Notable January events 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.

Date	Event
Jan 01, 1933	James Hormel, heir to Hormel Foods, is born in Minnesota. He later becomes the first openly-gay person to serve as a U.S. Ambassador when President Bill Clinton appointed him to be Ambassador to Luxembourg in 1933.
Jan 01, 1962	Illinois becomes the first state to repeal its sodomy laws.
Jan 01, 1965	A police raid on a drag ball by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual sparks sympathy for the gay victims.
Jan 01, 2000	Richard William Paul "Dick" Pabich, an LGBTQ activist who served as Harvey Milk's campaign manager and legislative aide, dies in San Francisco.
Jan 02, 1977	Folsom Prison, one of San Francisco's best-known leather bars, closes.
Jan 02, 2023	Kelli Evans is sworn in as an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, becoming the court's first lesbian justice and second LGBTQ justice following the appointment of Martin Jenkins in 2020.
Jan 03, 1897	Lesbian film director Dorothy Arzner is born in San Francisco.
Jan 03, 2007	Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming both the first female Speaker, the first Italian-American Speaker, and the first Speaker from California, much less San Francisco. After losing the majority from 2011 through 2018, Democrats regain the majority and Pelosi is re-elected Speaker on January 3, 2019.
Jan 05, 1931	Alvin Ailey, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in Rogers, Texas.
Jan 06, 2006	Teddy Witherington formally steps down as San Francisco Pride's first Executive Director, a position he held since 1997.
Jan 07, 1974	San Francisco drag entertainer and filmmaker Peaches Christ in born in Washington, D.C.
Jan 07, 1998	George Leigh, cofounder of the LGBTQ-oriented bookstore A Different Light in San Francisco, and other cities, passes away in West Hollywood while on vacation.
Jan 07, 2014	George Ridgely is hired to be the Executive Director of San Francisco Pride.
Jan 08, 1880	Norton the First, Emperor of San Francisco and Protector of Mexico, passes away.
Jan 10, 2006	The Edge, a Castro neighborhood gay bar, ceases all fundraising events after declining to apply for an entertainment permit. New owners take over in February 2011 and resume fundraisers as soon as the entertainment permit issues are resolved in 2013.
Jan 13, 1958	The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the First Amendment rights of One: The Homosexual Magazine.
Jan 13, 2011	The GLBT Historical Society opens the GLBT Historical Society Museum, the first stand-alone LGBTQ museum in the United States.
Jan 14, 1925	Yukio Mishima, a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, and director honored on the Rainbow Honor Walk, is born.
Jan 15, 2013	The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously grants landmark status to the Twin Peaks Tavern.
Jan 17, 1920	The 18th Amendment, which bans the sale of alcoholic beverages, goes into effect, shuttering the City's earliest gay bars.
Jan 17, 1969	D'Arcy Drollinger, drag entertainer and co-owner of Oasis SF, is born in San Francisco.
Jan 17, 1996	Barbara Jordan, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies in Austin, Texas.
Jan 17, 2015	Heklina's long-running drag show formerly known as Trannyshack, which was first created at The Stud in 1996, is reborn at Oasis SF as "Mother."
Jan 18, 1960	Gladys Bentley, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, dies in Los Angeles, California.
Jan 19, 2014	The cable show Looking starring Jonathan Groff about gay men in San Francisco premiers on HBO. It runs for two seasons.
Jan 20, 1993	Members of the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band perform with other Lesbian and Gay Band Association members at Bill Clinton's inauguration. It is the first time that LGBTQ organizations have participated in a presidential inauguration.
Jan 20, 2013	Sports Illustrated snaps a photo of two men kissing at Hi Tops when the 49ers win the NFC national championship. When the photo runs in their magazine, it puts the newly-opened Hi Tops on the map.
Jan 21, 1936	Pat Norman is born in Brooklyn, New York. She later becomes the first openly gay employee of the San Francisco Health Department and the first openly lesbian African-American on the San Francisco Police Commission
Jan 21, 2014	Armistead Maupin publishes The Days of Anna Madrigal, the ninth and final book in the Tales of the City series.
Jan 21, 2015	David Munoz Diaz, previously convicted of manslaughter and arson, is arrested for burning down the Up Hair salon on 18th Street above The Mix, on January 17th and burning the car of his boyfriend, Larry Metzger, co-owner of The Mix.
Jan 22, 2023	Harvey's, the restaurant/bar at 500 Castro Street, unexpectedly announces they're closing at the end of the day after 27 years in business.
Jan 23, 1980	Jon Sims and Robin Kay create the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Men's Chorus, the first self-identified mixed LGBTQ chorus.
Jan 24, 1974	The body of Gerald Cavanaugh is found at Ocean Beach. He is the first known victim of the Doodler, a serial killer who preyed on San Francisco gay men who he would meet in gay bars and clubs.
Jan 25, 1882	Author Virginia Woolf (Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando), now honored on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in London.
Jan 25, 1965	Masked gunmen rob $3,000 from the Golden Cask, a gay bar in the Haight. They leave owner Charlotte Coleman and busboy George Morse tied up in the back. Press articles identify Coleman as the accountant, as a police raid of her previous bar, The Front, forced her to put the Golden Cask in Peggy Forster's name.
Jan 26, 2011	President Barack Obama appoints former San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
Jan 28, 1952	Bobbi Campbell, a public health nurse in San Francisco who becomes one of the first vocal activists living with AIDS, is born in Columbus, Georgia.
Jan 29, 2015	Mary Ellen Cunha, one of the original lesbian owners of the Twin Peaks Tavern, passes away in Palm Springs.
Jan 29, 2015	San Francisco native Cookie Dough (a.k.a. Eddie Bell), founder and hostess of the Monster Show, dies after a sudden illness.
Jan 31, 2016	The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band becomes the first LGBTQ group formally invited to participate in Super Bowl activities. Super Bowl 50 was held in Santa Clara on February 7, 2016.

Other Months

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

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