground zero for a host of talented musicians, comics and poets not associated with the Beats. The Purple Onion was central to that world.

BARchive :: The Original Breakfast Club

BARchive :: The Original Breakfast Club

  • by Michael Flanagan
  • Apr 2, 2017

There are rare bars that are popular in one generation and come back a second time. Even rarer is one which has three lives. The 181 Club was such a bar. It lasted from the 1950s to the 1990s and left its mark on three generations.