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The Personal into the Political
ACT UP San Francisco
Stickers, c.1990 The phrase “the personal is political” was first employed in the women’s rights movement. Over time the meaning broadened to include the concept that personal choice directly affects political systems and social structures. Some people’s life choices require that they diverge from social norms, shifting their personal and professional lives into the political sphere. An outstanding example of LGBT forthrightness is contained in the “coming out” letter that Republican party strategist and fundraiser Marvin Liebman published in the politically conservative National Review. He later wrote the book Coming Out Conservative, which describes his life as a gay man. The creation of untraditional families is one example of social politics at work; by pursuing life on their own terms, such families are engaged in a form of activism. In the groundbreaking documentary Word Is Out, Peter Adair interviewed members of the LGBT community; his artistic editing highlighted the commonalities between their experiences. Throughout history, LGBT people have questioned social roles, recognizing that their experience does not mirror that of the status quo, or the majority. Deeply committed to personal and social change, they made difficult decisions, often in isolation, to make a difference in their communities. William Billings, arrested and imprisoned in 1954 for “indecent acts,” fought for his civil rights, ultimately obtaining a pardon from the governor of Colorado. Magnus Hirschfeld’s pioneering work in the early part of the twentieth century sought to educate scientists and legal officials on the complexities of human sexuality. Like Harry Hay and others who later contributed to shaping modern gay identity, Magnus Hirschfeld was drawn to the cultural experience of indigenous people—cultures that traditionally celebrate rather than pathologize diverse ways of being. Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institute for Sexual Science were leaders in the study of sexuality in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s. Hirschfeld and his Scientific Humanitarian Committee (founded in 1897) worked to remove Paragraph 175—the portion that forbade sex between men—from German law. Ultimately their efforts were unsuccessful. In contrast to the egalitarian and liberal ideology of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, the journal Der Eigene, which began in 1896, advocated a more patriarchal and conservative approach, even though it also emphasized same-sex relationships. With the rise of the Nazi party, Hirschfeld, an openly homosexual Jew, was forced to flee Germany. The events of that time are the subject of Rob Epstein’s film Paragraph 175. In light of Hirschfeld’s life and exile, the artist Cathy Cade’s documentary photographs are especially evocative. So, too, is William Billings’s scrapbook documenting his incarceration for being gay. The way in which Billings assembled his obsessive and revealing visual journals is an inspirational, intricate collage. 
Cathy Cade
Commie, Faggot, Queer and Proud 1977 Gelatin silver print CATHY CADE PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION The 1930s El Dorado tokens, which, historians believe were meant to be exchanged for a dance with a transvestite in the Weimar-era club, are a lasting reminder of a liberal and liberating era. Daniel Nicoletta’s photograph of the dressing room at Finocchio’s on its last night of business documents a significant event in San Francisco’s LGBT history and presents a poignant counterpoint to the tokens. The lives of LGBT people often take unexpected turns leading to more public arenas. Harvey Milk was one such man—a gay small business owner (Milk owned a camera shop in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood) who changed the nation’s political landscape by holding civic office as an openly gay man. Milk saw politics as the most efficient means of fighting bigotry and enacting the social changes that he and many others saw necessary. And like others before him, Harvey Milk understood the risk that he was taking by being open and out. In the 1980s the advent of AIDS required a new level of political activism and awareness, and in the midst of a catastrophic health crisis, an extraordinary collective response unfolded. Organizations such as ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), Queer Nation, and OutRage! shared a commitment to direct action—speaking out against the homophobia pervasive in our communities, government, the health system, schools and the media. The great energy, creativity and political vision of dedicated grassroots activists found expression in the bold graphics and powerful language of the posters, stickers, flyers and newsletters that were produced and distributed in New York, San Francisco and many other cities worldwide. AIDS and its devastating personal and communal effects are the subjects of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s film Common Threads and Randy Shilts’ book And the Band Played On. The material from Ward 86 (later Ward 5B/5A) documents activity at San Francisco General Hospital’s AIDS ward—on the cutting edge of AIDS treatment in the nation. Collected by the nurses as well as patients and family members, the Ward 5B/5A material complements many of the other items in the archives by detailing institutional concerns and practices as well as personal narratives and community responses. The archives contains photographs that reveal the reality of AIDS within the personal and private realms of hospitals. One such photograph by Rick Gerharter depicts Rita Rocket, who initiated a weekly brunch for AIDS patients and their friends and families. Such photographs make a connection between the isolation of illness and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the broader community. Amongst the papers of J. Allen Carson, a member of San Francsco’s ACT UP, Queer Nation and OutRage!, are many examples of the brilliant graphic materials created by activist organizations in the 1980s and early 1990s, which speak to the passionate and dedicated efforts of the LGBT community in the fight against all forms of discrimination. The debate over the appropriateness of gays in the military has raged for decades—with many courageous men and women coming out in the armed forces, refusing to hide their identity because of their country’s small-mindedness. And most recently, the movement to legalize gay marriage has both intensified and expanded, bringing this fundamental civil rights issue to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness. All of these stories demonstrate individuals redefining their relationship to society, risking their lives to change the world. William Billings
William Billings
Gay Scrapbook 1945–1994 WILLIAM BILLINGS PAPERS William Wilmer Billings was a schoolteacher, a founding member of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, and a candidate for San Francisco supervisor who ran against Dan White. Billings donated a small but critical collection of materials to the Hormel Center in 1994; the most notable items being two scrapbooks that chronicle his life with devotion and honesty. The first scrapbook includes all of the material relating to Billings’ arrest in 1954 for “unnatural carnal copulation,” his subsequent imprisonment, parole, and, finally, his unconditional pardon from the governor of Colorado in October 1966. It took over ten years and four governors before Billings’ pardon was granted. Billings’ scrapbook reveals the heartbreaking story of a man persecuted for his personal life. The second scrapbook, entitled “Gay Scrapbook,” begins with his 1945 handwritten “coming out” letter to his parents, and continues with newspaper articles, magazine clippings, invitations, pamphlets, and correspondence from various friends up to 1994. The subjects in this scrapbook include gay marriage, gay athletes, homosexuality as a product of genetics or upbringing, openly gay politicians, gays in the military, gay parenting, parents of gays, gays and religion, and AIDS, among many others. Many of the subjects that Billings chronicled in his notebooks in the 1970s, such as same-sex marriage, are emerging again as critical issues. Evander Smith
Evander Smith
Trial papers, documents c.1965 EVANDER SMITH PAPERS Evander Smith’s California Hall files document the watershed moment that united San Francisco’s homophile organizations into an active political force. This event was the San Francisco equivalent of New York’s Stonewall riots and it happened on January 1, 1965, four years before Stonewall. Smith was a lawyer retained by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, a group formed in 1964 in the San Francisco area to establish a dialogue between a number of progressive Protestant religious organizations and gays and lesbians who felt abandoned by the religious establishment. The founding members included representatives from all of the homophile organizations in the city and representatives from several Protestant churches. As a fundraiser for the new organization, a Mardi Gras-themed ball was scheduled to take place on New Year’s Day, 1965, at the California Hall. This was a private event, open to ticket holders only, and the organizers met with the San Francisco Police Department to ensure that things would go smoothly. On the day of the event, however, a large number of police appeared at the hall with klieg lights and a photographer, recording the faces of everyone who entered the building. The police requested entry to inspect the group’s permits—a standard practice at events where liquor was available. The officers then left the building, returning later with another request for entry. This time their request was denied due to their lack of a search warrant. It was at this point that lawyers Evander Smith, Herbert Donaldson, and Elliot Leighton, and ticket-taker Nancy May, were arrested. At the ball, the ministers and their wives were firsthand witnesses to the type of unfair treatment regularly experienced by gays and lesbians. “ANGRY MINISTERS RIP POLICE” reads a January 3, 1965, headline in the San Francisco Chronicle. The article continues: “Ministers of four Protestant denominations accused the Police Department yesterday of ‘intimidation, broken promises and obvious hostility’ in breaking up a private benefit for homosexuals at California Hall Friday night.” The community’s indignation was expressed in many letters to the Chronicle’s editor. On February 12, 1965, the Chronicle reported that the judge halted the trial on a technicality and directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty against the lawyers. The suit against Smith, Donaldson, Leighton, and May was dismissed. They, in turn, sued the city and finally won in 1974. Harvey Milk
Daniel Nicoletta
The Empress Coronation Former Empress José Sarria, Harvey Milk and Mavis, presenting an anonymous donation for the purchase of uniforms for the 1st Gay and Lesbian Freedom Marching Band, 1978 Gelatin silver print DANIEL NICOLETTA PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION Harvey Milk was a gay rights activist, and the first openly gay man elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Randy Shilts’ biography The Mayor of Castro Street and Rob Epstein’s film The Times of Harvey Milk document Milk’s political rise within the context of the development of the LGBT community. Like Harry Hay and Barbara Grier, Harvey Milk was an individual whose personal life shaped his professional career. His drive to represent a group of people who had been silenced and ignored made him a figure of national and international standing. Milk became a visible symbol of the LGBT community’s emergence as a political force. It is no wonder, then, that the grief caused by the assassinations of Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone by Dan White unified the LGBT community as never before. The lenient sentence that White received for the double murder resulted in a riot at San Francisco City Hall. Daniel Nicoletta’s photographs of the White Night riots powerfully capture the sheer force of the community’s outrage. 
San Francisco Examiner, 1978
Headline announcing Harvey Milk’s assassination HARVEY MILK ARCHIVES–SCOTT SMITH COLLECTION Elva Smith, mother of Milk’s partner Scott Smith, donated the Harvey Milk Archives/Scott Smith Collection to the Hormel Center in 1996. The collection contains the personal and political papers of Milk, the personal papers of Scott Smith, and the collection of the Harvey Milk Archives and the Harvey Milk Estate. Milk’s political papers include hand-edited drafts of his speeches, such as his famous 1977 speech “You’ve Got to Give ’em Hope,” and his writings, office files, appointment books, and related ephemera from his campaigns. Personal Chronicles
Diaries and ephemera
c.1984–1995 VINCENT DIARIES COLLECTION A man kept a diary for ten years, creating a narrative of his life in San Francisco’s gay community. In his will, Vincent bequeathed them to Elizabeth Stone, who had been his high school English teacher a quarter century earlier. Enclosed within the box of diaries was a letter which began “Dear Elizabeth, You must be wondering why I left you my diaries in my will. After all, we have not seen each other in over twenty years . . .” Through the diaries, Stone learned of Vincent’s daily life, travels, loves, friendships, and his devastating death from AIDS in 1995—and came to know the man her former student had become. As his story unfolded, she responded with a spectrum of emotions—judgment, anger, affection, grief, and compassion. She became aware of the impact that she had made in his life, and was challenged by the diaries to reflect upon her own life and mortality. Vincent’s voice, his presence, came alive for her, and the roles of teacher and student underwent a profound shift. Elizabeth Stone was moved to write about this revelatory and transformative experience. Her book A Boy I Once Knew: What a Teacher Learned from Her Student was published in 2002. She subsequently donated to the Hormel Center archives the box of Vincent’s diaries that had so unexpectedly changed her life. 
Jewelle Gomez Journals
c. 1996 JEWELLE GOMEZ COLLECTION The Gary Fisher papers include manuscripts, diaries, correspondence and publications donated by Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick. Fisher began keeping journals in high school and continued the practice until his death from AIDS at 32. In a distinctly honest, witty, compassionate voice, he detailed his experiences as a gay African American man, a writer and a person living with AIDS. The diaries are vibrant with his poetry and richly colored drawings, and reflective of his passionate engagement with the intertwining dimensions of sexuality, race, the body, life and death. Writer, activist and academic Jewelle Gomez, who serves on the Hormel Endowment Committee, has donated a collection of her personal papers to the archives. Within the collection is a box of private journals containing fragments of poetry, memories, and musings interspersed with reflections on daily life. The author of seven books, Gomez’s work appears also in various periodicals and anthologies, and ranges from fiction to personal and political essays, poetry and criticism. The journals offer rare insights into the experiences that have shaped her life and work. |
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