San Francisco
— The program series for July 2019 sponsored by the GLBT Historical Society will highlight aging in the lesbian community and the formative years of San Francisco’s leather and kink scene. All events take place from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the GLBT Historical Society Museum at 4127 18th St. in the Castro District. For more information, visit
www.glbthistory.org
.
Film Screening
A Great Ride: Adventures in Lesbian Aging
Thursday, July 18
7:00–9:00 p.m.
The GLBT Historical Society Museum
4127 18th St., San Francisco
Admission: $5; free for members
Filmmaker Deborah Craig will introduce a screening of her award-winning film “A Great Ride,” a 30-minute documentary about Bay Area lesbians confronting the challenge of aging with determination, dynamism, courage and humor. The film follows Sally, a retired women’s studies professor and activist living in a cabin in Northern California; Brenda, an African American political activist in Vallejo; and five residents of a Santa Rosa retirement community: two couples, Nancy and Marjorie and Sue and Patty, as well as Shirley, who is single. In their youth, these women faced the difficulty of coming out. Now they are pioneers as they take on aging, with an independent and irreverent spirit and a heartening delight in living. Craig teaches at San Francisco State University and Mills College. She has created more than a half-dozen films.
Tickets are available online at
https://bit.ly/2KaDRxK
.
Living History Discussion
Early Leather: San Francisco’s Leather Scene, 1966–1992
Thursday, July 25
7:00–9:00 p.m.
The GLBT Historical Society Museum
4127 18th St., San Francisco
Admission: $5; free for members
A panel featuring members of the early San Francisco leather scene and scholars of the local leather and kink community will reflect on leather life in the city from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, the years that witnessed the emergence of this unique subculture. Among the topics that will be discussed are the origins of the leather community in early gay motorcycle clubs, the emergence of a distinct and recognizable scene in the 1970s and the maturation of leather culture during the height of the AIDS epidemic from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Panelists include Peter Fiske, a leatherman for the past 55 years and the chairman emeritus of The 15 Association; Jordy Jones, biographer of leather pioneer and Mr. S Leather founder Alan Selby; and Gayle Rubin, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the author of a forthcoming book on gay leather culture in San Francisco. Fiske’s book
My Leather Life: Early Years 1958–1983 will be available for purchase and signing. The program is being held in conjunction with “
The Mayor of Folsom Street: The Life and Legacy of Alan Selby,” an exhibition currently on view at the GLBT Historical Society Museum. Tickets are available online at
https://bit.ly/2Mhtqv2.
ABOUT THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM
Open since January 2011, the GLBT Historical Society Museum (formerly known as the GLBT History Museum) is the first full-scale, stand-alone museum of its kind in the United States. Its Main Gallery features a long-term exhibition on San Francisco LGBTQ history, "Queer Past Becomes Present." Its Front Gallery and Community Gallery host changing exhibitions. The institution also sponsors forums, author talks and other programs.
The GLBT Historical Society Museum is a project of the GLBT Historical Society, a public history center and archives that collects, preserves and interprets the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and the communities that support them. Founded in 1985, the society maintains one of the world's largest collections of LGBTQ historical materials. For more information, visit
www.glbthistory.org
.
