exhibitions
Temporary Exhibitions
API Family Wall of Pride
Community Gallery
Curated in collaboration with API Family Pride, the Wall of Pride invites you to explore stories from families who have forged strong ties, honoring those who unconditionally love their children regardless of social stigma.
You Are Here: Claiming your place in history
Front Gallery
This exhibition showcases nearly a century of LGBTQ history, with a focus on the ongoing work to keep this history alive.
Coming soon!
Erotic Resistance: Performance, Art, and Activism in San Francisco Strip Clubs (1960s-1990s)
Curated by Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa, this exhibition preserves the memory of San Francisco’s bohemian past and its essential role in the development of American adult entertainment. It highlights the contributions of queer women, trans women, and women of color who were instrumental in the city's labor history, as well as its LGBTQ and sex workers' rights movements.
Exhibition opens June 7, 2024. Click here for Opening Reception tickets.
Permament Exhibitions
Queer Past Becomes Present
Main Gallery
Our long-term exhibition at the GLBT Historical Society Museum showcases photos, documents and artifacts telling the amazing stories of over a century of everyday queer life among the diverse populations of San Francisco.
The Original Rainbow Flag
Main Gallery
In 2021 the Gilbert Baker Foundation donated a recently discovered segment of one of the original 1978 eight-color rainbow flags to the GLBT Historical Society. The flag segment is now part of the Gilbert Baker Collection (2017-18), GLBT Historical Society.
Online Exhibitions
The GLBT Historical Society has curated over a dozen online exhibitions since 2019. Some are adapted from exhibitions that were on display at the museum; others are native digital shows. These are two of our most recent online exhibitions; click the button below to go to a page listing all of our online exhibitions.
Past Exhibitions
Click the button below to go to a comprehensive listing of exhibitions mounted since 2013, with images and descriptions of each show.
Banner image: The Dykes on Bikes, 1986; photograph by Chloe Atkins, used with permission, all rights reserved. Queer Past Becomes Present image: Photograph by Dave Earl. The Original Rainbow Flag: Photograph by Matthew Leifheit, courtesy of the Gilbert Baker Foundation.