Reflections on History and Belonging
Participants march at the 1977 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historical Society.
Reflections on History and Belonging: From Proposition 6 to “Don’t Say Gay”
By Andrew Shaffer
In the past few months I’ve found myself continually thinking about this image, taken at the 1977 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day celebration in San Francisco, because it feels so unnervingly relevant. It’s easy to imagine this group at a march today; the message has only grown more relevant in the 45 years since the motley crew seen here paraded down Market Street.
A year after this photograph was taken, LGBTQ people rallied in California to defeat Proposition 6, a ballot measure known as the Briggs Initiative, that would have banned LGBTQ people from teaching in the state’s public schools. Now we are once again in the midst of a sustained assault on LGBTQ rights, especially on trans young people who are cut off from treatment, support and basic validation in a growing number of states. These renewed attacks on our rights are rooted in a misguided belief that LGBTQ people don’t belong—that we are outsiders even in our own communities.
But that has never been true, and we have the evidence to prove it. Our archives are chock full of home movies showing all manner of families, letters that trace global queer families and countless photos like the one here that show LGBTQ families fighting for space to belong.
You can bear witness to some of these stories of love, and hope, and activism in our museum or by browsing our online resources and online exhibitions. And you can help us continue preserving and sharing our history by becoming a member of the GLBT Historical Society.
Our members help us preserve and share our history so that current and future generations can learn from the struggles of the past, continue pushing for a better world, and know that they are not alone—that they can see themselves reflected in our history.
As we enter another Pride season, I encourage you to check out our resources, dive into our vast queer past, and help us keep our history alive by becoming a member today.
Andrew Shaffer is Interim Co-Executive Director of the GLBT Historical Society and Director of Development and Communications. He is trained as a historian, and his academic background includes graduate work at the University of San Francisco and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he helped to build that city’s first permanent LGBTQ archives.