Notable September 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 |
|---|---|
| Sep 01, 2007 | The Metro reopens at 2124 Market (now Blackbird) after losing their lease at what is now the LookOut. |
| Sep 02, 1974 | On Labor Day, tensions with the police increase when a gay man outside of Toad Hall is beaten and arrested by the police. Police reinforcements appear with their badges hidden and beat dozens of gay men, arresting 14 of them for "obstructing a sidewalk" who become known as the "Castro 14." A $1.375 million lawsuit is filed against the police. |
| Sep 05, 1923 | Charlotte Coleman is born in Somerset, Massachusetts. She went on to open numerous gay bars in San Francisco, including The Front, one of the world's first lesbian bars. |
| Sep 05, 1946 | Freddie Mercury, frontman of the band Queen and an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born as Farrokh Bulsara in Stone Town, Sultanate of Zanzibar. |
| Sep 06, 1860 | Jane Addams, a social worker and suffragette now honored on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk, is born in Illinois. |
| Sep 06, 1947 | Disco legend Sylvester ("You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)") is born in Watts, Los Angeles. |
| Sep 06, 2013 | Earl Plante steps down as CEO of San Francisco Pride. |
| Sep 06, 2013 | Over a thousand mourners attend the funeral for Jose Sarria, First Empress of San Francisco, in Grace Cathedral. |
| Sep 07, 1927 | The first working television is demonstrated in Philo Taylor Farnsworth's San Francisco laboratory on Green Street. |
| Sep 07, 2007 | The San Francisco de Young Museum hosts a "Decade of Peaches Christ Retrospective" featuring artistic contributions inspired by drag performer, filmmaker and Midnight Mass hostess Peaches Christ. |
| Sep 08, 1954 | A police raid on lesbian bars 12 Adler and Tommy’s Place results in jail time for two and both bars closing for good. |
| Sep 08, 1960 | Police Sergeant Waldo Reesink is sentenced to one year in jail after pleading guilty in the "gayola" scandal of extorting payments from gay bars in exchange for not raiding them. |
| Sep 08, 1975 | Leonard Matlovich becomes the first openly-LGBT person to appear on the cover of Time magazine. |
| Sep 08, 1983 | The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that immigration officials cannot prevent people from entering the United States solely because of their sexual orientation. |
| Sep 09, 1850 | California is admitted into the union of the United States of America. |
| Sep 11, 1948 | Lesbian author Jewelle Gomez (The Gilda Stories) is born in Boston, Massachusetts. She now lives in San Francisco, where she works as Director of Grants and Community Initiatives for Horizons Foundation and serves as President of the SF Public Library Commission. |
| Sep 11, 1961 | San Francisco's PBS channel KQED aired "The Rejected," the first documentary on homosexuality. |
| Sep 11, 2001 | SF resident Mark Bingham, a founder of the SF Fog rugby team, is one of the passengers who rushed the cockpit of United Flight 93, preventing the hijackers from crashing the plane into the White House or Congress as intended. |
| Sep 14, 1961 | The largest police raid in SF history targets the Tay Bush Inn, an after-hours gay club on Taylor and Bush. |
| Sep 14, 2007 | The LookOut opens at 3600 16th Street in a spot that the Metro had held for 26 years. |
| Sep 16, 2020 | A new generic top-level domain, .gay, launches into public availability. |
| Sep 17, 1859 | Joshua Norton proclaims himself Emperor of the United States, becoming one of SF's most colorful characters. |
| Sep 19, 1975 | Leonard Matlovich is discharged from the U.S. Army for homosexuality after appearing on the cover of Time magazine on September 8th. |
| Sep 19, 2016 | A plaque honoring the Lexington Club, the City's last dedicated lesbian bar, is formally dedicated. |
| Sep 21, 1955 | The Daughters of Bilitis is founded in San Francisco, becoming the nation's first lesbian rights organization. |
| Sep 21, 1996 | President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act banning federal recognition of same-sex marriages. |
| Sep 22, 1974 | Sara Jane Moore's attempt to assassinate President Ford is blocked by Oliver Sipple, who gets outed by the publicity. |
| Sep 23, 1984 | Kathleen Connell and Michael Valerio collaborate to create the first South of Market street fair. The event, called Megahood, evolves into the Folsom Street Fair. |
| Sep 24, 1951 | Mark Leno is born in Wisconsin. He is later appointed by Mayor Willie Brown to the SF Board of Supervisors in April of 1998, and then is elected to represent San Francisco in the State Assembly and then the State Senate. |
| Sep 28, 1970 | David Campos is born in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. He serves on the SF Board of Supervisors from 2008 to 2016 as one of two LGBTQ supervisors on the 11-member board. |
| Sep 28, 1993 | The Tales of the City miniseries, based on Armistead Maupin's San Francisco-based book, first premiers on Channel 4 in the UK. It is aired by PBS in the United States in January of 1994. |
| Sep 29, 1973 | Wystan Hugh Auden, an honoree on Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk who is better known as W. H. Auden, dies in Vienna, Austria. |
| Sep 29, 2005 | Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes AB 849 by Mark Leno of San Francisco which would have legalized same-sex marriage in the state. |
Other Months
January ◈ February ◈ March ◈ April ◈ May ◈ June ◈ July ◈ August ◈ September ◈ October ◈ November ◈ December ◈ Current
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