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
- 1969 Native American activists occupy Alcatraz Island for a second time. The occupation lasts about two years, ending June 11, 1971 after President Nixon rescinds the Indian termination policy established in the 1940s.
This Month in San Francisco’s LGBTQ History
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Nov 01, 1937 | Tom Waddell, Olympic athlete and founder of the Gay Games, is born in New Jersey. |
| Nov 01, 1972 | That Certain Summer, a made-for-TV movie featuring a gay couple as the leads, airs on ABC. The movie is naturally set in San Francisco. |
| Nov 01, 1981 | The Shanti Project organizes the first peer support group for San Franciscans diagnosed with AIDS. |
| Nov 01, 1988 | San Francisco forms what will become the nation's largest needle exchange program to reduce the spread of AIDS. |
| Nov 04, 1975 | Harvey Milk finishes seventh for six open Board of Supervisor seats in his second run for public office. |
| Nov 04, 2012 | Voters in Maine enact same-sex marriages while voters in Washington and Maryland uphold same-sex marriage statutes. |
| Nov 04, 2014 | San Francisco comedian Danny Williams, who generously donated his time for AIDS-related fundraisers, dies in Maryland at the age of 62. |
| Nov 06, 1973 | Harvey Milk loses his first run for the SF Board of Supervisors, finishing 10th out of 32 candidates. |
| Nov 07, 1961 | Jose Sarria, the first openly gay political candidate in the US, finishes 9th for 5 open Board of Supervisor seats. |
| Nov 07, 1990 | Film historian Vito Russo, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies in New York City. |
| Nov 07, 1991 | Touko Laaksonen, the artist of male erotica better known as Tom of Finland, dies in Helsinki, Finland. |
| Nov 08, 1963 | Edward Bell, who later became famous as the drag queen Cookie Dough, is born in San Francisco. |
| Nov 08, 1977 | Harvey Milk becomes the first openly gay candidate elected to the SF Board of Supervisors. |
| Nov 08, 2019 | Serial arsonist David Munoz Diaz pleads guilty to arson, possession of an incendiary device, and vandalism stemming from a February 2018 incident in which he allegedly lit a homeless man on fire. He had previously been convicted for manslaughter and for several fires in the Castro. |
| Nov 09, 1980 | The SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band performs at Davies Symphony Hall, the first time that an LGBTQ group performs in any major symphony hall in the world. |
| Nov 10, 1924 | Phyllis Ann Lyon, lesbian pioneer and a founder of the Daughters of Bilitis, is born in Oklahoma. |
| Nov 11, 1924 | The California Palace of the Legion of Honor opens. It was established by Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, a wealthy socialite and philanthropist who created it after San Francisco's high society shunned her and denied her a seat on the de Young Museum board of directors. |
| Nov 11, 1950 | Harry Hay founds the Mattachine Society, the country's first national gay rights organization. The organization moves to San Francisco around 1956. |
| Nov 11, 1991 | Steve Maidhof, founder of the National Leather Association and creator of the Living in Leather conferences, dies in San Francisco. |
| Nov 11, 2011 | The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band is named "Honorary Lead Contingent" of San Francisco's Veterans Day Parade in honor of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." |
| Nov 11, 2020 | Martin Jenkins, who was born in San Francisco, is confirmed as an Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court, becoming the court's first openly-gay justice as well as the fifth African American person to ever serve on the court. He was nominated by Gov. Gavin Newsom. |
| Nov 12, 1936 | The San Francisco Bay Bridge opens. |
| Nov 13, 2006 | Dykes on Bikes win a longtime battle to trademark their name, which the Patent Office had refused on the grounds that the term dykes was offensive. They had been forced to operate as the Women's Motorcycle Contingent in the interim. |
| Nov 13, 2015 | Charlotte Coleman, owner of numerous gay bars including The Front, one of the world's first lesbian bars, along with the Golden Cask, the Mint, and a silent partnership in Twin Peaks, dies in a Vallejo assisted living home at the age of 92. |
| Nov 16, 1952 | Glenn Burke, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in Oakland, California. |
| Nov 16, 2019 | A fire on Castro Street damages four neighborhood businesses, some severely: Q Bar, Body, Osaka Sushi, and Cafe Mystique. |
| Nov 17, 1985 | Cleve Jones conceives the idea of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The first panel is sewn a year later. |
| Nov 17, 1992 | Audre Lorde, honored on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. |
| Nov 18, 1922 | Mae Ella Nolan, a native San Franciscan, is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election following the death of her husband, Rep. John Ignatius Nolan, becoming the first woman elected to Congress from California and only the fourth woman nationwide. |
| Nov 18, 1978 | The Jonestown mass murder-suicide at the People's Temple Guyana compound leaves 918 dead, many from the SF Bay Area. |
| Nov 20, 1969 | Native American activists occupy Alcatraz Island for a second time. The occupation lasts about two years, ending June 11, 1971 after President Nixon rescinds the Indian termination policy established in the 1940s. |
| Nov 21, 1999 | Quentin Crisp, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England. |
| Nov 24, 1929 | George Moscone, an LGBTQ ally who as Mayor of San Francisco was assassinated with Supervisor Harvey Milk, is born in San Francisco. |
| Nov 24, 1978 | Castro resident Sylvester's disco hit "Dance (Disco Heat)" peaks at #19 on the Billboard Top 100 charts. It is his first song to break into the Top 40 and his highest-charting song. |
| Nov 24, 1991 | Freddie Mercury, frontman of the band Queen and an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies in London, England. |
| Nov 25, 1970 | Yukio Mishima, a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, and director honored on the Rainbow Honor Walk, dies. |
| Nov 27, 1974 | The Elephant Walk opens on 18th & Castro, becoming the second gay bar in SF after Twin Peaks to have plate glass windows. |
| Nov 27, 1978 | Openly gay SF Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone are assassinated by former Supervisor Dan White. |
| Nov 27, 1999 | Finocchio's Club, the City's famous performance spot for gender illusionists, closes after 63 years in its current location. |
| Nov 28, 1978 | The day after Supervisor Harvey Milk's assassination, the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club that he helped found votes unanimously to rename themselves the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club. |
| Nov 30, 1900 | Writer Oscar Wilde, now honored on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies of cerebral meningitis. |
| Nov 30, 1924 | Elliott R. Blackstone is born in Chinook, Illinois. He becomes a San Francisco police officer in 1959, and as a fallout of the "gayola" scandal, is designated as the SFPD's first liaison to the "homophile community" in 1962. |
| Nov 30, 1982 | Due to creative differences as well as his own exhaustion, Jon Sims resigns from the Board of Directors for the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band. |
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.
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