Notable events this month in San Francisco’s LGBTQ history.

Note that most of these events are of specific local LGBTQ interest, though a few nationally significant events are also included along with a few other San Francisco events of more general interest. Please contact us if you know of any other milestones that we should add.

Today in San Francisco’s LGBTQ History

1985 The SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band holds their second annual holiday concert and first Dance-Along Nutcracker.

1993 The Department of Defense formally adopts "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," prohibiting gay service members from coming out.

This Month in San Francisco’s LGBTQ History

Date	Event
Dec 01, 1987	American author James Baldwin (Giovanni’s Room), now honored on the Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies in France.
Dec 01, 1988	The first World AIDS Day is observed.
Dec 01, 1989	Alvin Ailey, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies in Manhattan.
Dec 02, 1867	Frank McCobbin is sworn in as Mayor of San Francisco, the first foreign-born and Irish-born Mayor of the City. As one of the City’s 12 Supervisors, he had spearheaded efforts for the City to take control over the unincorporated area west of the City known as the Outside Lands, and his campaign to develop a public park there (which would be known as Golden Gate Park) helped him become elected mayor.
Dec 02, 1988	A fire nearly destroys the Elephant Walk at 18th & Castro (now Harvey's), closing the landmark bar for a year.
Dec 02, 2012	Hi Tops opens at the old Lime spot, becoming the first fully dedicated gay sports bar in SF.
Dec 04, 1978	One week after the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the SF Board of Supervisors names Dianne Feinstein as the new mayor, appropriates $375,000 for a gay community center to be named after Milk, and renames the new convention center under development (which opens in 1981) after Moscone.
Dec 04, 2020	Martin Jenkins, who was born in San Francisco, is sworn in as an Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court, becoming the court's first openly-gay justice.
Dec 05, 1933	Prohibition is repealed with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. Gay bars start to open almost immediately.
Dec 05, 1968	Bisexual actress/comedienne Margaret Cho is born in San Francisco.
Dec 07, 1929	Billye Talmadge, one of the founders of the Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco, is born in Bethany, Oklahoma.
Dec 07, 1975	The City of San Francisco designates the Alfred E. Clarke Mansion at Douglass & Caselli as a city landmark. It's also known as the Caselli Mansion, Nobby Clarke's Castle, and Nobby Clarke's Folly.
Dec 09, 1982	Mayor Dianne Feinstein vetoes the City's first domestic partnership ordinance, which was sponsored by Supervisor Harry Britt.
Dec 10, 1924	The Society for Human Rights, the first U.S. gay rights organization, is founded in Chicago but is soon pressured to disband.
Dec 10, 1962	Gay comedian Scott Capurro is born in San Francisco.
Dec 10, 2001	San Francisco holds the dedication ceremony for Pink Triangle Park, a memorial in the Castro in memory of the thousands of persecuted homosexuals in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust of World War II.
Dec 12, 1922	José Julio Sarria, who is later known as the Widow Norton, Empress I of San Francisco, is born in SF in 1922.
Dec 15, 1941	Tom Ammiano is born in Montclair, New Jersey. In 1975, he becomes the first school teacher in San Francisco to publicly come out. He is elected to the SF Board of Supervisors in 1994, serving until 2008, when he is then elected to the State Assembly, serving until 2014.
Dec 15, 1973	The American Psychiatric Society votes to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.
Dec 16, 1988	Disco superstar Sylvester dies of AIDS-related complications in his Castro home on Collingwood Avenue.
Dec 18, 2000	Hal Call, a gay rights activist since the early 1950s and former President of the Mattachine Society, dies of congestive heart failure in San Francisco at the age of 83. He was one of the few LGBTQ activists in the 1950s willing to show his face on camera.
Dec 18, 2018	SF Mayor London Breed signs an ordinance formally declaring the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band as the "Official Band of San Francisco."
Dec 19, 2012	The Times of Harvey Milk, an Oscar-winning documentary about SF's assassinated gay supervisor, is selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry.
Dec 21, 1985	The SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band holds their second annual holiday concert and first Dance-Along Nutcracker.
Dec 21, 1993	The Department of Defense formally adopts "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," prohibiting gay service members from coming out.
Dec 22, 1962	Sister Roma, the "most photographed nun in the world," is born in Michigan.
Dec 23, 1954	Danny Nicoletta, a photographer, photojournalist and gay rights activist who got his start working in Harvey Milk's camera store on Castro Street, is born.
Dec 23, 1983	Honey Mahogany, an activist, politician, drag performer, and singer who shot to fame as San Francisco's first contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race, is born in San Francisco.
Dec 25, 1908	Quentin Crisp, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in Sutton, Surrey, England.
Dec 30, 2016	A collective of artists, DJs, and performers take ownership of The Stud, which they bought from Michael McElheney upon his retirement.
Dec 31, 1969	The Cockettes perform for the first time at the Palace Theater in North Beach.
Dec 31, 2014	Heklina, D'Arcy Drollinger, Geoff Benjamin, and Jason Beebout open The Oasis, a theater and cabaret nightclub located in San Francisco's SOMA district.

Other Months

January ◈ February ◈ March ◈ April ◈ May ◈ June ◈ July ◈ August ◈ September ◈ October ◈ November ◈ December ◈ Current

Submit Changes

If you notice any errors, or wish to submit a new milestone, please use our Contact form. Please note that we are looking for exact dates, including the month, day, and year of the event. Milestones can include dates of birth or death for significant LGBTQ celebrities, dates that an LGBTQ bar opened or organization was founded, inaugural dates of LGBTQ events, and any other dates of LGBTQ significance that seem historically noteworthy.