QUEEREST. LIBRARY. EVER.

Faggots in the library?

2012-02-09T14:02:00.001-08:00

Well, of course. We’ve always been here, flipping through dusty page after page, trying to find representations of ourselves that were honest and unafraid. Before we went to the bars or took a peak in the bushes, we turned to books for inspiration and stimulation. The books we found were often filled with stereotypes or, even worse, bad writing. But we’ve kept coming back, and even today, when the Internet is supposed to make connecting so easy and online cruising has become so respectable (and horrible), we’re still searching the library for those revolutionary texts that are going to let us know that we are not alone, and give us the tools to challenge the status quo. And now, finally, a book that is not afraid to flaunt its faggotry in all its flaming glory, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s newest anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, is coming out on Valentine’s Day, 2012! In celebration of this exciting moment in queer book history, the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center of the San Francisco Public Library would like to invite you to the official book launch event, including a lively and stimulating discussion with contributors Jaime Cortez, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Debanuj DasGupta, Booh Edouardo, Eric Stanley, Harris Kornstein, Gina de Vries, Horehound Stillpoint, Matthew D. Blanchard, and your host and editor Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. This Valentine’s Day treat starts at 6pm in the, Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room in the lower level of the Main Library.

Through thirty different essays from a wide range of authors, several of them from the Bay Area, this anthology challenges the current dismal state of mainstream gay culture, asking questions and offering possibilities that go beyond consumerism and cocktails. The essays knock gaping holes into the vapidity that has come to translate as the de rigueur markings of gay culture. And in a time when assimilation through marriage, the military, and, oh yes, money, has become unquestioning and unquestionable, this anthology dares to provoke from inside the annals of gay culture. Here are links to a couple of glowing reviews: Publisher's Weekly and New York Journal of Books.

See you there!

Archives January 2012

2012-01-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

New Accession: Black Lesbian Newsletter / Onyx

As we begin February and the celebration of Black History Month, it seemed the right time to highlight a small but important collection of newsletters that we received last year. Black Lesbian Newsletter was published in San Francisco and, later, Berkeley in the early- to mid-1980s. Its working title changed to Onyx as the result of suggestions from its readership. The newsletter was the brainchild of Laverne Gagehabib, A.C. Barber and Vivienne Walker-Crawford.

The first issue of Black Lesbian Newsletter begins with a "Dear Readers" column which describes the purpose of the publication. The newsletter includes poems, drawings, political perspectives, photographs, book reviews, event listings, personals, and some business listings. Later issues contain illustrations such as the one above by Sarita Johnson.

We received 14 issues dating from June 1982 through October/November 1984 with some issues missing. A complete list follows.

Black Lesbian Newsletter: v. 1 (1) June 1982; v. 1 (4) October 1982; v. 1. (5) November 1982; v. 1. (6) December 1982.

Onyx: Black Lesbian Newsletter: v. 2 ([1]) February 1983; v. 2 (2) April/May 1983; v. 2 (4) August/September 1983; v. 2 (5) October/November 1983; v. 2 (6) December 1983/January 1984; v. 3 (1) February/March 1984; v. 3 (2) April/May 1984; v. 3 (3) June/July 1984; v. 3 (4) August/September 1984; v. 3 (5) October/November 1984.

The collection also includes two mounted newsletter covers, as well as related materials on the Bay Area Black Lesbian Political Caucus. The group was formed by Vivienne Crawford, Joyce Penalver, and Brenda Crawford. The Bay Area Black Lesbian Political Caucus materials include a grant proposal sent to the Vanguard Public Foundation in 1989 and the minutes of the first meeting.

This collection is a recent accession and not yet available to the public. All Hormel Center archives are handled through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library. For questions, please contact the San Francisco History Center reference desk at 415-557-4567.

Archives December 2011

2011-12-31T13:24:00.000-08:00

Berner vs. Briggs Collection

A recent addition to the Hormel Center's archival collections is a box of material from the legal case of Lawrence Berner vs. John Briggs, et al. The suit was filed as a result of the November 1978 California ballot Proposition 6, which sought to prohibit openly GLBT persons from teaching. Prop. 6 was based on the belief that GLBT school teachers are not suitable role models for children and on the fear of inappropriate conduct towards their students.

State senator John Briggs sponsored the proposition, which became commonly known as the "Briggs Initiative." In addition to Briggs, Prop. 6 was supported by Anita Bryant and the organization Save Our Children. Bryant had recently experienced success in mobilizing an anti-gay rights movement in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Lawrence Berner, a gay school teacher in the Healdsburg, California school system, was singled out by Briggs and became a rallying point for the "No on 6" campaign. Due to significant political mobilization by Gwen Craig, Tom Ammiano, Harvey Milk, Hank Wilson, Bill Kraus, Sally Gearhart, and many GLBT community members, the proposition did not pass in California. The "No on 6" campaign was also supported by political heavyweights Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

After the proposition was defeated, Berner sued John Briggs, Save Our Children, Lee Lee (the president of the Healdsburg Public School Board) and 99 anonymous defendants listed as "Does 1-99." Berner filed the suit in 1979 and he won in 1982.

This collection focuses on the lawsuit and contains documents and exhibits regarding the pertinent events of 1978. It includes depositions by John Briggs and several other key figures in the Prop. 6 story. Of special note are scientific articles and doctors' testimony used in support of Berner's suit. Doctors David Kessler and Ernest van den Haag were the primary expert witnesses regarding the then-current scientific thought on homosexuality, children, role models, sexuality, gender identity, and pedophilia. The collection contains some correspondence with Kessler and van den Haag, as well as their depositions and copies of selected journal articles.

Because the Berner vs. Briggs collection is a very recent acquisition and not yet organized, it is not currently available for research. Two archival collections here at the library contain related material: the Harvey Milk Archives-Scott Smith Collection and the Randy Shilts Papers. The Milk-Smith collection contains several files on the Briggs Initiative and the notes of Milk's debate with John Briggs. The Shilts Papers' Journalism series contains drafts and notes on different stories that Shilts wrote. Some of the files from 1977 concern Anita Bryant, Miami-Dade County and the repeal of the gay rights ordinance there. Later files in 1978 contain stories on Proposition 6, John Briggs, Save Our Children and the election results in San Francisco and California.

All Hormel Center archives are handled through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library. For questions, please contact the San Francisco History Center reference desk at 415-557-4567.

Archives November 2011

2011-11-30T12:14:00.000-08:00

JAMES RAMP
Last summer Charles Schermerhorn donated three charming poetry books written by James H. Ramp. Ramp was born on August 20, 1898 and died in San Francisco on February 15, 1968 at the age of 69. In addition to his poetry, short stories and novels, he wrote the play The Grand Illusion in 1936. His work is in only a few libraries around the world.

The donated books were originally sent by Ramp to George Brammer of 641 O'Farrell Street in San Francisco. One untitled book of typewritten poems is signed: "A few of the latest for George -- J 1929." The Feet of Beauty was printed at Pacific Press Printers, 228 McAllister St., San Francisco; it is similarly inscribed: "George -- J[im] 1929." A third paperbound booklet titled Afterwhiles was printed by The Herald Printing Co., Fredonia, Kansas, for the Fredonia High School class of 1918.

Mr. Schermerhorn has made other book donations to the Hormel Center's collection. Some of those titles are now part of the pulp novel collection which was primarily established through the archival and book donations of Barbara Grier and Donna McBride. Grier and McBride collected literature that touched upon GLBT relationships and they maintained a card file of these books with entries for each author. Their card file includes references to four of Ramp's short story collections.

In The Ideal Gay Man: The Story of Der Kreis, Hubert Kennedy includes the following entry on Ramp's work in Der Kreis: "Another San Francisco writer was James Ramp...His first short story was published in April 1965; it was followed by seven more before the end of 1967. There were also four poems by him. ... Ramp's stories could best be described as gay fantasies. The characters are often working-class men who don't fit in because they love opera or read Walter Pater, for example. They usually have a large [pen!$] and are hungry for sex, but hold out for true love, which they always find at the end of the story, after intervening difficulties. And they apparently 'live happily ever after': one story mentions that a couple has been together for ten years, another for fifteen. The writing is entertaining, with many amusing puns. It's all too good to be true-but fun."

The library's pulp collection includes Consenting Adult, The Love Smeller, A Far Country, This Fierce Heart and Wild Strawberry Patch. There is also a poem by Ramp in the anthology In Homage to Priapus.

Taking on the (In)justice System

2011-10-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

In a time of increasing protest it is important to know your enemies as well as your friends. The book, "Queer (In)justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States," by Joey L. Mogul, Andrea J. Ritchie and Kay Whitlock, makes evident that the struggle toward LGBT equality involves a lot more than marriage rights or inclusion in the military. Queer history in the hands of the legal system, is rife with media slander, prejudice, sexual abuse and selective, draconian punishment singled out to members of the LGBT community. The authors, two distinguished lawyers and one Quaker peace and justice activist powerfully document the systemic campaign by the powers that be to wipe out all expressions of gender non-conformity. Here is an in-depth review of this ground-breaking book from The Daily Kos blog.

And, speaking of the Daily Kos blog, our next book is a how-to guide, "Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era," written by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, committed ally of all things progressive and queer and the founder of that aforementioned award winning, foreward-thinking, political blog. In this book he presents a step by step guide to muckracking, rabble-rousing and initiating change in this digital age. In spite of the high-tech gloss, his rules for fighting the good fight are old-fashioned and clear, his examples concrete, his energy inexhaustible and his belief in truth begetting eventual justice, inspiring.

Reading: "Milk and Honey"--September 13th

2011-09-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday September 13th 6-8pm sponsored by the Hormel LGBT Center mark the publication of Julie Enszer's anthology "Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry" with a reading by local contributors. Here Julie Enszer's description of the book:

"In this land of Milk and Honey poems flow. Contemporary Jewish, lesbian poets address an array of experiences--relationships between and among women, family relationships, politics, solitude, ethical responsibilities, history, solidarity and community. With language and imagery that moves from the sensual and political to the tender and serene, "Milk and Honey" explores the vibrant, complicated, exhilarating experience of being Jewish and lesbian--or queer--in the world today."

Local contributors: Elana Nachman, Ellen Bass and Joan Annsfire will read from their work as well as the work of others. The reading will be held in the Latino Conference room across from the Cafe in the lower level of the Main Library.

Archives August 2011

2011-08-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Serendipity in the Archives

As I was looking for something of interest this month, I happened upon a letter written by Harvey Milk to his friend Susan Davis in September 1960. At that time Hurricane Donna ravaged the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. from Florida to Maine. Harvey writes about the expected arrival of the hurricane. Since Hurricane Irene has been all over the news lately, Harvey's letter provides an unexpected connection to events 51 years ago.

Of course, not every moment is newsworthy. For each letter, diary entry, or photograph that evokes a historical moment, there are many more that touch on the daily happenings and occasional milestones in ordinary people's lives. These can be equally interesting to peruse, as they provide glimpses into bygone eras and places and into the concerns and hopes of the people living then.

With that in mind, I selected another letter from the Harvey Milk-Susan Davis Alch collection (GLC 19). In this letter, Harvey congratulates Sue on her recent wedding to George Alch and muses on marriage, his home life with Joe Campbell and the wonderful city of San Francisco (where Sue and George got married). These letters provide insight into Harvey's personal life, his thoughts and his sense of humor.

The two letters highlighted in this post are merely the tip of the iceberg. The library's archival collections are full of such captured moments--from the mundane, ordinary and quite personal to the life-altering, history-making and public. If you are interested in looking at original historical materials, such as the Harvey Milk-Susan Davis Alch letters, please visit the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

Archives July 2011

2011-08-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

Barbara Cameron Papers

Here's a late "July" archives post. Just recently I was re-examining some smaller archival collections to find good candidates to prepare for public use. Among these the Barbara Cameron Papers (2 cartons). This is a jewel box of a collection as each item invites further inspection and contemplation.

Barbara Cameron (May 22, 1954-February 12, 2002) was a Native American (Lakota Sioux) lesbian activist, poet and writer. She was raised by her grandparents on the Standing Rock Reservation (North and South Dakota), and moved to San Francisco in the 197os. In 1975 she co-founded Gay American Indians with Randy Burns. She counted among her friends the Native American poet and activist Chrystos, and there are a few pieces in the Papers that are written by Chrystos and dedicated to Cameron.

The Papers also include speeches, poems and other writings by Cameron. Her subjects include the challenges of being gay within the Native American community, being Native American within the LGBT community, racism, nature, violence and death, acceptance, activism, and alcoholism. Her Papers also include material on the different political groups with which she was affiliated, including the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club.

The Barbara Cameron Papers are not yet ready for public use but I expect them to be ready by the end of 2011. The Papers will be available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

Speed Dating for LGBT Boomers--August 2nd

2011-07-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Tired of the online dating feeding frenzy? Meet actual people and perhaps that special someone at the library over a book! Sign up for same-gender speed dating for baby-boomers. Bring a favorite book and come prepared to schmooze about it and more.

Preregistration is required. Contact jjasper@sfpl.org to sign up. The group will be gender balanced as much as possible, and really groovy!

Tuesday, August 2nd, 5:45-7:45 (Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room), lower level, SF Main Library

Archives June 2011

2011-06-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

Ed Lucas Diaries, August 1967-July 1988

Edward Karl Lucas was born in San Francisco on June 24, 1947. He attended Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose, a very good Catholic Prep School. He was a Drama major and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1960s. He took classes at ACT (American Conservatory Theatre) in San Francisco in the early 1970s and was an extra for them as well. He had some speaking parts with Berkeley Rep. around the same time.

His friends describe him as very well-educated and very witty, an Edwardian gentleman and, at the same time, full of fun and imagination. Ed was an avid reader of novels and of the New Yorker. He was very bright, sensitive and sensible.

He lived in San Francisco and Berkeley. He worked at the Postermat on Columbus Ave. (at Green) in the early 1970s where he sold posters and related things to Carlos Santana and Janis Joplin, among others. He was a college recruiter at University of San Francisco after that, then did apartment rentals at Saxe Realty in San Francisco. He also moonlighted as a bartender at the Hayes Street Grill. He was a member of the Gay Mens' Chorus from its very first days and he continued with the Chorus for as long as his health permitted until around the beginning of 1988. Ed died of AIDS on June 30, 1989.

Ed's 13 diaries were donated by his friends Ernie Guomas and Jim Seger, January 2011. The diaries chronicle Ed's activities as a UC Berkeley student and in San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s. He notes movies seen, parties he attended, men he dated, and drugs he used, among other things. His thoughtful observations are a nice counterpoint to the whirlwind of life at the time.

1. August 1967-September 1968
2. October 1968-December 1969
3. January 1970-December 1971
4. January 10, 1972-October 3, 1973
5. October 24, 1973-March 5, 1975
6. March 20, 1975-March 12, 1976
7. March 12, 1976-January 11, 1977
8. January 12, 1977-September 13, 1978
9. September 13, 1978-June 1980
10. July 17, 1980-September 26, 1982
11. September 1982-August 1985
12. August 14, 1985-December 31, 1987
13. January 1, 1988-July 4, 1988

The Lucas diaries complement the Vincent diaries (GLC 45) and Gary Fisher papers (GLC 51), two other gay men who lived in San Francisco and died of AIDS. The Ed Lucas Diaries detail an earlier time period than the other two.

The Ed Lucas Diaries (GLC 68) are available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

Hormel Center's Frameline Video Archive Project

2011-06-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

The Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival donated its entire movie archive to the Hormel Center of San Francisco Public Library. The gift includes not only the films shown in the Festival for the past 35 years, but many film submissions never screened. As you may imagine, preserving this collection is central to the Library's mission and of vital importance to the LGBT Community. Just this spring The Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center began to digitize this massive collection. The photograph above is from the futurist Japanese film Summer Vacation:1999 by Shusuke Kaneko. This boys' school charmer features a terrific all-girl cast. (And ssshhhhh! This movie will be shown for free in our Koret Auditorium, Thursday June 23 at noon).

Project Consultant and film historian Jenni Olson went through the collection and selected films she determined to be highest-priority for saving. We sent 14 films, some of them beginning to deteriorate and at risk of being lost forever, to the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) for digital preservation. To find out more about this Frameline Archive Project visit www.sfpl.org/frameline . Come hear Olson speak on Tuesday June 7 in the Koret Auditorium at 6:00pm. She has wonderful stories to tell about the films we are preserving. On stage you will also meet Frameline Festival Program Director Jennifer Morris and Hormel Center Program Manager Karen Sundheim.

And don't miss a rare opportunity to see some of these historical gems screened in their entirety! Every Thursday in June at noon we will show one or two of the finest in our collection. On Thursday June 9 we show Olivia (Pit of Loneliness), a 1951 French lesbian boarding school drama. On June 16 Director Reno Dakota will be here for the showing of his award-winning movie American Fabulous (1991). That's the cover of the video above left. And on June 30 we'll show both Boy! What a Girl!, the 1945 all-Black cast musical starring Tim Moore as the bald, cigar-smoking female impersonator Madame Deborah (see photo above right). We'll also show Out of the Shadows, a rarely screened documentary portrait of African-American Gay and Transgender men in Washington DC, narrated by the late poet Essex Hemphill.

We are hoping to continue to digitize this precious international movie collection over the next couple of years. It is an expensive project and its completion will depend on donations.

Archives May 2011: New Accession

2011-05-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

Scott Wirth Operation Concern collection:

Each month, the Hormel Center accepts collections that document LGBT life in the San Francisco Bay area. Sometimes a collection consists of several boxes of papers, T-shirts, buttons, and the like. At other times a collection is just a few manila folders.

This month Dr. Scott Wirth, a psychologist, donated 3 folders of material that documents the early history of Operation Concern. Operation Concern (OC) was the first counseling service established by LGBT people for LGBT people and their families in the Bay area. OC later merged with 18th Street Services to form New Leaf, which closed its doors on October 15, 2010.

Dr. Wirth's donation does not include client files but rather grant reports, grant proposals, fliers, brochures, notes, minutes, and talks. These documents show how the organization sought funding, how it was viewed by peers in counseling circles and the LGBT community, and how the staff approached the critical issues of a new-found clientele.

In October 2010, New Leaf donated several boxes of material, including a small portion on Operation Concern. Dr. Wirth's small but important donation helps to complete the picture of LGBT individuals recognizing a need and organizing a thoughtful response that would serve as a model for counseling centers around the country.

Because the Operation Concern collection is a very recent acquisition and not yet organized, it is not currently available for research. All Hormel Center archives are handled through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library. For questions, please contact the San Francisco History Center reference desk at 415-557-4567.

If you have archival material that documents some aspect of the LGBT experience in the San Francisco Bay Area, we'd like to hear from you. Please contact Karen Sundheim, the Program Manager of the Hormal Center, Main Library at 415-557-4566.

Archives April 2011

2011-04-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

Atlas Savings & Loan

What with Tax Day in April, this month is all about money. So it seems fitting that we just received a donation of two stock certificates issued by Atlas Savings & Loan. Atlas was the first financial institution established by and for gays and lesbians in the United States.

John Schmidt, its chairman, along with ten gay directors, including two women, formed Atlas in 1980 in San Francisco. The savings and loan opened for business in November 1981 and identified the gay and lesbian community as its primary market. In August 1982 Atlas opened a branch on 18th and Castro Streets and by January 1985 had three branches in San Francisco.

By June 1985 Atlas began to suffer as a result of bad construction loans, joint ventures and shared loans with two other savings and loans. In August 1985 Atlas was declared insolvent. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board took control of the savings and loan in July 1986 and its assets were sold to Empire Savings of New York.

In September 1986 the Federal Bureau of Investigation began conducting an inquiry into allegations of wrong-doing by former senior management as part of its investigation into three other failed savings and loan associations in Northern California. A group of former Atlas shareholders sued John Schmidt and its auditing firm, Price Waterhouse, in 1989 claiming that they were misled as to Atlas’ financial condition. In 1990 Empire of America Bank (formerly Empire Savings of New York) was placed in conservatorship.

The majority of the Atlas Savings & Loan Collection was donated by Lester Bruno in 1997 with subsequent additions by Jim Van Buskirk, Roy Johnson, the GLBT Historical Society of Northern California, and Donald Reed. The collection spans the years 1979-1990 and contains a small amount of business correspondence and records including bylaws, publicity, promotional materials, mailings to shareholders and stock certificates. There is good press coverage of Atlas through the years especially its opening in 1981 and its financial difficulties in 1985 and 1986. In addition there is a lot of memorabilia and giveaways with the Atlas logo.

The Atlas Savings & Loan Collection (GLC 48) is available for research through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

The images include: one of the stock certificates, a portion of the People magazine article on Atlas in February 22, 1982, a promotional piece with an item in Herb Caen's column, brochures, and a photo that appeared in the 1985 San Francisco Gay Pride Celebration guide.

Singing Leaves of Grass

2011-04-14T14:49:00.001-07:00

San Franciscans had the pleasure of listening to attorney Daniel Redman bring forth Walt Whitman's pioneering expression of male companion love, as he sang the first chapter of Leaves of Grass before a mesmerized audience of nearly 80. The Library is celebrating 150 years since the publication of Whitman's Calamus Poems with an exhibition in the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center called "Paths Untrodden: Walt Whitman's Calamus Poems and the The Radical Faeries". The exhibition, which runs through May 19, 2011, was curated by local researcher and historian Joey Cain. There are photographs of Walt Whitman and his contempories.

Daniel Redman sang passionately in a melody influenced by his Jewish roots. Some who were listening were reminded of Bar Mitzvah's attended in youth, while another commented Whitman's words seemed to be brought forth as Irish seafaring song. When Redman was asked
about recording his music, he mused on the possibility of different chapters of the long poem being sung by Queer people from other cultural backgrounds. He described LGBT life as being a diasporic culture, wherever we are is our Jerusalem........LGBT true home is in the heart.

Archives March 2011: Gay Bears

2011-03-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

Lynn Ludwig Photograph Albums

When the temperature goes down, I naturally think of hibernating. And hibernating naturally makes me think of bears. Within the LGBT community "bear" refers to someone whose physical appearance closely resembles that of a real bear: hairy, strong and anywhere from heavyset to heavily muscled.

In August, Lynn Ludwig donated his collection of 41 photo albums and 200 photo portraits. Lynn's photographs document bear events, LGBT pride parades in San Francisco and his own family events. Frequently documented are the Lone Star Saloon, Eagle bar, and the street fairs for Folsom, Dore Alley and Castro streets.

The albums include portraits of friends and family. All of the albums are interspersed with Lynn's beautiful photographs of flowers and Northern California scenery. Occasionally there are badges from events that Lynn attended as well as flyers promoting those events. The time frame covered is 1988-1999. We see here a sample of some of the images that Lynn captured: a San Diego Bear Pride event from 1992; also a flyer from the ABC Convergence (Associated Bigmen's Clubs); and a lovely shot of the Painted Ladies in San Francisco. The Lynn Ludwig Photographs Collection (GLC 65) is available for research and browsing through the San Francisco History Center.

Queer Teachers: Out of the Past, Into the Future

2011-03-01T17:17:00.000-08:00

With all the flack that teachers have been subjected to lately in the mainstream press, it is past time to give a shout-out to those who continue to brave the difficult challenge of educating our future generations. The first selection, "And They Were Wonderful Teachers: Florida's Purge of Gay and Lesbian Teachers," by Karen L. Graves is a blow by blow historical account of a witchunt that began in the fall of 1956 growing out of a climate fueled by McCarthyism and the cold war, an environment that fostered distrust and suspicion. This book is the story of 87 gay and lesbian teachers, the victims of that purge. Their responses to this persecution are as varied and complex as those folks who testified before HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Council. Count this book as one that puts our present day struggle into proper historical context.

Our second book is an anthology edited by Nelson M. Rodriguez and William F. Pinar titled,"Queering Straight Teachers: Discourse and Identity in Education." These eleven essays are a jumping off point for a different kind of discussion, one that involves straight people just as much as queer ones. It relies on something that old school feminists used to call "conciousness raising." In this case, it just means waking up to the realization that heterosexism along with a preconceived and inflexible conception of gender, only serves to limit the opportunities for self-actualization and achievement for everyone.

The History of Queers and Cinema

2011-02-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

This classic, "Out at the Movies: A History of Gay Cinema," by Steven Paul Davies covers the basic ground, focusing on, but not limited to films made in the United States. From the closet days of the fifties: (The Wizard of Oz) through the ominous classics of the sixties: (The Killing of Sister George, Midnight Cowboy, The Children's Hour) up through the early 21st century: (Angels in America, Brokeback Mountain, Transamerica), he chronicles a progression of the best-known films, actors and directors who brought LGBT life to light on the big screen.

"Queer Screen: A Screen Reader," edited by Jackie Stacey and Sarah Street is an anthology, a collection of different writers presenting a compilation of articles about specific queer films and the issues surrounding them. Most of the contributors to this anthology are women and so it provides a distinctly lesbian perspective to the world of queer cinema.

"Queer Cinema in Europe," edited by Robin Griffiths takes us across the pond with another anthology examining queer identity in film. This book contains fourteen scholarly essays. Identities, aesthetics, queer bars and queer spaces and coming out stories in the cinema of Europe are some of the topics broached in this collection of predominantly male writers.

Archives January 2011

2011-01-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

California Hall, San Francisco. January 1, 1965.

46 years ago an event occurred which served to coalesce the emerging LGBT community in San Francisco. Police harrassment of homosexual men and women was witnessed first-hand by straight men and women. They were appalled and were very public about their outrage.

In the mid-1960s members of the gay community and the religious community sought to find common ground. The Council on Religion and the Homosexual sponsored a fundraiser, a Mardi Gras Ball. Attendees included homosexual men and women along with local clergy and their wives.

Evander Smith was a San Francisco lawyer who along with Herbert Donaldson was retained by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual. Anticipating police harassment at the ball, Smith and Donaldson were asked to attend the event in case legal advice was necessary.

In fact the police did take photographs of attendees arriving and requested admission to the event on two occasions. The first was to examine whether the event was in accord with rules regarding liquor; this was standard practice and the police were admitted to ascertain that the event was in compliance. At a later time, the police asked for admittance again and were denied because they did not have tickets for the private event and could provide no reason to enter. As a result, four people were arrested: Evander Smith, Herbert Donaldson, Elliott Leighton and Nancy May.

The Hormel Center contains the Evander Smith -California Hall Papers. The collection includes case files on the legal defense of Smith, Donaldson, Leighton and May. The files contain a chronology of the events that took place, legal research on the laws pertaining to those events, notes on jury selection, materials concerning homosexuals and their treatment by authorities, clippings of newspaper coverage and cartoons, a few photographs of attendees and police, and some homosexual publications of the time. There are also copies of sermons or papers enclosed in Methodist Church service programs of January 1965.

Nan Alamilla Boyd's book Wide Open Town:a history of queer San Francisco to 1965 is an excellent history of the events leading up to and through this moment in San Francisco LGBT history. The Evander Smith/California Hall Papers are available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th Floor, Main Library.

Sexual Intimacy in US Prisons

2011-01-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any country in the world. According to the United States Deparment of Justice statistics, in 2009 there were 748 inmates for every 100,000 residents. Although in rare instances sexual contact occurs between males and females, the overwhelming majority of sexual contact in prison is between people of the same gender.

In Regina Kunzel's book, "Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality," she rejects the often asked question, "do prisons simply collect "perverts" or help produce them?" by substituting the theory that sexual expression behind bars is not an issue of identity. Kunzel stresses the difficulties for those prisoners exhibiting "gender non-conformity" and points out that power, pleasure and random circumstance are more responsible for the normative shift of behavior in a single-sex environment than any theories regarding whether or not an inmate identifies as gay.

Silja J.A. Talvi presents a less academic take on prisons in her book, Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System. Talvi's background as an investigative journalist, editor and activist is evident in this work. By referencing the actual experiences of women inmates she presents examples of sex between women that runs the gamut between furtive encounters to stable partnerships. In addition she deals with other inmate issues such as medical care, mental health, abuse and the specific situations of women who kill. This book encompasses both defeat and resistance, it reads as a compilation of survival strategies utilized by women who feel themselves to be "a nearly invisible group that has been dehumanized, forgotten."

Click here for more information about the Women Behind Bars Prison Project that Silja Talvi founded.

Archives December 2010

2010-12-24T12:17:00.000-08:00

“Make the Yuletide Gay”

To celebrate the season, we thought it would be fun to highlight a few of the Christmas items in the Hormel Center’s archives.

The first is a photograph of the Mattachine Society Christmas social from about 1953. This image is from a scrapbook in the J. Gruber Papers. He was a member of the Society.

William Dickey wrote and printed many poems. The library's collection of his Poems contains several of his annual Christmas poems which were sent to family and friends. "Ornament" is a lovely example of his poetry and printing.

The last item is a photograph of Harvey Milk, Galen McKinley, and their dog Trick in the early 1960s. The photo is from the Harvey Milk Archives/Scott Smith Collection.

We wish you all a happy new year!

Looking Beyond Marriage

2010-12-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

The Ninth Circuit Court has now heard the arguments from attorneys on both sides of the proposition 8, same-sex marriage debate and we await their decision as to legal standing and constitutional scruting as to how broad the scope of those rights should be. Click here for a legal analysis of the current deliberations. While we are in legal limbo, these book choices look past the tired old system of monogamyand the nuclear family to the possibility of other options.

The first book, "Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law," by Nancy D. Polikoff, a law professor is a brief history of the legal transformations and paramutations marriage and family law has undergone. It also is an analysis of how far it still needs to go when it comes to broadening and expanding the definitions of marriage and family. She deals with the changes radical feminism has wrought from caring fatherhood to the death of the concept of the "illegitimacy" of children. Hospital visitation and lawsuits for wrongful death by queer partners are also explored. Click here for an interview with Nancy Polikoff and here for some of her more recent articles on LGBT community issues.

Once the legal issues are squared away, we can move on to "The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures," by Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy. This, more social perspective is by a marriage and family therapist and a creative writer. In this updated reissue of an old classic, the authors embrace and expand on the term "slut," a derogatory, sexist term for a woman. They posit the male equivalent as "stud."

Anyone can be an ethical slut in thier view; the key to non-monogamy and polyamory in their view is honesty. Their chapters deal with flirting and cruising, overcoming jealousy, healty sex, childrearing, making an agreement and dealing with conflict. This book is not gay or straight but rather more fluid and permeable in its definitions of sexual identity. Click here for an interview with Dossie Easton about this book.

Archives November 2010: GLBT Veterans

2010-11-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

On Veterans Day we celebrate and remember the military men and women who have served our country. The Hormel Center houses a few archival collections of GLBT servicemen and women: the Cliff Anchor Papers, the Leonard Matlovich Papers, and the Pat Bond Papers. The Matlovich and Bond papers are on deposit from the GLBT Historical Society of California.

Cliff Anchor was a gay rights activist, military man and radio broadcaster. He was romantically involved with Dr. Tom Dooley and, later, with Leonard Matlovich. Matlovich was a United States Air Force Sergeant who was expelled from the service with a general discharge after he disclosed his homosexuality. Pat Bond was an actress and comedienne; she served in the Women's Army Corps from 1945 to 1947.

In addition, the center has the Randy Shilts Papers. Shilts was a gay San Francisco journalist and author. His book Conduct Unbecoming is about gays in the military. The Shilts collection contains the drafts of the book as well as his collected research notes and interviews with these brave men and women.

In addition to the archival collections, there are books and videos on GLBT servicemen and women and on the issues surrounding gays in the military. You might choose to explore the library's holdings starting with these: Conduct Unbecoming by Randy Shilts, Coming Out Under Fire (also on video) by Allan Berube, and Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (also on video).

Archives October 2010: New Leaf

2010-10-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

After 35 years of providing support services to the LGBT community, the doors to New Leaf closed on October 15, 2010. New Leaf was a nonprofit multi-purpose counseling center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area.

Services included comprehensive mental health, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and social support and were available to all income levels especially to middle and low-income individuals and families who could not afford private therapy or support services.
Staff members at New Leaf saved flyers, photographs, memoranda, promotional literature, and handbooks in order to document their work with the community. This material forms the New Leaf collection.

Of particular interest are some older materials from Operation Concern (which merged with 18th Street Services to form New Leaf), GLOE (Gay and Lesbian Outreach to Elders), and a draft of Peg Cruikshank's Fierce with Reality, an anthology of literature on aging. It is worth noting that the collection does not include any patient files.

Because the New Leaf collection is a very recent acquisition and not yet organized, it is not currently available for research. All Hormel Center archives are handled through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library. For questions, please contact the San Francisco History Center reference desk at 415-557-4567.

Queer Politics and the Rise of the Religious Right

2010-10-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

At election time informed decision making becomes a top priority. Library materials can provide a research resource for a myriad of issues. These two books both deal with the rise of the religious right and the role that homophobia, quite literally fear of homosexuals, has played in shaping shaping right-wing talking points and LGBT activism.

The first book,"How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism," by Tina Fetner takes a historical approach. From the Evangelicals of the fifties, through Anita Bryant and the rising of the "moral majority" to the AIDS crisis of the eighties and culminating in the "culture wars" that persist today, Fetner takes us on a chronological journey through the right-wing battle strategies of times gone by as well as how the Gay Movement moblilized around them.

In many ways the second book,"Kingdom Coming: the Rise of Christian Nationalism" by Michelle Goldberg takes up where Fetner leaves off. She chronicles the ascendancy of evangelical fundamentalism which she renames "Christian Nationalism" because of their emphasis on the construction of a theocratic state. Goldberg details how, under the George Bush administration they congealed as a movement. Now, a thriving minority, they comprise the right wing of the Republican Party and, in many races, are taking center stage in this mid-term election.

Archives September 2010: Odd Girl In!

2010-09-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

We are thrilled to announce the donation of the Ann Bannon Papers. Bannon is well known and loved for her pulp novels from the 1950s and 1960s: Odd Girl Out, Beebo Brinker, and Journey to A Woman to name just a few.

The Bannon Papers contain the unedited (original) carbon copy typescripts of each of her novels. A few were significantly revised and edited prior to publication by Fawcett Publications.

The Bannon Papers also contain the original contracts with Fawcett, correspondence with Barbara Grier and Naiad Press, publicity photos, newspaper clippings, writings by others about Bannon's novels, adaptations based on Beebo Brinker, and audio- and videorecordings of Bannon's interviews and public addresses. We expect future additions to the collection.

Because the Ann Bannon Papers are a very recent acquisition and not yet organized, they are not currently available for research. All Hormel Center archives are handled through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library. For questions, please contact the San Francisco History Center reference desk at 415-557-4567.

The Basics & the Lighter Side of Lesbian Pregnancy

2010-09-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

As a result of the baby boom in LGBT circles, books pertaining to queer reproduction have been flying off the shelves. These two,"Queering Reproduction: Achieving Pregnancy in the Age of Technoscience," by Laura Mamo and "Beyond Expectation: Lesbian/Bi/Queer Women and Assisted Conception," by Jacquelyne Luce offer concrete advice encompassing and surpassing fertility treatments, conception techniques and support groups. Mamo's book concentrates more on the psychological obstacles and cultural perceptions that lesbians must overcome while Luce's work gives more concrete advice in the legal/contractual sphere. Both books cover the fundamentals such as donor selection, fertility and insemination and both utilize the interview style. However, it should be noted that with regard to legal information, Luce is from Canada and Mamo is from the United States.

After consulting the books above, if you're looking for some lighter reading, or possibly a cautionary tale, "my miserable, lonely, lesbian pregnancy," by Andrea Askowitz is for you. It is a diary-style account of her pregnancy, loaded with biographical digressions. Her sardonic wit makes it a book worth reading, even by people who have zero interest in the female reproductive process. Askowitz with her whiny tell-all style could be the long-lost love child of David Sedaris and Sarah Silverman. She examines the detours and speedbumps of her childbearing odyssey with glib, introspective humor, exposing the inherent contradictions between the way things are and the way they "should" be.

Here is a video of her reading a passage from the book. And another one of Askovitz reading her short story called "Bound for Greatness." To the right is a photo of Askovitz in the throes of her pregnancy.

Archives August 2010 Trannyshack

2010-08-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

Heklina's Dragging Rights

The club Trannyshack was founded in February of 1996, by Steven Grygelko known by the professional moniker Heklina. Trannyshack was staged every Tuesday at midnight at the Stud, a South of Market gay bar in San Francisco, where it ran for over 12 years. The Tuesday night Trannyshack shows ended in August 2008.

A bartender at The Stud, Heklina was invited by the manager to create an event that would bring in patrons on Tuesdays, the slowest night of the week. As a participant in Klubstitute, a notorious traveling drag show in 1990, Heklina had witnessed the fun and possibilities of Drag without bounds. Trannyshack quickly gained an avid audience, who would wait sometimes until 1:30 in the morning for the show to begin. Many first time performers grew to fame on the tiny Trannyshack stage and some such as Peaches Christ and Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters went on to even greater fame.

With so many creative people in such close proximity, competition was natural and spurred the performers to heights of glamour and vulgarity which challenged long-held notions of what defines “Drag”. The inclusive atmosphere encouraged experimentation of all kinds, both on stage and off: costumes and acts ranged from the extreme, to the bizarre to the hysterical, edging out but never quite obliterating the traditional canons of drag. Transsexuals, drag queens, drag kings, faux queens, and even faux kings filled the Stud along with regular folks both gay and straight who came to watch the spectacle.

As Trannyshack gained renown, it attracted some of the biggest stars in the drag pantheon, and an assortment of stars from music and television made appearances as well. The club became something of a tourist attraction, and garnered inclusion on many “Best of” lists. In fact, Trannyshack’s popularity spawned a number of unlicensed copycat “Trannyshacks”, in the U.S. and even London.

Though the Tuesday night shows at The Stud have ended, Heklina has plans to continue the Trannyshack legacy with the Easter show, and other special events, and to keep the Heklina/Trannyshack brand alive indefinitely.

The Trannyshack Collection (GLC 58) is comprised of posters, press releases, photographs, DVDs, and a series of “Historical Bulletins” written by Bobby Barber which reveal background information on the performers and a history of each of the Tuesday night shows hosted in 2008, the club’s final year. The DVDs include two documentaries, Filthy Gorgeous and Blood, Sweat and Glitter, amateur footage taken from the final Trannyshack Kiss-Off show, and a video oral history from December 2008.

The Trannyshack Collection is available at the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

Same-Sex Marriage--a History of Struggle

2010-08-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Although Judge Vaughn Walker ruled on August 4th that preventing same-sex marriages in California violated both the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution, an emergency stay has been placed on these marriages at the request of proposition 8 proponents. Although the legal standing of those initiating the stay is not clear, during the week of December 6th a randomly selected, three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court will determine the merits of Walker's ruling.

Our books this week take a look at the distance the LGBT community has traveled on this issue.

"Legalizing Gay Marriage," by Michael Mello was published in 2004. Mello, a professor of Law at Vermont Law School, chronicles the lengthy and ground-breaking struggle that made Vermont the first state to legalize civil unions in July of 2000 in the aftermath of the Baker decision a case of equal protection under the law involving three same-sex couples. In 1999, the very idea of any kind of partnership between people of the same gender was a highly controversial proposition and it was the ruling in Baker that paved the way for civil unions which many involved in the lawsuit considered unacceptable and "an erosion of the spirit" of those denied full marriage rights.

The book, "When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage," by M.V. Lee Badgett takes the issue a step further and analyzes the ramifications of legalizing gay marriage in the Netherlands in 2001. Badgett is an Economics Professor and Director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is also one of the expert witnesses testifying in the Perry v Schwarzenegger, Prop. 8 trial. She writes with the sociological bent of an economist examining the issues in a more personal light. The book details how broadening the definition of marriage has affected not only people's perception and attitudes toward LGBT people but also how the institution of marriage is broadened and changed by a more-incusive definition. It offers concrete evidence that equality can become law and the sky will not fall as well as interviews with people who hold a range of beliefs as to the meaning of marriage.

Archives July 2010 Gay Games

2010-07-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

"Against the Rules: Lesbians and Gays in the Sports, a travelling exhibition about discrimination, angst and chances" will be on display at the Deutsches Sport & Olympia Museum in Cologne, Germany. This exhibition of Gay Games memorabilia runs from July 30-August 8 in conjunction with Gay Games 8.

The exhibition will include T-shirts, posters, promotional literature, pins and, of course, medals. Several items from Gay Games 1-7 were selected from the Federation of Gay Games Records at SFPL's Hormel Center. We've posted a sample of the items that will be on view in Cologne.

The Federation of Gay Games (FGG) is the umbrella organization responsible for managing the international LGBT sports and cultural event, the quadrennial Gay Games. Dr. Tom Waddell, a 1968 U.S. Olympic decathlete, envisioned the dream of a multi-sport competition as a showcase for the gay and lesbian community. In 1980 he and others in San Francisco formed the San Francisco Arts and Athletics (SFAA) and established the Gay Games as an Olympic-style event. 1,350 participants from 12 countries gathered in August 1982 to compete in 17 sports. The Games have been held every four years since and are one of the world’s largest amateur athletic events drawing an average of more than 12,000 participants.

The mission of The Federation of Gay Games, Inc. is to foster and augment the self-respect of gay men and women throughout the world and to engender respect and understanding from the non-gay world, primarily through an organized, international athletic and cultural event held every four years commonly known as the “Gay Games.”

Following the Federation’s guiding principle of inclusion, activities are inclusive in nature and no individual is excluded from participating on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, political belief(s), athletic/artistic ability, age, physical challenge, or health status.

The Federation of Gay Games Records (GLC 27) includes minutes, reports, correspondence, and administrative papers for the Federation and for San Francisco Arts and Athletics. The Records also include organizational papers and memorabilia from each of the Gay Games events. The Federation of Gay Games Records are available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

Archives June 2010 Nancy Stockwell

2010-06-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

In April, we received additions to the Nancy Stockwell Papers (GLC 47). Stockwell was a writer and a professional golfer. Her papers contain correspondence, subject files, diaries, and draft and print copies of Stockwell’s writings. Most of the material covers the years 1975 through 1998.

In 1966 Nancy graduated from the University of Kansas with a Master’s degree in Speech/Theatre. That same year she moved to Boston, Massachusetts and began her career as a writer. The unpublished novella “Lucky Girls” chronicles her early days in Boston.

In 1973 Stockwell moved to Berkeley, California where she became one of the founding mothers of the journals Plexus (1974-1977) and The Bright Medusa. It is at this time that she makes the acquaintance of members of the early lesbian-feminist movement. Her correspondents include Nancy Bereano, Sandy Boucher, Sandra Dasmann, Cynthia Gair, Barbara Grier, Bertha Harris, and Helaine Harris. There is a small amount of correspondence with such notables as: Jane Rule, Adrienne Rich, Eudora Welty, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Charlotte Bunch, and Margie Adam.

In 1977 Nancy returned to the east coast and in 1978 her book Out Somewhere and Back Again: the Kansas stories was published. Nancy is pictured (above) at the first (1979) gay and lesbian march on Washington, D.C. where she was living at the time. In 1980 she began managing the Lambda Rising Bookstore in D.C. and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

In 1985 she was admitted into the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Stockwell became the first female golf club professional in San Francisco at Harding/Lincoln Parks in 1987.

Nancy Stockwell was born in Paola, Kansas in 1940 and was diagnosed with bronchiectasis, a congenital pulmonary disorder, in 1951. She moved back home due to failing health in 1992 and underwent successful double lung transplant surgery in 1998. Sadly, Nancy died at the Kansas University Medical Center on March 13, 1999 due to complications from the lung transplants and immuno-suppression.

The Nancy Stockwell Papers (GLC 47) are available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

Happy Birthday Harvey Milk!

2010-05-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

Harvey Milk was born on May 22, 1930 in Woodmere Long Island to middle-class, Jewish parents. He arrived in San Francisco in 1972, an era of massive gay and lesbian migration. Queers from all over the country were pouring into the city and, much like the way the freaks and hippies settled into the Haight Ashbury neighborhood, they were staking out territory in the mostly Irish, working-class neighborhood that was called Eureka Valley.

It was on Castro Street in this neighborhood that Milk opened his camera shop, Castro Camera in 1972.

Milk had made three unsuccesful runs for politcal office before eventually winning the job of supervisior of District 5 in 1977, becoming the first openly gay elected official in San Francisco history.

As a supervisor he fought for protection against discrimination in employment and housing for gay San Franciscans. He worked on legislation to protect the rights of workers, the elderly and minorities. Another focus of his 11 month supervisorial stint as was for the preservation of the character of San Francisco neighborhoods that were moving toward unbridled gentrification.

On November 27th, 1978 supervisor Dan White assasinated both Harvey Milk and mayor George Moscone in their respective offices in city hall. Dan White was later sentenced to only seven years in prison, claiming that his judgement was impaired due to consumption of fast food. This "legal" theory became known as the "twinkie defense."

On the night of Dan White's sentencing, outraged, mostly queer, Californians burned police cars and rioted in protest of the verdict, an event that became known as the "White Night Riot."

The San Francisco Public Library holds two separate archival collections of Harvey Milk's papers and photographs and welcomes members of the public to come in and peruse these materials. To the right is a sample of a letter from Harvey Milk to Joe Campbell, dated 1961, lamenting the end of their relationship.

May 22nd, the day that would have been Milk's 80th birthday has been declared the first Harvey Milk Day. The Biblioqueers of the Queerest Library Ever salute him on his day and commemorate his pride and determination, his great contributions to both the LGBT movement, and the city of San Francisco and his relentless dedication to equality for all people.

Archives May 2010: One Man's Labor of Love

2010-05-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

May Day seems the most appropriate day to announce the acquisition of the Howard Wallace Papers by the Hormel Center. Wallace is a gay labor and peace activist who is perhaps best known as a co-founder of Pride at Work (PAW), previously named the Lesbian and Gay Labor Alliance. He was one of the founders of Bay Area Gay Liberation (BAGL) in 1975 and, with Harvey Milk, he led the Coors Beer boycott that began the same year. This photograph by Howard Petrick shows Wallace (in sunglasses).

Howard's activism in Denver, Colorado and in San Francisco over the last 30 years has centered on equal rights for all regardless of sexual orientation or race. He is a tireless advocate for coalition building between communities in order to forge alliances based on mutually identified goals.

A contemporary of Harvey Milk and Randy Shilts, Wallace ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1975 against Milk, among others. Though neither won that election, Milk was elected in 1977.

Wallace organized the first March On Washington for Gay Rights in 1979. He is currently involved with Senior Action Network (SAN), and the San Francisco Labor Council.

Some of the interesting pieces in his Papers include materials on the Coors Boycott, the Florida Orange Juice Boycott, the anti-Briggs Initiative (i.e. No On 6) campaign regarding gay/lesbian teachers in California, materials on housing plans in San Francisco, peace activism and the Yes on N campaign to bring U.S. troops out of Iraq. He is also a long-time proponent of health care unions.

Because the Howard Wallace Papers are a very recent acquisition and not yet organized, they are not currently available for research. All Hormel Center archives are handled through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library. For questions, please contact the San Francisco History Center reference desk at 415-557-4567.

The LGBT Community and Aging

2010-05-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

The issues associated with aging present varied challenges for lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people. This book, "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Aging: Research and Clinical Perspectives," edited by Douglas Kimmel, Tara Rose and Steven David is an anthology adressing the special needs of our aging community. These include sexuality, physical and mental health, alcohol and substance abuse, legal concerns and end-of-life decision making to name only a few. The chapters range in tone from a clinical data format to more informal and conversational. For interested Bay Area folks, there is also a chapter on the founding of openhouse, the local LGBT retirement housing organization in San Francisco. This anthology with its wide-ranging scope and pertinent information this book is a valuable resource for clinicians, aging LGBTs and those who are involved in their lives.
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Other Queer Elder Issues in the News:

The fight for LGBT equal rights in the Social Security System is in full swing. Representative Linda Sanchez is introduced a bill to equalize coverage and the web site rockforequality.org

is also active in the campaign. Check out their videos which include the science fiction classic, "What Kind of Planet Are We On?" and "Portraits of Discrimination."

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is taking on the case of Harold Scull and Clay Greene, an elderly gay couple who had been together twenty years. up until the day that Scull fell down the front steps of their house in Sonoma. At that point, Scull was hospitalized and the men were forcibly separated. Greene was treated as simply his "roommate" and the couty sold off the home and all their joint property. According to the Bay Area Reporter article "Other than a suitcase of his belongings and a photo book Harold made for him, Clay Greene has nothing left of his former life."

Archives April 2010: A Well Developed Body of Work

2010-04-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

Photographs of physique model Tony Sansone

In July 2009, the Hormel Center received a small box from an anonymous donor. It contained 20 black and white photographs and a small book titled Rhythm (Brooklyn, NY: 1935). The photos and book feature beautiful studies of Anthony (Tony) J. Sansone, a physique model and dancer.

A letter accompanying the donation explained that Leonard Laton once owned the book and photographs and gave them to the donor for safe-keeping in the 1950s. Unfortunately, the donor lost track of Laton. Now, decades later, he has sent the material to the Hormel Center in Laton's name. The donor describes Laton as a German Jewish gay man who “escaped the Nazi holocaust, fled to Canada and then established citizenship in the United States. He was a gentle, intelligent, cultured person, interested in photography, and nature particularly horticulture.”

Collections of male physique photographs are not uncommon in the papers of gay men. This collection contains 20 black and white photographs of Tony Sansone; most are nudes and 10 images are reprinted in Rhythm. One photo is inscribed: “For Leonhard Laton, with every friendly wish, Tony Sansone, 1955.”

A protégé of Charles Atlas, Sansone was a much sought-after model for photographers and artists during the late 1920s and 1930s. He worked extensively with Edwin Townsend, Achille Volpe and, in later years, worked some with Lon of New York. Townsend and Sansone collaborated on Modern Classics (1929) and Rhythm (1935). The introduction to Rhythm is by the sculptor Arthur Lee and includes photographs of Lee's bronze sculpture of Sansone.

Sansone became a gym owner in New York. For a complete biography, see John Massey's American Adonis: Tony Sansone, the first male physique icon (New York: Universe, 2004). Massey's book places Sansone within the context of the burgeoning physical culture of the early 20th century.

The Leonard Laton Collection of Anthony (Tony) J. Sansone Photographs (GLC 62) is available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

Frida Kahlo: Song of Herself

2010-04-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

For Frida Kahlo afficionados Salomon Grimberg's Frida Kahlo: Song of Herself is a condensed version of the artist's life in both her own words and the words of her friend, Olga Campos. Salomon Grimberg, the author, is a Kahlo expert and an art historian. Throughout the book he intersperses fragments of Kahlo's ideology with lesser known drawings, paintings and photographs making this book a must see for those who think they are familiar with Kahlo's work. They include this one to the right called "The Mask" from 1945. The accompanying text includes insights, interviews, articles along with a chronological medical history of a woman who struggled with illness and chronic pain for the duration of her short life.

It is fascinating to contrast the views of Grimberg and Campos with those of Kahlo herself. On the issue of Frida's bisexuality Grimberg says, "Kahlo gradually took lovers of both genders in order to avoid feelings of emptiness." Campos rationalizes, "I do not think she was a true homosexual. If she had sex with other women, it would not have been for love or attraction but to satisfy her frustrated eroticism and vanity." But Kahlo states concisely,"Homosexuality is very correct, very good."

Kahlo, a politically active Communist, is also is quoted as saying, "I would fight in a war but imperialistic war is idiotic." Elaborating she states that"the class struggle, even armed, is very important." Yet her overall world view is considerably softer. She believes, "love is the basis of all life," confides that," I have enjoyed being contradictory." Then finally concedes, "I do not believe in anyone's honesty, not even mine."

For more on Frida check out this article from Woman's Art Journal: "Fashioning National Identity: Frida Kahlo in 'Gringolandia'."

Lambda Literary Foundation and San Francisco Public Library Host Lammy Finalists

2010-04-15T18:42:00.001-07:00

Our annual reading by finalists for the year's Lambda Literary Awards is one of our most inspiring and enjoyable events. On April 13 Lambda Literary Foundation's new E.D. Tony Valenzuela and LLF Board President (and prolific author) Katherine Forrest hosted 15 writers, who each packed into a 5-minute segment an unique and personal expression of the LGBT experience.

While each author was engaging, it's impossible in a short article to describe each presentation. Here are a couple of highlights: Tommi Avicolli-Mecca read from the anthology he edited called Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation, which describes the lives of lesbians, gay men, and trans folks in many US cities and rural communities, long before the fight for Same-Sex Marriage Rights overshadowed a movement less concerned with assimilation.

Cinderella with a twist? Ash, Malinda Lo's young adult novel brings romance and fantasy together and her strong female protagonist will excite many readers. Ash was also nominated for a Northern California Book Award. Minal Hajratwala's Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents brought forth a gender-blending side of Indian culture through transcendent language. And Patrick Latellier presented his essay on his personal diva, Queen Elizabeth the First (from the anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspired Them.
The 22nd Lambda Literary Awards will be held on Thursday, May 27 at the School of Visual Arts Theatre in New York City.

For Dust Thou Art: Poems by Timothy Liu

2010-04-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

In honor of National Poetry Month, this week's book is "For Dust Thou Art: Poems by Timothy Liu." Liu is an associate professor of English at William Paterson University and has published five previous collections of poetry. His biography in Poetry Magazine further describes him as "an Asian, Mormon, gay man."

This collection is divided into three parts and it is an odd threesome. The first part is infused with a vibrant eroticism,"A taste/of oil and salt glistening on those toasted bodies."Part two zeroes in on the tragedy of the World Trade Center, "The liminal edge/of what has been--the suspension/of daily activity where what is/possible outweighs the probable." And part three rises up and looks down on both the transient nature of the human condition as well as the, sometimes inexplicable, will to go on, "nostalgia's shade a load of leaves/from a tree that no longer stands."

Liu has a facility for accessible poetry that leaves a haunting sadness. It chronicles the mundane, material aspects of the world while, at the same time, elevating them to something that reaches upward into the human spirit.

Archives March 2010

2010-03-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Word Is Out (or Who Are We?)

The Peter Adair Papers (GLC 70) is now open to the public to coincide with the release of the DVD version of Word Is Out. Peter Adair and the Mariposa Film Group’s ground-breaking film from 1978 explores the lives and feelings of 26 gay men and women. The new DVD includes “extras” drawn from the Peter Adair Papers—still photographs, edited footage, and some of the pre-interviews.

The working title of the film was “Who Are We?” a title which deftly conveys Adair’s and the Mariposa Film Group’s goal. It is interesting how universal the stories are and how they continue to resonate more than 30 years later.

The Peter Adair Papers includes the filmed interviews with all of the people in the film, as well as the videotaped interviews of all of the people considered for the film. Over 100 people were interviewed including such notables as Tom Ammiano, Canyon Sam, Pat Parker, Carole Migden, Blackberri, and Hank Wilson. The Papers also includes background paperwork, the filmmakers’ notes on cuts and edits, and the drafts of Nancy and Casey Adair's book Word Is Out. A small portion of the collection contains the videotape of The AIDS Show, a Theatre Rhinoceros production filmed by Peter Adair and Rob Epstein.

Many of us are drawn to historical materials to define ourselves within the context of previous generations. The Adair Papers began as means to answer the question “Who Are We?” Lacking a library or archives to explore that question, Adair and the Mariposa Film Group went to the community itself to find answers. Thirty years later, the Peter Adair Papers allows us to respond with both “who we were” and “who we are.”

All Hormel Center archives are handled through the San Francisco History Center, 6th Floor, Main Library.

Queerest News Ever--March 2010

2010-03-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

Health Care Insurance reform has been approved by the House and Obama has signed the bill into law. But House representative Tammy Baldwin pointed out that some specific provisions for LGBT people which address access to care and discrimination issues were excluded from the final version. There is still hope, according to Baldwin, who says that while the bill while lacks the proposed protections, it "keeps the legislative door open" to future changes.

In other medical news, a study which appeared March 18th in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that gays and lesbians have been systematically excluded from studies of sexual health without any concrete reasons being provided for this omission.

The federal Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) is conducting a study of housing discrimination against LGBTs and are enlisting the help of queers in New York, Chicago and San Francisco for ideas on how the study should be conducted.

A judge has issued a warrant in the strange custody case of former lesbian couple Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins. The two were joined in a civil union in 2000 and gave birth to daughter Isabella in 2002 through insemination. They moved from Virginia to Vermont to raise their child. When Isabella was a year old, Miller took her and moved back to Virginia. There she became a born-again Evangelical Christian and proceeded to deny Jenkins all visitation rights. In 2009 Judge Cohen tired of Miller's refusal to grant Jenkins access to the child and charged her with contempt. He then ordered Miller to turn over custody to Jenkins. Instead of complying, Miller took off with Isabella and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

In other parenting news, being a lesbian couple can disqualify your child from attending pre-school in Boulder Colorado's Sacred Heart of Jesus Church because that church holds that gays are sexually "disordered" and " inherently evil."

Mississippi teenager Constance McMillen who caused the administation to cancel the entire high school prom rather than allow her to attend wearing a tuxedo with her girlfriend by her side, has won her fight in court, although the high school sponsorer prom won't be reinstated, a private non discriminatory prom will take its place. She was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Honoring Inner Landscapes

2010-03-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Susan Krieger's poetically titled, "Things No Longer There: A Memoir of Losing Sight and Finding Vision," is a work of observation in the truest sense; a collection of stories about her progressive loss of eyesight due to disease, intermingled with "visibility" issues concerning her lesbian identity. Her writing is permeated with a nostalgic poignancy that is grounded, not cloying, and sometimes even amusing. She states, "People look increasingly young because my vision blurs out the fine lines and subtle skin tones...everyone looks about 35."

Beyond chronicling her loss of sight, the book includes the development of an affair Kreiger had with a previously heterosexual woman, her evolving awareness of her disability and her observations and insight into the ways lesbians interract with a world that does not see or recognize them. Her writing is lush and lyrical as she takes us on a journey of transformation and transcendence.

Click here for the web site: Blind LGBT Pride.

Education and Homophobia

2010-03-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

Education budget cuts combined with tuition increases in California have impacted students from elementary school level through college. On March 4th protests organized by students occurred throughout the state. For lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender young adults, as for members of ethnic minority communities, budget concerns are only a fraction of the story.

James T. Sears' book, "Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Issues in Education: Programs, Policies, and Practices," the voices of LGBT young people recount their personal experiences as do educators and counselors who also have both an intimate understanding of anti-gay bullying and harassment and the high cost of allowing it to run rampant in an educational setting.

Arthur Lipkin's, "Beyond Diversity Day: A Q&A on Gay and Lesbian issues in Schools" is structured in a question and answer format that includes actual quotations, press clippings of actual incidents and statistics. In an accessible yet analytical style. Lipkin documents the homophobia that he finds to be pervasive throughout the American educational system.

This video "Larry's Law: Fostering Safe and Hate Free Schools is about a California Assembly bill was named after 14 year old Larry King of Oxnard California, an openly gay eighth-grader who was murdered in his classroom by a fellow student.

Africa and LGBT Citizens: An Uphill Battle

2010-02-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

The challenges of LGBT citizens in several African nations have been broadcast all over the news lately. The most prominent story, the Ugandan bill proposing the death penalty for homosexuality has engendered an increasingly chilling atmosphere of hate and fear in that country. (BBC news video part 1, part 2). In Malawi a gay couple was arrested for holding a marriage ceremony and Another Malawi man was arrested for putting up gay rights posters. In both Uganda and Malawi campaigns against LGBTs have escalated and taken to the streets. Some of this activity has spread to Nigeria where a group of gay men face death by stoning for wearing women's clothes. In Kenya as well a protest erupted when a same-sex ceremony was scheduled to take place. In Rwanda the Parliament has put off a scheduled vote to criminalize homosexuality until later this year. All and all, it seems clear that although the African National Congress of South Africa has legalized same-sex marriage and offers full civil rights to LGBT folks, Central Africa is definitely a very difficult place to be queer.

The brighter spot in this struggle is that the reason for the increased mobilization of the forces of hate and fear, is the greater visibility and activism of LGBT's around the globe has spread to Africa. In this technological world, news of other countries cannot be suppressed. Even now in Uganda, lesbians and gays are demonstrating, speaking out and risking their lives for this fight. In Kenya The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, is alive and active although the former web site called "Gay Uganda," that geocities had described as "dedicated to all those in the world who have discovered that to be gay is to be human: and to those in Uganda who walk under the cloud of their society's prejudice" has been replaced with the message: "Sorry, the Geocities site you were trying to reach is no longer available.

In Africa the interrelationship between imperialism, colonialism, religion and homosexuality has been long, complex and fraught with conflict. There are no easy answers but those interested in learning more about this aspect of Africa can peruse books that shed more light on both the conditions of LGBT life in Africa as well as the history from which they arise: "Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS" by March Epprecht. "African Intimacies: Race, Homosexuality and Globalization" by Neville Hoad and for more information on the specific condition of women and lesbians, "Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men and Ancestral Wives: Female same-sex practices in Africa" by Ruth Morgan and Saskia Wieringa.

Still Defying Silence: Audre Lorde

2010-02-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

Audre Lorde was a poet of stunning eloquence, a political activist, a theorist and a chronicler of the times she lived in. Growing up in Harlem as a self-identified black, lesbian-feminist she was unwilling to suppress any aspect of her identity for the sake of expediency or acceptance. Her quotation, "Your silence cannot protect you!" became a mantra of sorts for the lesbian community. Her 1982 biography, "Zami: a New Spelling of My Name," captivated many who had never read a word about being butch, black and lesbian on the gritty streets of 1950's New York.

The essays in this book, "I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde," are as powerful and relevant today as they were when she wrote them. Although she speaks to everyone, her writing here is directed primarily toward the straight, black, feminist community, to shake out the fear and prejudice that stands as a barrier to achieving a politically powerful base "family" from which to take on oppression. In this respect the title becomes a plea for unity in that struggle.

Audre Lorde died in 1992 at age 58 after a battle with metastatic breast cancer. Here is some video footage from that last year. Her final memoir, "The Cancer Journals," documented her experience with fatal illness, and was just another example of her refusal to succumb to silence.

Archives February 2010

2010-02-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

Gary Fisher Papers : “Proceed at your own risk”

I love the first page of Gary’s diary “Vol. V.” It’s an invitation that sets the tone with a wink and a smile. And it sums up all of the contradictions that surround the work of a diarist. Are these private musings for public consumption? A means to think through one’s life? An explanation? Who is the audience? Does it affect what’s written? And, if it does, how? I can offer no answers but it is a question I revisit each time I read a diary.

Gary Fisher was a gay African American man who enjoyed writing, drawing and, if the diaries are to be believed, dancing! He was a dedicated diarist. Born on June 19, 1961 in Bristol, Pennsylvania, Fisher attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1979-1983 where he studied English and creative writing. He died of AIDS at the age of 32 on February 22, 1994. After his death, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick edited portions of his journals, poems and stories in order to publish Gary in Your Pocket. Gary’s thoughts on life and love seemed very fitting for a February post.

The Hormel Center’s archival collections include diaries from a few different individuals. The Vincent Diaries, the Gary Fisher Papers, and the Louis Graydon Sullivan Papers contain the most diaries. The Sullivan Papers are on deposit from the GLBT Historical Society of Northern California and document the life and work of a female-to-male transsexual before, during and after his gender reassignment. All Hormel Center archives are handled through the San Francisco History Center, 6th Floor, Main Library.

Proposition 8 On Trial

2010-02-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

The testimony has concluded (click here for a video wrap up), but amicus briefs are still being filed in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger, constitutionality of same-sex marriage, case that took place in the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco. Attorneys David Boies and Ted Olson a Democrat and a Republican who repesented opposite sides in the Bush v. Gore election aftermath are the odd couple who have presented the case to Judge Vaughn Walker.

Kudos to those who, in spite of a court order banning filming the proceedings, have kept us informed of the action, blow by blow.

The Courage Campaign has a site: prop8trialtracker.com that already has an interesting lawsuit under it's belt. They used is a slightly altered version of the original yes on prop 8 logo with one of the characters changed from male to female. In other words, they made the family headed by a lesbian couple. They won their lawsuit based on the grounds that parody and satire are legal!

Firedoglake has done a great job live-blogging the entire trial so here's a shout-out to them and their flying fingers!

But the coup de grace on the camera issue came when Los Angeles film makers John Ireland and John Ainsworth decided to take the transcript and film a complete reenactment of the proceedings using volunteers from the Screen Actors Guild. It can be viewed, with actors bios and all kinds of background information at their web site: http://www.marriagetrial.com/ and for the youtube version with a larger screeen size click here.

Thanks to these folks and many others who have given us full access to this ground-breaking trial!

Changing Portrayals in the Mainstream Media

2010-01-26T13:34:00.000-08:00

As much as book lovers might hate to admit it, the primary way mainstream ideology is promoted and disseminated is not through the written word but through the visual media. In his book, "from perverts to fab five: The Media's Changing Depiction of Gay Men and Lesbians," Rodger Streitmatter charts the changing topography of the LGBT cultural landscape reflected through the lens of television and movies. He begins with the newspaper image of the prowling pervert of the Joseph McCarthy era and proceeds through the breakthrough film "Brokeback Mountain" in 2005. Ellen DeGeneres' coming out, "Queer as Folk," The L-Word," Will and Grace," and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," all of which have become cultural reference points in television history, are taken on by Streitmatter, a Professor and Senior Associate Dean in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C.

For other resources the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, (GLAAD), monitors the U.S. media for both positive and negative depictions of queer folks. Here is a video of the history of LGBTs on television. And here is a more up to date version of the same subject.

Judy Grahn: Words That Mobilized a Movement

2010-01-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

Judy Grahn's poetry is intense, electric, a firestorm that illuminated a path for dyke activists in the early seventies. She spoke, she theorized, she shed light from a feminist and uniquely lesbian perspective that was steeped in her working-class roots and consciousness. And as the years have passed she continues to explore and analyze the meaning of patriarchy and the role that women play in it.

"The Judy Grahn Reader," is a compilation that summarizes the highlights of her work from 1969 to 2000. It begins with the "Common Woman Poems," and continues through much of her early poetry including "Edward the Dyke," and her classic epic poem, "A Woman is Talking to Death." There are short sections of fiction and drama and many excerpts from her prolific later-life, mostly non-fiction material.

Here are some selections from interviews with Grahn and an article on Celebrating the Poetry of the Women's Movement.

Bayard Rustin, Gay Civil Rights Activist

2010-01-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King Day celebrates the birthday of the most well-known leader of the black civil rights movement. However, a long unsung hero and prominent activst of that era had been nearly written out of history up until the last decades of the 20th century. Bayard Rustin, the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington was an openly gay African-American man, a draft resister, a pacifist and a one-time member of the Communist Party. He faced arrest for his political convictions and his sexual orientation and endured censure from both the outside world as well as the groups he considered his community.

Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer is an overview of his life and times. Jerald Podair begins with a chronology of important events in his career and the book is organized by time periods with a chapter at the end containing supporting articles, letters and statements by Rustin addressing a wide-range of political issues from trade-unions to Soviet Jewry to Homosexual Rights. This book is a handy resource with a host of original material and documentation.

Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin, by John D'Emilio is a more in depth biography. "Based on more than a decade of archival research and interviews," it is revommended for those who want to dive more fully into the details of the turbulent life of this passionate and fascinating man.

Here is a film clip with actual footage from the civil rights struggle that includes John D'Emilio speaking and also a clip of Rustin debating Malcolm X.

The Queer Perspective in Spanish Culture

2010-01-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

Mexico City recently legalized same-sex marriage and adoption. Buenos Aires just licensed its first gay marriages as well. But the pioneering country of the Spanish-speaking world is Spain, a country that legalized queer marriages in 2005. The death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 brought Spain out from behind a heavy, fascist curtain of repression and isolation where even the train tracks had been built to different dimensions than those in the rest of Europe.

Franco's death brought forth a culture renaissance known as La Movida Madrilena, (the Madrid Movement), a politically and socially progressive blossoming of art and culture that continues today. This book, "Queer Transitions in Contemporary Spanish Culture: From Franco to La Movida," sheds light on ongoing democratic transition of Spain from a queer perspective. Gema Perez-Sanchez begins with the dangerous and self-loathing homosexual of the Franco years, through the literary blossoming of the eighties onward through the early years of the 21st century. She analyzes films, periodicals and comic books along with works of literary fiction.

Here is some more information on La Movida. And click here for the moving speech by the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, delivered in 2005 marking the end of discriminatory marriage laws.

The Quest for Sobriety

2009-12-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

The coming of the New Year has long been a cause for celebration. This year once again the lighted ball will descend in Times Square, 2009 will go out as an old man and 2010 will come in as a baby. The other tradition connected with Auld Lang Syne has been a problematic for some. The fact is that alcohol consumption and gay culture have been intimately connected since before the days that Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud downed their first absinthe cocktails.

In today's selection, "The History of Gay People in Alcoholics Anonymous: From the Beginning," Audrey Borden traces the role queers have played in helping construct the twelve-step program, a system utilized by groups as diverse as narcotic abusers, sex addicts and compulsive gamblers to name a few. The book is written in the personal, down-home style typical of these meetings. Borden lets her subjects tell their own stories while providing background information highlighting the specific obstacles LGBT folks faced in both their struggle to stay clean and sober as well as their struggle for acceptance withing the Alcoholics Anonymous Community.

Here is an online chronology of gays in AA. And here are more resources for Gay and Lesbian Recovering Alcoholics. Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Re-Imagining Christian Imagery

2009-12-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas is on the horizon again bringing with it a melange of seasonal joy and darker, more complex emotions. Today's book, "Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More," is a collection of non-traditional, Christian iconography by eleven different artists who identify as Christian, Agnostic and even one Buddhist. It was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in the LGBT Arts and Culture category in 2007. That year the art was compiled by Kittredge Cherry, for an exhibit she mounted in Taos, New Mexico as part of the Festival of Progressive Spiritual Art . These are images that challenge the traditional visual interpretation of the sacred. Examples of the new visions include: a black, female "Jesus of the People," a lesbian "Madonna, Lover and Son," and a passionate, "Judas Kiss."

Cherry defines herself as a lesbian, Christian author, minister and art historian. She holds a master of divinity degree from the Pacific School of Religion as well as undergraduate degrees in journalism and art history. Click here for a video of her speaking about this book as well as the censorship of art in general.

Queer Jews: History, Identity, Visibility

2009-12-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

As Hanukah approaches today's books deal with the ever-evolving, much-debated issue of Jewish identity. Warren Hoffman's work, "the passing game: queering jewish american culture," delves into the history of the queer, Jewish pespective in American theater, fiction and culture in general. He examines the many forms passing (as non-Jewish and straight) and coming out (in both respects) have taken in the world of literature and the arts. Click here for Hoffman's online article: Closeted No More or Why Jewish American Culture is Really Gay.

Marla Brettschneider's book, 'The Family Flamboyant: Race Politics, Queer Families, Jewish lives,"starting with the personal experience of her own life, she widens the net to include adoption of children, non-traditional families, queerness, Jewishness, racial and ethnic politics and the socio-political interpretation of all of the above. At the University of New Hampshire, Brettschneider holds a joint appointment as professor of Political Philosophy and Women's Studies and is Co-ordinator of Queer Studies. Her theories are thoughtful and compelling.

Transformation of a Relationship

2009-12-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

People undergoing gender reassignment are not always single. The impact one spouse's gender change on a formerly traditional heterosexual couple can, in many instances, blow a relationship apart. Helen Boyd didn't let that happen to her marriage. Instead she utilizes her book, "She's not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband," to delve into her internal feelings and societal experiences surrounding her husband's transition from male to female.

Here is a video interview with Helen Boyd along with some other resources for spouses; a PFLAG pamphlet: Opening the Straight Spouse's Closet and another personal story: Can a Marriage Survive Transition?

James Baldwin in Turkey

2009-11-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

Literary luminary and pioneer, James Baldwin has done much to pave the way for African-American and gay writers who have come since. This book, "James Baldwin's Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile," by Magdalena J. Zaborowska expounds on his years in a country that straddles both Europe and Asia, where he came to view his status as "other" as part nemesis and part inspiration. According to Zaborowska, it was in Istanbul, where Baldwin learned to embrace the warmth of the Turkish people as well as his identity as a perpetual traveler, a foreigner in every nation.

Here is an additional online biograpical sketch of James Baldwin and an essay from the New Yorker that goes into more depth about his years abroad.

A Compassionate Eye: World AIDS Day 2009

2009-11-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

The Hormel Center of SFPL will present "A Compassionate Eye: World AIDS Day 2009". Curator Adam Stoltman and photographer/author Thomas McGovern will present slides on the local and global side of AIDS. Stoltman will show the work of the late photographer Victor Arimondi (the subject of our current exhibition in the Hormel Center on the Third floor of the Main Library), and McGovern will discuss his book documenting AIDS worldwide (Bearing Witness). Tuesday December 1 at 6:00 PM. Lower Level Room LH58.

Change and American Family Law

2009-11-16T14:05:00.000-08:00

The absence of laws regarding non-traditional couples and families has proved to be both a conundrum for judges and the source of much courtroom confusion. At times, the existence of this vast gray area, can lead to tragedy as in the case of Lisa Pond, Janice Langhbehn and their children. On a vacation to Florida, Pond sufferered an aneurysm. Her partner of 18 years and the children they raised together were denied access to her bedside as she lay dying. A hospital social worker told Langbehn point blank, as she denied her request, that the family were now in "an antigay city and state." By the time Langbehn and her daughter gained admission to her room Lisa Pond had lost consciousness. This past September Langbehn's lawsuit was dismissed by federal court.

The case of Sharon Reed and Jo Ann Ritchie was quite similar. Reed was barred from her partner, Ritchie's intensive care unit for extended periods of time preceding Ritchie's death. The two women had been together for 17 years.

To help explain, clarify and prevent these incidents from ocurring in the future Kimberly D. Richman has written, Courting Change: Queer Parents, Judges, and the Transformation of American Family Law. Her goal is to shed light on the "indeterminate and discretionary area of American Law," that encompasses issues surrounding partnership, parenting, child custody and visitation rights, to name but a few. Her book provides insight into the rationale behind court decisions and ways the law can be re-interpreted and changed to better meet the needs of the diverse families of the 21st century.

Queer Punk Panel Discussion

2009-11-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

Queer Punk Panel Discussion

Tuesday, Nov. 17th, 7 p.m.
at the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library

The panel will discuss how being Queer influenced their music and will share memories of playing the San Francisco punk scene in the 80s and 90s. Panelists include KD Davis, bass player for Wilma and Impulse F, Debbie Hopkins, drummer for the Contractions and Jon Ginoli, founder of Pansy Division!

This program is part of PUNK PASSAGE:
San Francisco First Wave Punk
The Photography Of Ruby Ray at the Jewett Gallery, Main Library

The Real Cost of "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

2009-11-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Lt. Daniel Choi was discharged as an Arabic translator in the New York National Guard, after he came out as gay on the Rachel Maddow Show. In that interview Mr. Choi said, "By saying three words to you today, I am gay, I am in violation of title 10 of the U.S. code." Sandy Tsao, a lesbian, was also discharged that week for uttering the very same three words.

In his book, Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, Nathaniel Frank provides a historical overview of the relationship LGBT folks have had to the U.S. Armed Forces since World War II. He debunks the notion that the inclusion of gay troops would interfere with necessary bonding. Frank categorically states, "There has never been any empirical evidence that openly gay service undermines unit cohesion." His work is a meticulously researched and compelling analysis of both the human and strategic costs of this piece of legislation.

Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Branch Opening Celebration!

2009-10-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

Opening Day at the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library
by photographer J. Doiy

Unspeakable and Illegal

2009-10-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

In many of the countries of the Middle East to be openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered is to risk life and limb, and in some countries even the death penalty. But learning to navigate turbulent waters has always been a survival skill of LGBT folks, and Brian Whitaker, a scholar and a journalist, chronicles some of these strategies in his book, Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East. Although he tends to underestimate the role that sexism plays in these cultures, his insight into religious and secular bias is well worth the journey.

For more of an anecdotal and personal approach, check out Illegal Citizens: Queer Lives in the Muslim World by Somali writer and film-maker, Afdhere Jama. The style here is more informal consisting of individual interviews laced with commentary that includes more voices of women and transgendered folks forging an every day path of resistance in spite of many obstacles.

Alone or in combination these books provide an opening glance into the lives of LGBT Muslims and other Middle Eastern members of our community.

B/GLAM: A "Family" Reunion Read/A Re-gathering of Tribe

2009-10-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

Celebrate the coming-back-together of the Bay Area's best Black Gay literary voices. This "Family" reunion reading is an opportunity for this collective of community based writers to report back in on their comings and goings, their ups and downs and their short falls and ultimately their triumphs. This reading brings to the table and ultimately to the mic all of the stories that these writers have gone out and gathered. Join founders Cedric Brown and Marvin K. White as they read with Ramekon O'Arwisters, Byron Mason, Antoine Crowder, Louie Butler, Dazie Grego, Stewart Shaw, Derek Lassiter, Jair Trice, Juba Kalamka, Thandiwe Thomas De Shazor, Robert Quintana Hopkins, James Knox and Alan Miller. Historical and hysterical are the main ingredients for this reading! Tuesday, October 20th at 6:00 PM. San Francisco Public Library Koret Auditorium (Lower Level). 100 Larkin Street. Free.

Homegrown Poetry

2009-10-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a day off for Columbus Day, which commemorates the anniversary of an event that some consider the beginning and others the end of "civilization" as we know it. Columbus and his crew called the people they "discovered" Indians because of their mistaken belief that they had landed in India. In Berkeley California the holiday is known as Indigenous People's Day and is celebrated as such.

Joy Harjo is a descendent of these first inhabitants and an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is also a musician, a lesbian and a poet extraordinaire. This collection, How We Became Human, represents her best work from 1975-2001. Her words weave a picture of the amazing, magnificence of the natural world, reminiscent of Mary Oliver, interspersed with a lens on the edgy, urban struggle for survival a la June Jordan. These poems serve as mantras that help us to "become human" and appreciate our world in all its fierce and fickle beauty.

Infighting and Insurrection

2009-10-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

Coming Out Day is October 11th and this year it is also the day of "Equality Across America" the LGBT March on Washington. In honor of these events, this week's book is The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington. In this book, Amin Ghaziani analyzes four past Lesbian and Gay Rights Marches on Washington D.C. which have taken their historical place among a panoply of marches on the capital city. He examines the role that conflict plays with regard to the political organizing of an oppressed community. Yes, his tone is a bit academic, but both scholarly and lay organizers will resonate with his well-documented research and incisive observations.

A Compassionate Eye: The Work of Victor Arimondi

2009-10-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

Fearless, passionate, brave and timeless - the work of Victor Arimondi stands the test of time and informs us today, as much as when it was made, of the many complexities and challenges of the human condition with an uncanny grace, compassion and elegance. This exhibition, the first by an institution since his passing in 2001 - encompasses the many threads of his photographic work that touch portraiture, still life, social commentary and documentary, fashion, experimental work, and the abstract.

Exhibition: From September 12 through December 10, 2009

Main Library, Third Floor, James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center

Tragedy Transformed into Activism

2009-09-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Matthew Shepard's murder changed all our lives but foremost among those affected was Judy Shepard, his mother. Both because of her grief, and in spite of it, she became an activist committed to ending hate violence against LGBT people. In her book, The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed, she shares the intimate details of her loss with honesty, forgiveness, determination and grace.

Here is a video of Judy Shepard speaking out in the name of her son and an article about the rising incidence of hate crimes against LGBT folks in the U.S.

Portraits, Plays Perversions

2009-09-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

Controversial playwright George Birimisa will read from one of his plays that takes place in the notorious Strand Theater on Market Street. His plays have been praised by Tennessee Williams, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, and The New York Times. Mrs. Trauma Flintstone will provide the entertainment, along with her bevy of drag divas including Virginia Suicide and Countess Katya Smirnoff Skyy.

Tuesday, September 29 at 6:00pm. Main Library. Lower Level. Latino-Hispanic Room B.

Love is a Many-Gendered Thing!

2009-09-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hi Rowdy Rainbow Readers, this week's focus book is one about an experience that goes where no man has gone before. It's called, Labor of Love: the Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy and it's Thomas Beatie's memoir as the first Female to Male (FTM) transgendered person to give birth. In his chatty and informative memoir he chronicles his sex-changing and life-changing adventure. Check out these reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Booklist. Then go to the library and check it out!

Welcome to the LGBT Resources Blog of the San Francisco Public Library!

2009-09-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Public Library is full of resources for the LGBT Community. All branches hold published materials, magazines, videos and databases to help you with your research. The largest collection of materials is held at the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center of the Main Library, which includes an archives collection on the 6th Floor as well an extensive number of circulation resources. The Center sponsors many political and literary programs which are all free.

Our other LGBT hotspot is the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch, which is temporarily closed for renovation. When it's new look has been completed, (the estimated date is late October), it will have beautifully paneled wood ceilings, better lighting, an expanded teen section, more public computers and lovely new landscaping. LGBT programs will be scheduled there when it re-opens so follow our blog and we'll keep you posted!