SF gay history museum finds home, identity

Long recognized as "one of the great ground zeroes of queer liberation," the Castro becomes the site of the nation's first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history museum today.

"Our letters were burned, our names blotted out, our books censored, our love declared unspeakable, our very existence denied," spell out words from a 1979 San Francisco Gay History Project flyer inscribed along one of the museum's walls.

Now, objects from the kitchen table and pink-framed sunglasses that belonged to Harvey Milk - who became the first elected openly gay politician in California by becoming a member of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors - to manuscripts and sex toys, are on display at the 1,600-square-foot space at 4127 18th St.

With two exhibits and hundreds of articles, the GLBT History Museum is the world's second museum dedicated solely to gay and lesbian archives and materials, museum officials said. The only other one is in Germany.

"Telling our stories transforms our lives and our society and takes us out of the margins," said Don Romesburg, a curator and assistant professor of Sonoma State University's Department of Women's and Gender Studies. "The museum is at the heart of that project."

The GLBT Historical Society, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in March, had its sights set on opening a museum for a decade, said Executive Director Paul Boneberg. The search ended in April when the society signed a five-year lease for a formerly empty storefront.

San Francisco "should have had one long before this, given that it's known as a mecca for LGBT people," said Karen Sundheim, program manager of the Main Library's James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center.

Affordable space

The main hurdle for the society, with a $500,000 annual budget, was finding an affordable space, Boneberg said. An 11-month exhibit that opened in 2008 shortly after the release of the film "Milk" drew 25,000 visitors and proved that a permanent museum would be successful, he said.

Foot traffic in the area dropped immediately after the temporary exhibit closed, said Steve Porter, general manager of Harvey's, three doors down from the new museum. But that isn't why the restaurant - among dozens of neighboring businesses and individuals - donated thousands to the $250,000 price tag to open and run the museum for the first year.

"Harvey would want us to do to so," Porter said. "Because he would recognize how important it is for younger gays to be aware of the legacy of their struggle and the future."

Donations, volunteers

To run the museum, the society will rely on donations and volunteers such as Fred Baumer, 57, who has lived in the Castro his entire life and came out in the early 1970s. "People will come in here and have very emotional experiences to what they see," he said. "I want to talk to them about it, be a human face behind all of this."

The museum's opening was the top priority for the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro, the association President Stephen Adams said, because it will draw more tourists and locals alike and "really help with the economic vitality of the neighborhood."

The museum's opening - a month and a half after the Smithsonian Institution removed a controversial video that appeared in the National Portrait Gallery's exhibit on gay portraiture, "Hide/Seek" - brings the importance of having a museum dedicated to gay and lesbian issues to the forefront, said curator Gerard Koskovich.

"What that shows me is that when so-called mainstream institutions - even in their goodwill - offer to tell our stories, they tell them in their own terms," he said. "Here, we get to tell our stories on our own terms without having to apologize."

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle