Echoes of Memory

The primary goal of this Venture Grant was to study the complex history and cultural legacy of the iconic Castro district in San Francisco. As one of the nation’s first “gay neighborhoods,” the Castro is the site of some of the most pivotal LGBTQIA+ activism in the mid to late twentieth century. In more recent decades, the role of the district has changed, becoming a space less oriented towards fostering radical gay liberation movements as it is a globally popular tourist destination, famed for its significance to queer history and activism. 

We approached the city of San Francisco as a queer archive, and in assessing how memory and location add to how we view queer history in the space. In our research, we cite more traditional and curated forms of archives, in the form of museums, monuments, and guided historical tours.

It was also important to us that we put the archives into the hands of those within that positionality of queer history, through measures such as supporting local queer businesses and interviewing people at the site. Through doing so we aimed to gain a more in-depth understanding of how they lived through certain events, their thoughts on it, and how the sources we have read relate to their personal stories. In this way we brought together more traditional forms of academic research together with the personal, insight one can only gain from firsthand experience.

Our methodology is a qualitative body of work based on personal experiences and interactions with members and spaces within the LGBTQIA+ community in the historic Castro District of San Francisco, CA.

Prior to traveling to San Francisco, we researched the history of the Castro extensively, with a focus on the neighborhood in relation to LGBTQIA+ rights movements over the past few decades. This research regarding historical events, places of memory, and notable figures relevant to the area enabled us to build at itinerary for our trip that sought to included the most key sites in the neighborhood, both curated and informal.

Our research included tours of historical sites and museums in San Francisco. We visited the GLBT Historical Society Museum and the Pink Triangle Memorial Park, took the Native Experience Castro District LGBTQ+ Historic Tour, and immersed ourselves in the local art by visiting the Rainbow Walk and the famous Castro murals. The final step of our research included interviews with members of the LGBTQIA+ community at the restaurants and community spaces we attended. Our interview questions varied in length and order based on who we were speaking to. Most interviews happened while enjoying a beverage or snack in a local, queer-owned business.

Interview Questions:

1. How old are you?

2. How long have you lived in San Francisco?

3. Do you visit LGBTQIA+ community spaces in your neighborhood?

1. If so, what types of spaces do you engage in most often? (ex. restaurants, nightlife, philanthropic organizations, sports, or other activities) 

4. What has changed about San Francisco during the time you lived there? 

5. What are your favorite parts about the LGBTQIA+ community and culture in San Francisco? 

6. In what ways do you think LGBTQIA+ community spaces in San Francisco can be improved? 

7. Would your thoughts on living in San Francisco change if there were less LGBTQIA+ community spaces available?

8. What is the most valuable part of fostering LGBTQIA+ community spaces?  

As previously mentioned, the Castro District has been pivotal in LGBTQIA+ history in the United States, and its significance is hard to overstate. Notable historical events that have made the Castro such a landmark include Harvey Milk’s election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, establishing him as the first openly gay elected official. The iconic rainbow pride flag, which has since become a renowned queer symbol, originated within the Castro. Many movements for LGBTQIA+ rights shared the Castro as their birthplace, inaugurating the area as a pillar of activism.

In a community that has for so long been a focal point for LGBTQIA+ social movements throughout the twentieth century and up to the present day, how these key historical moments are remembered and represented in memorialization is crucial. Through this project, we sought to find out about how memory is preserved formally in the landscape of the city, and whether this differs from how historical moments are preserved informally, in the collective memory of the Castro's community members. It is this influence of San Francisco in queer history that allowed us to consider the physical spaces therein as archives in and of themselves. Spaces and those who tend to them have come to hold the memories of the pivotal events they hosted. In experiencing these spaces and interacting with those within them, we aimed to discover what acts of labor have enabled the sustenance of shared memory and vibrant community. Our attention to both curated and informal local spaces was intended to understand the different modalities of preservation of memory and community. We were also curious if the different spaces were dichotomous in nature; could curated spaces have suffered loss or reimagining of certain memory in favor of mainstream palatability?

By focusing our research on both curated and narrative archival histories, we had access to stories and perspectives that one could only learn by visiting the Castro themselves. We learned about how queer, and especially trans, BIPOC activists are often left out of curated historical narratives. The GLBT museum highlighted the work of trans women of color, AAPI activists, and BIPOC politicians in their archives. We learned about José Julio Sarria, who was the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States and paved the way for Harvey Milk's eventual win. The museum also told the stories of Pat "Dubby" Walker and Cleo "Glenn" Bonner, two Black lesbian women who were trailblazers in the Lesbian Rights Movement. These stories were less prevalent in other curated, historical areas of the city center.

Another striking finding was the lack of specifically lesbian, or sapphic, community spaces in The Castro. This led us to question how and where the lesbian communities thrive given the lack of physically devoted space. In our Native Experience walking tour, we discussed the massive impact that lesbian women had on the gay rights movement and the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. Given the strength and impact of the lesbian community in San Francisco, there is a notable lack of spaces specifically for sapphic relationship building.

More informal local spaces in that Castro also served as sites of recent memory as well. A notable example of this is Hibernia Beach, a community memorial wall located on the side of the former Hibernia Bank in the heart of the neighborhood. In this space, flowers, pictures, and messages are posted memorializing loved ones and members of the community, both in the neighborhood and elsewhere. A laminated poster beside the memorial identifies the site as “an anchor point in the Castro for the LGBTQ+ community. A place to honor the Life, Love, and Legacy of loved ones.” This sign notes that these commemorations are intended “to honor the Life of our loved ones respectfully and to create a legacy for those who are not with us, and we want to remember with love.” 

Notably, this memorialization effort, which can be traced back as early as the 1980s, is spontaneous and upheld by the community, and serves as a continuous and ever-changing site for grief and commemoration. During our visit, we noticed commemorations for members of the Castro community alongside those for Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager from Oklahoma who died tragically the month prior after facing severe transphobic bullying, and whose death sparked an outcry across the nation over the effects of anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric. The preservation of historical memory and legacy through Hibernia Beach is dynamic and reaches beyond the space as well, making the site a memorial not only for loved ones in the Castro, but for the broader LGBTQIA+ community as well.

Other forms of memorialization, such as the Rainbow Honor Walk, embed the community's history into the neighborhood's very infrastructure. The Rainbow Honor Walk, which honors LGBTQIA+ icons who have had a significant impact on history and society, was first conceptualized in the late 2000s by a board made up of local community members. The project currently includes over forty commemorative bronze plaques set into the sidewalk throughout the Castro District, with over two dozen more plaques in the works. Honorees include James Baldwin, Virginia Woolf, Alvin Ailey, Sally Ride, and Freddie Mercury, among many others. As an active and ever-growing commemorative project, the Rainbow Honor Walk stands out as a way in which the Castro District has strived to make incorporate LGBTQIA+ memory into the landscape of the city, making it highly visible beyond a few traditional and curated sites.

Regarding our community member interviews, responses from local San Franciscans varied. We stood out in many of the spaces we entered, and some locals were more willing to engage with us than others. One notable interview was conducted with a man enjoying a drink alone in a community space we visited. He excitedly told us about his experiences in the ever-changing Castro district and gave us a few recommendations for more places to go. We found that locals knew more about the social makeup and expectations of certain establishments than what we could find online. Details about how places have changed, who typically goes where, and what one can expect to experience at any time in The Castro is something only locals know. We found that those most willing to engage with our questions were alone or with one another person as opposed to with a group of friends. We attribute this to the social norms of these types of spaces. We acknowledge that the communities built in The Castro are both invaluable and precious, so our presence in their protected establishments was an eyebrow-raiser for some. However, the truest, most valuable things we learned about The Castro and its historical community spaces, came from the personal anecdotes and experiences of locals we talked to.

Our conversations with locals also mirrored those with our faculty and staff supporters in this project. Both Tip Ragan and Deka Jordan Spears are scholars in queer history and literature and have a personal history living in San Francisco. As per their descriptions of the city, we saw the homeplace of "rainbow capitalism" firsthand. Every main street was lined with the original pride flag, and plenty of stores sold tourists rainbow merchandise. Tip and Deka described how, with the increase in tourism and movement into the state, the gentrification of The Castro has led to the city center being inaccessible to those with access to fewer resources. Thus, many communities of BIPOC, trans, and lesbian folks exist in the neighborhoods surrounding The Castro, such as The Mission District, The Polk, The Tenderloin, and Oakland.

Here is an interactive map of the landmarks we visited on our walking tour of The Castro, along with other key sites throughout the district. Our tour was led by Eric Curry, founder of The Native Experience, a walking tour company that centers untold histories from a San Francisco native's informed perspective.

Colorado Springs has a rich queer community that has suffered extreme loss in our time living here as students. Given our lack of safe and resource-rich queer community spaces in Colorado Springs, it is necessary to foster those spaces for our LGBTQ+ students on campus. For those who find themselves on the margins of heteronormative conceptions of sexuality, isolation can be a very damaging reality, which testifies to the importance of researching how to foster a strong network of care in a city space.

The desire to embark on this project and ask questions regarding the establishment and preservation of community and memory was not purely academic, but had personal roots for us in our respective experiences of queerness. Existing on the margins of what has commonly been defined as normalcy has been a disorienting experience. For me, it has manifested as a pervasive feeling of disconnection, as though every room that I enter is full of friends to whom I am merely a stranger. It seems that my own queerness will always be the crux of misunderstanding and disjointedness. It, at times, precipitates feelings of profound loneliness. However, there is solace to be found in community, both through close interpersonal relationships and experiences of queer spaces. Therefore, the Castro’s reputation as a sort of haven for queerness and queer memory was highly alluring. In studying the methodologies by which the Castro became established as a site of such influential congregations of community I aimed to learn how I may personally claim space and bolster the communities that I consider myself a part of.

We brought what we learned in our research back to CC by working directly with The Butler Center’s Queer and Trans Collective (QTC). The QTC is the only physical space on campus that is meant for LGBTQ+ students to work, connect, and share resources. Deka Jordan Spears, Assistant Director of The Butler Center and director of the QTC, helped inform and support our research. We brought our findings back to the QTC and facilitated a conversation about gentrification, white-washing, and commodification of queer experiences in San Francisco. In addition to our intentional conversation with those who attended the QTC event, this research was also used to inspire and inform a short documentary about BIPOC queer experiences in Colorado Springs. This film includes interviews with BIPOC members of the queer community at CC, as well as historical background on the state of queer community spaces in Colorado Springs.  

Imperative next steps in researching how to foster queer community spaces include focusing more on intersectional queer experiences. More diverse voices within the queer community should be highlighted to foster spaces that are truly welcoming to all. Additionally, more research and media should center queer joy; the joy, art, and companionship of the queer community are important to uplift as we work toward a world every space is a safe one.

This short documentary includes research on the history of queer spaces in Colorado Springs and the recent losses experienced by the community. Interviews feature testimonies from queer BIPOC students at Colorado College and Deka Jordan Spears, Assistant Director of the Butler Center and leader of the Queer and Trans Collective.