“It is also a great lens through which we can examine the evolution of our LGBTQ rights and freedoms, as well as our awareness of how our movement intersects with other social justice movements. “The history of Pride over the last half century in San Francisco is as complex and diverse as our city,” says the GBLT Historical Society’s executive director, Terry Beswick. “With the rise of gay power and an expanding movement, we saw more participation and more diversity along gender and ethnic lines.”ĥ0 Years of Pride is a collaborative project of the GLBT Historical Society and the SFAC Galleries.
“Our outreach to photographers and their archives amplified our discoveries,” Chinn notes.
They also illustrate the transformation and diversification of the event over the years into a celebration event that represents the full spectrum of gender, race, ethnicity, class, gender identity and expression, sexuality, and ability. Thematically, the photographs document the impact of political events and social movements on Pride. “Culling through the archives at the GLBT Historical Society, we found a treasure trove of photographs, snapshots, and 35 mm color slides that tell a story of the spirit and nature of Pride and what it has come to mean both locally and internationally,” Chinn says. The exhibition is curated by Lenore Chinn and Pamela Peniston, two San Francisco artists with deep roots in the city’s queer arts and culture community.
Images drawn from the GLBT Historical Society’s archives are joined by photographs from other institutions, as well as works by over a dozen independent queer photographers. The exhibition explores how Pride has reflected and refracted the community’s priorities, responses and activism in times of hope and despair, triumph and setback. Fifty years later, this modest gathering has evolved into San Francisco Pride, a globally famous annual parade and celebration that welcomes hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators from around the world the last weekend in June.Įncompassing examples of photojournalism, portraiture, fine-art photography, posters and magazine covers, 50 Years of Pride honors how San Francisco’s LGBTQ community has come into its own since that first humble Pride gathering. On June 28, 1970, a small group of LGBTQ people marched down Polk Street-then San Francisco’s most prominent queer neighborhood-to mark an event called “Christopher Street Liberation Day.” Commemorating the one-year anniversary of the historic Stonewall uprising on Christopher Street in New York City, the march was followed by an intimate “gay-in” at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park. Presented by the GLBT Historical Society and the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Galleries, with the support of San Francisco Pride, 50 Years of Pride features 100 photographs to celebrate five decades of San Francisco Pride, one of the city’s most beloved public festivals. An online version of the exhibition will instead be unveiled on May 15 on the GLBT Historical Society's website at, with the physical exhibition opening later in the year after the city's shelter-in-place order has been relaxed. San Francisco - The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the opening of the 50 Years of Pride exhibition in San Francisco City Hall.