Sponsored Projects

Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive

Founded by Ms. Bob Davis and located in Vallejo, California, the goal of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive (LLTA or simply Louise) is to increase the understanding of transgender people and encourage new scholarship by making transgender historical materials available to students, scholars and the public. The archive is named in honor of Northern California transgender pioneer Louise Lawrence, who began living full-time as a woman in 1942, first in Berkeley, California, and then in San Francisco. Along with Virginia Prince and others, she published the first incarnation of Transvestia magazine in 1952. Louise’s address book was the initial subscription list, and she was instrumental in developing the trans community’s connection to pioneering sex researchers such as Alfred Kinsey and Harry Benjamin.

For more information about LLTA, click here. To make a donation through the GLBT Historical Society, click here. 

Friends of the Lyon-Martin House

Friends of the Lyon-Martin House is a nonprofit preservation group established in 2020 to preserve the house of pioneering lesbian feminist activists Phyllis Lyon (1924–2020) and Del Martin (1921–2008). They purchased the house at 651 Duncan Street in San Francisco in 1955, the same year that they co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian-rights organization in the United States. The house was sold in 2020 following Lyon’s death, but the structure and the surrounding property are a historical site of international significance. Friends of the Lyon-Martin House led the campaign to designate the house a San Francisco Landmark, a goal successfully achieved when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors bestowed this status on the house on May 4, 2021. Friends of the Lyon-Martin House is now working with the property owner, the city and other stakeholders to document the historic structure and plan for its long-term future.

For more information about Friends of the Lyon-Martin House and to make a donation through the GLBT Historical Society, click here.

Halcyon Days: The Story of Ella Young

Lesbian poet Elsa Gidlow (1898–1986) was one of several free spirits to cofound the bohemian community of Druid Heights, located in Marin County, California, in 1954. But the “druid” of the appellation “Druid Heights” was an Irish lesbian, Ella Young (1867–1956). Tulsk Productions, a group of Irish and American producers and scholars, was established to tell the little-known story of Ella Young. Tulsk’s leader, Dorothea Mc Dowell, published the biography Ella Young and Her World in 2016. In 2020, Tulsk developed a radio program, The Morrigan, that aired on Dublin City Radio and explored the story of Young’s early life and influence in the cultural and political movement that led to the Easter Rising in 1916, and later the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922. Tulsk is now working on a second radio program, Halcyon Days, which will focus on Young’s life in California.

For more information about Halcyon Days, click here. To make a donation through the GLBT Historical Society, click here.

The contents of this page reflect the views and opinions of the respective projects, and do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of the GLBT Historical Society. For information about becoming a sponsored project, contact donate@glbthistory.org.