June

Notable June 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.

DateEvent
Jun 02, 1926Poet Allen Ginsberg who wrote "Howl" in SF and is honored on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in New Jersey.
Jun 02, 1951Artist/activist Gilbert Baker, who later designs the Rainbow Flag in San Francisco, is born in Chanute, Kansas.
Jun 03, 1906Josephine Baker, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
Jun 03, 1993Former San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg is sworn in as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
Jun 04, 1975The decomposing body of Harald Gullberg is found in Lincoln Park. He is the last known victim of the serial killer known as the Doodler.
Jun 05, 1898Federico García Lorca, a Spanish dramatist and theatre director honored on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born.
Jun 05, 1981The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) publishes the first official federal document on the disease that would later be known as AIDS.
Jun 05, 2015Lana and Lilly Wachowski's Sense8, whose multinational, multicultural cast includes Nomi Marks, a transgender hacktivist in San Francisco played by trans actress Jamie Clayton, premiers on Netflix.
Jun 05, 2018Mark Leno finishes second in his bid to be elected Mayor of San Francisco, just 1% behind the winner, Supervisor London Breed. He comes closest to being elected SF mayor of any LGBTQ candidate in history.
Jun 07, 1954Alan Turing, a founder of computer science, commits suicide after being chemically castrated for homosexuality.
Jun 07, 1977Anita Bryant leads a successful campaign to repeal a gay rights ordinance in Dade County, Florida.
Jun 07, 1993San Francisco holds its first "Dyke March" as part of Pride Month festivities. The march later moves to be held on the Saturday of Pride Weekend, which is always the weekend of the last Sunday in June.
Jun 08, 1938Harry Britt is born in Port Arthur, Texas. He is later appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1979 following the assassination of Harvey Milk, where he served until 1992.
Jun 08, 2008The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony has their first concert with 8 violins, 3 violas, 5 cellos, and 2 double bases.
Jun 10, 1928Maurice Sendak, author of numerous children's books (Where the Wild Things Are) and an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in Brooklyn, New York.
Jun 10, 1978The first members of what becomes the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band hold their first rehearsal in preparation for their public debut only 15 days later.
Jun 10, 1979The SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band marches in Santa Cruz at their first out-of-town Pride Parade.
Jun 11, 1961Christina Olague is born in Merced, California. She is appointed to the SF Board of Supervisors in January of 2012, becoming the Board's first openly bisexual member. She only serves one year, losing in a special election to retain the seat.
Jun 11, 1980The underground Castro Muni Station, which provides underground access to the L, K, and M municipal light rail lines, officially opens for service.
Jun 12, 1997The FBI lists Andrew Cunanan, a former San Francisco resident who frequented Castro bars, on their Most Wanted List. Flyers pop up around the Castro warning people to be on the lookout Cunanan, who is the prime suspect in four murder cases. Cunanan kills his fifth and final victim, fashion designer Gianni Versace, on July 15th, and then commits suicide on July 23rd.
Jun 13, 1978Samois, the first exclusively-lesbian BDSM groups, is founded in San Francisco. It disbands in 1983.
Jun 15, 1936Following a police raid at their former location, Finocchio's Club moves to 506 Broadway Street and reopens as the City's premier spot for female impersonator and gender illusionist performances. It closes in 1999.
Jun 15, 2020In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court interprets the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide civil rights protections for LGBTQ people.
Jun 16, 1951Lou Sullivan, the first well-known transman to publicly identify as gay and an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Jun 16, 2008Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon are remarried by Mayor Gavin Newsom after the California Supreme Court rules that same sex couples cannot be denied the right to marry. They are the only couple to be married by the Mayor that day.
Jun 17, 1967Legendary drag performer and club promoter Heklina, founder of the drag show Mother (originally Trannyshack) and one-time co-owner of Oasis SF, is born in Hennepin, Minnesota.
Jun 17, 1983The SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band holds their first out-of-state performance in Portland, Oregon.
Jun 18, 1983Sally Ride, now honored on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, becomes the first American woman in space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger for STS-7.
Jun 20, 1989Bob Damron, creator of the Damron Travel Guides for LGBTQ travelers and a one-time co-owner of the San Francisco gay bars the Hideaway, Febe's and the SF Eagle, passes away.
Jun 21, 1977Robert Hillsborough and Jerry Taylor are attacked by four youths in a horrific gay-bashing incident that leaves Hillsborough stabbed to death by John Cordova.
Jun 22, 1922The Castro Theatre opens in the not-yet-gay Castro neighborhood (then more commonly called Eureka Valley). In 1977, it becomes home to the Frameline Film Festival, the world's first LGBTQ film festival.
Jun 22, 1988Leonard Matlovich, the first openly-gay person to appear on the cover of Time magazine, dies in West Hollywood, California.
Jun 22, 1991Australian-born drag queen Doris Fish of Sluts-a-Go-Go and the cult movie Vegas in Space, and a columnist for the San Francisco Sentinel, dies of AIDS at the age of 38.
Jun 23, 1912Cryptanalyst Alan Turing, a founder of computer science and honoree on the Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in London.
Jun 24, 1995A large pink triangle is created by activists for Pride Weekend on Twin Peaks overlooking the Castro. What began as a renegade crafts project is now an officially-sanctioned annual city event.
Jun 24, 2004San Francisco holds its first Trans March, which is held annually on the Friday of Pride Weekend.
Jun 25, 1974Joseph "Jae" Stevens' body is found at Spreckels Lake. He is the second-known victim of the serial killer known as the Doodler who murdered at least seven gay men in San Francisco in the mid-1970s.
Jun 25, 1978The SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band makes their public debut by marching in the San Francisco Pride Parade.
Jun 25, 1996The San Francisco Unified School District's Board of Education votes to rename Douglass School in the Castro to be the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy.
Jun 25, 2011Jean Harris, former Chief of Staff to Supervisor Harry Britt and a powerful force in San Francisco's Democratic and LGBTQ politics, dies in Palm Springs.
Jun 26, 1963Life magazine proclaims San Francisco to be the gayest city in America in their "Homosexuality in America" article.
Jun 26, 1988Art Agnos becomes the first Mayor of San Francisco to participate in the LGBT Pride Parade.
Jun 26, 2003The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws in the U.S. are unconstitutional.
Jun 26, 2010On Pink Saturday, Stephen Powell is killed after being shot four times in the chest. Ed Perkins is arrested and the crime, which occurred outside the actual Pink Saturday event area, is reported to be gang-related.
Jun 26, 2013The U.S. Supreme Court rejects an appeal of the case overturning Prop. 8 on procedural grounds, allowing same-sex marriages to proceed within days.
Jun 26, 2013The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, thereby requiring the federal government to recognize legal same-sex marriages.
Jun 26, 2015The U.S. Supreme Courts rules that the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution guarantees that same-sex couples are afforded the same Constitutional right to marry afforded to opposite-sex couples.
Jun 27, 1970A tiny band of hippies and “hair fairies” staged San Francisco’s first Pride celebration: a march on Polk Street, followed on the 28th by a “gay-in” in Golden Gate Park. The event is timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York.
Jun 27, 1976Dykes on Bikes makes their first appearance in the San Francisco Pride Parade with a small but ever-growing contingent.
Jun 27, 1996San Francisco's premier gay piano bar, Martuni's, opens at 4 Valencia Street.
Jun 27, 2014An unveiling ceremony is held for the renaming of a block of Turk Street after legendary trans performer Vicki Marlane.
Jun 28, 1969The Stonewall Riots - though not the first gay riots in the country - spark the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.
Jun 28, 2013Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, plaintiffs in the case to overturn Prop. 8, legally marry in San Francisco.
Jun 29, 1975Empress Doris X of the Imperial Court rides an elephant down Market Street in San Francisco's annual Pride Parade.
Jun 29, 1999James Hormel, an heir to the Hormel Foods fortune and San Francisco resident, is sworn in as Ambassador to Luxembourg. He is the first openly-gay U.S. ambassador.
Jun 30, 2014Frank Robinson, an author (including The Glass Tower, the basis for the film The Towering Inferno), as well as Harvey Milk's friend, speechwriter, and co-executor of his estate, dies in San Francisco at the age of 87.

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