Harvey Milk was a keen amateur photographer and would often take and develop pictures. One day Milk was disappointed when a developer ruined one of his rolls of film, so he and his partner, Scott Smith, decided to open this store in 1972 with the last of their savings. In a short space of time the shop developed a reputation for being open and gay-friendly, leading many to travel from around the US to visit the Castro and have their sexual orientation accepted.&nbsp;The shop became more than selling cameras and developing film, it became a refuge center for new LGBT arrivals to the city. Milk also turned the shop into an official polling station for elections. Due to his civic work within the gay community, Harvey Milk quickly became known as the Mayor of Castro Street.When Harvey decided to stand for election he used the shop as his&nbsp;campaign headquarters. After a few failed attempts, his&nbsp;fourth campaign resulted in Milk's election to the San Franciscan Board of Supervisors, making the city to be the first in American to widely accept a gay public official. The top floor served as Milk's residence with his partner. Castro Camera is now home to&nbsp;The San Francisco Human Rights Campaign Action Center. The store was a safe haven for the LGBT community when Harvey Milk first opened it, and that still holds true today with the HRC as its owner.&nbsp;

A memorial plaque outside of the former Castro Camera store.

National Register of Historic Places form for Castro Camera

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Castro Street Fair, established by Harvey Milk and colleagues, from 1976

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Castro Camera was a retail shop in the Castro District, operated by Harvey Milk for six years, from 1972 until his assassination in 1978. The store became a hub for the growing local gay community and was used as a headquarters for the Harvey Milk campaign. It is now a location for the Human Rights Campaign and is San Francisco Landmark #227.

Castro Camera and Harvey Milk Residence

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Take a walk through the diverse LGBTQ+ history of San Francisco's Castro District 

Built in 1913, this small building was originally known as the Jose Theatre by residents in the Castro District and was used as a movie theater until 1919. Beginning in the 1920’s, the Jose Theatre was used as a storefront by multiple businesses. This continued all the way through the 1960’s and 1970’s, as population demographics shifted and the Castro District was transformed from a working class Irish-Catholic neighborhood into one of the largest and most active LGBTQ enclaves in the country. By the early 1980’s, residents of the Castro began noticing the early stages of what would soon become one of the deadliest epidemics in world history- AIDS. In 1985, the San Francisco Chronicle famously reported that over 1,000 San Franciscans had died of AIDS-related complications. The majority of these deaths were gay men and transgender people living in the Castro District. In metropolitan areas across the country- including San Francisco- individuals with AIDS were dying so rapidly that many never even received funerals. It was this stark reality that would inspire the largest folk art memorial project in history. On November 27, 1985, gay community activist Cleve Jones led a candlelight memorial march for his friend, former City Supervisor Harvey Milk, who had been assassinated alongside Mayor George Moscone seven years prior. During the march, Jones handed out cardboard signs with markers to members of the crowd, instructing them to write the names of people they knew who had died from AIDS. Later that night, Jones and the other marchers had the signs taped together on the outside of the old federal building. To Jones, the end result resembled a quilt- giving him the idea for the NAMES Project. Cleve Jones worked with friends and other community activists to begin making panels the following year. Each quilt was 3 feet by 6 feet- the size of a grave- and bore the name of an AIDS victim along with messages and designs that memorialized the person. Jones made the first quilt in memory of his friend- Marvin Feldman- who had died on October 10, 1986 of AIDS. He was 33 years old. By the summer of 1987, the NAMES Project had created over 100 quilt panels. In June, they leased the old Jose Theatre storefront at 2362 Market Street to set up a work space and storage for the panels. Lists of supplies that were needed were taped to the windowfront, and the items- sewing machines, thread, office supplies- quickly streamed in along with volunteers eager to help. Forty panels of the quilt were first shown during the June 1987 San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Freedom Day Parade. Word spread throughout the country and the NAMES Project received hundreds of letters and quilt panels from New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. One mother traveled by bus from her hometown in West Virginia to personally deliver a panel she had secretly made for her gay son who had passed away. When asked why she didn’t just send it in, she replied that she couldn’t just put her son in an envelope and mail him away. She had to see the place where he would be remembered.   On October 11th of 1987, the 1,920 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt were laid on the Mall in Washington D.C. during the National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights. Pieced together, the quilt took up over an acre of ground. That weekend, half a million people visited the Quilt. The response was so enormous that the NAMES Project organized a four-month tour in 1988 to display the Quilt in cities across the United States. By the end of the tour, the Quilt had tripled to include 6,000 panels. The Quilt was displayed at the National Mall again in 1988 and in 1989, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for AIDS charities. In 1989, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. By 1996, the Quilt had grown to 40,000 panels representing individuals from every US state and 28 countries around the world. With the help of 10,000 volunteers, it was finally displayed in its entirety on the National Mall in October of that year. An estimated 1.2 million people visited the massive memorial- now spanning 26 football fields. President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore all walked through the display. In 2001, the NAMES Project and the AIDS Memorial Quilt moved from its longtime headquarters on Market Street to a larger, temperature-controlled space in Atlanta provided by the CDC. The building has since been converted to a seafood restaurant called Catch. The restaurant commemorates the history of its location with a wall decorated by quilt panels. Today, more than half of the AIDS Memorial Quilt is shown in an annual tour across the United States beginning on December 1st- World AIDS Day. Weighing 54 tons, the Quilt has grown to 48,000 panels which memorialize over 100,000 individuals, making it the largest community arts project in existence. New panels are still added every year.

Built in 1913, this former movie theatre was where the first panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, created by gay community activist Cleve Jones in honor of his friend Marvin Feldman, was displayed in June of 1987. The building then became the headquarters of the resulting NAMES Project, which allowed friends and family of those who had died of AIDS to commemorate their loved ones with personalized quilt patches. The AIDS Memorial Quilt quickly grew to encompass 48,000 individual panels honoring the lives of over 100,000 people. The Quilt was famously shown in its entirety on the Mall of Washington D.C. in 1996. It is still the largest community arts project in the world. 

Jose Theatre / NAMES Project Building

The triangular park features fifteen triangular white granite pylons with pink triangles embedded into their peaks. Each of these pillars represents a thousand persecuted and murdered gay, lesbian, and transgender people. The pylons are arranged in the shape of a triangle and surround a larger pink quartz triangle in the middle of the park. The triangle is positioned to point towards the Harvey Milk Plaza.&nbsp;The adjacent plaza memorializes Harvey&nbsp;Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. A 20×30-foot rainbow flag that can be seen from some of the farthest edges of the city. The shape of the park and its pylons acknowledge the pink triangles that gay men and women were forced to sew onto their clothing in Nazi Germany in an attempt to isolate and shame them.

The park seeks to reclaim the pink triangle as a symbol of celebration, rather than shame, for those LGBT lives. The pink triangle has since become a symbol of strength for the LGBT civil rights movement. The Castro/Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association, which commissioned Pink Triangle Park, explains its intentions: ‘This is a civil rights park… Throughout history, there are times when prejudice overwhelms all reason and humanity… Pink Triangle Park and Memorial is a place of remembrance, reflection, and education.’

The park was designed by artists Robert Bruce and Susan Martin. In a statement about the park, they claim: ‘We wanted the sculpture to be contemplative. We wanted to mourn the dead (past), to celebrate the living (present), and to hope for those to come (future).’ The artists express their hope that the park’s visitors will ‘Respect each other as this sculpture respects the site… Contemplate the softness of the plants and the firmness of the granite… Locate the softness and the firmness within themselves… Remember that gay men wore pink triangles, lesbians wore Black triangles, gypsies wore brown triangles, Poles wore blue triangles, social democrats, and other political prisoners wore red triangles, and Jews wore yellow stars… [and] think about how persecution of any individual or single group of people damages all humanity.’

Located in the heart of the Castro District, Pink Triangle Park contains fifteen granite pillars that memorialize the fifteen thousand LGBT men and women who were killed by soldiers following Adolf Hitler's orders during the Holocaust. Nazi soldiers required gay, lesbian, and transgendered persons to wear pink triangles as a symbol of their alleged inhumanity during the Second World War and many were executed in concentration camps throughout Europe. A triangle columnn was built for every 1,000 gay men and women who lost their lives.   

Pink Triangle Park

In the late 1800’s, the Nasser Brothers- Albert, Abraham, and Samuel- immigrated from their native country of Lebanon to the quickly developing city of San Francisco. There, Abraham Nasser established a small candy factory and general grocery store. Around 1907, Nasser began projecting movies onto the back wall of the store. Movies at the store became a popular community event and, in 1910, the Nasser Brothers opened a 600-seat nickelodeon in an old theater a few blocks away. This theatre existed on what is now the site of Cliff's Variety, a commonly used general store in the Castro District. The venture was an enormous success. By the early 1920’s, the brothers had earned enough money to hire self-taught architect Timothy L. Pflueger to construct a larger, 1,875-seat theater in the middle of the growing Castro neighborhood. Designed by Pflueger to resemble a Mexican cathedral, the resulting Castro Theatre cost $300,000- about $4.6 million today. The interior of the building holds a blend of Italian, Oriental, and Spanish design influences. The side walls of the auditorium are covered with classic fantasy motif murals which were created using a wet plaster technique known as “scrafitto”. Pflueger would later be hired again by the Nasser Brothers to make several additions during the 1930's. After a small electrical fire destroyed the original parchment chandelier in 1937, it was replaced by Pflueger with an Art Deco style chandelier that still hangs today. The Castro's signature neon sign and ornate marquee were also added during this time period. The Castro Theatre had its opening night on June 22, 1922 with the Paramount race car picture "Across the Continent". The picture was one of the last films starring Hollywood heartthrob Wallace Reid, who died a year later due to a morphine addiction. The showing had a packed house and San Francisco Mayor James “Sunny Jim” Rolph was even in attendance. The theatre’s success was heralded by many in San Francisco and it quickly put the Castro District on the map as a prime area for development during the mid-20th century. In 1930, the Castro Theatre installed the necessary sound system technology to start showing "talkies", which were becoming more and more popular. The orchestra, who had previously played for the theatre's silent films, were given two weeks notice. However, the musicians walked out in solidarity with other workers. The orchestra members and their union were later accused of planting 35 odor bombs in the Castro Theatre and other San Francisco area movie theatres owned by the Nasser Brothers. A settlement was reached between the union and the Nasser Brothers which allowed the orchestra to play twice a week for ten weeks at the Castro. In 1976, the Castro Theatre was given the designation of San Francisco City Landmark #100. The same year, the Nasser family began leasing the Castro to a movie theatre chain circuit. Under its new management, the Castro Theatre expanded its repertoire of showings to include foreign films, arthouse films, film festivals, and- most notably- LGBTQ films. With the Castro District's influx of gay men during the 1960's, these films were incredibly popular and became weekly occurrences. On September 20, 1985, the Castro Theatre hosted the world premiere of Arthur J. Bressan's film "Buddies"- the first feature film made about the AIDS epidemic. "The Times of Harvey Milk"- a documentary whose subject lived down the street from the theatre- also had its premiere at the Castro in 1984. In 1982, the theatre replaced its Conn organ with a majestic Wurlitzer organ- assembled over the course of three years by a local man named Ray Taylor and his two sons. The Wurlitzer organ was a beloved piece of the Castro Theatre's moviegoing experience, until the Taylor family moved out of San Francisco in the 2010's and took the organ with them. Over the past few years, a non-profit organization started by the theatre's organ player, David Hegarty, has been raising money to place the world's largest hybrid pipe/digital organ in the Castro Theatre. A new generation of the Nasser family took back ownership of the Castro on July 31, 2001 after the last lease expired. The Nassers renovated and restored the building. To allow for more comfort and space, new larger seats were added- reducing the number of seats to 1,400. In 2008, the neon sign was restored for the filming of Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic "Milk". The Castro Theatre later hosted the world premiere of "Milk", which was attended by many of the real-life gay activists portrayed in the film. After the theatre shut down in March of 2020 in compliance with COVID-19 city ordinances, the Castro's owners commissioned award-winning street artist Mace to paint murals on the exterior of the boarded-up box office. The four murals- depicting a firefighter, a nurse, a grocery worker, and a postal carrier- were designed to honor the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grown from a neighborhood nickelodeon by three immigrant brothers, the grand Castro Theatre first opened its doors on June, 22, 1922. Designed by famed San Franciscan architect Timothy L. Pfleuger, the theatre became an integral part of the development and history of the Castro Neighborhood throughout the 20th century. In 1985, the Castro Theatre hosted the world premiere of "Buddies", the first major motion picture about the AIDS crisis. The Castro Theatre was designated as San Francisco City Landmark #100 in 1976. Today, it is one of a handful of historic 1920's movie theaters in the United States still in operation.

Castro Theatre

First erected in 1883, the building was originally a saloon and cigar shop. Forty years later the building was updated by owner Samuel Levin from a Victorian style building to the more modern Mediterranean revival style, which exists to this day. At this time it operated as a store, until it became Twin Peaks Tavern&nbsp;in 1935. The bar was originally run by Osborne Bye and William Mullane, before changing hands to Gus Fangerlind and Knut Carlson in the mid 1940s. It changed hands once again in the 50s before being purchased by lesbians Mary Ellen Cunha and Peggy Forster in 1972.&nbsp;"The girls", as they came to be known, had been working at a liquor store on Valencia and 16th when they head that the bar was for sale. They redecorated the building, turning it into a fern bar, and uncovering the windows that the previous owners had hidden in order to conceal patrons' identity from their wives. Twin Peaks became the first gay bar in the city, and possibly the country, in which patrons could be seen from the outside. This marked a change in prevailing opinion, and shows that it had become less risky to be openly gay. It was bold move however, especially at a time when people could lost their jobs simply for being gay.&nbsp;The Twin Peaks Tavern sign had existed since 1935, but the girls decided to add their ow flair to the design. They added a cocktail glass and hand painted lights in rainbow colors, to celebrate the diversity of the LGBT community. The bar became one of the stops on the city's Great Tricycle race, a fundraiser in which people dress up in drag and ride tricycles around some of the city's bars. The ladies were in their 30's when they took over the bar, and many of their clientele was middle aged or older. In order to avoid problems with the police and licensing control, the bar operated under a strict no touching policy. Guests could say hello and hug and kiss, but anything beyond that, such as making out, was not allowed. It wasn't until 1975 that laws prohibiting same-sex sexual activity were repealed.&nbsp; The bar was taken over again in 2003, by bartenders Jeffrey Green and George Roehm, continuing the bar's traditions, and working within the community. The girls are sadly no longer with us; Peggy Forster died in 2008 and Mary Cunha died in 2015. In 2012 the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission voted to confirm the nomination of Twin Peaks as a historic landmark, which was approved&nbsp;unanimously on January 15, 2013.&nbsp;

Twin Peaks Tavern first opened in 1935 but was purchased by Mary Ellen Cunha and Peggy Forster in 1971. It is believed to be the first gay bar in the nation to feature full-length, open plate glass windows that let its patrons look out, and more importantly, the public look in. The lesbian friends, known to most regulars as "the girls," opened the bar to the world at a time when many gays still feared losing their jobs or being socially ostracized if their sexual orientation was revealed. It has now survived for 40 years as one of the Castro district's most memorable and welcoming establishments.

Twin Peaks Tavern 

Harvey Milk came from a small, middle-class, Jewish family in Woodmere, New York but&nbsp;moved to San Francisco in 1972. He and his partner opened a camera shop on Castro Street named Castro Camera in the heart of the city's gay community. He soon built connections within the&nbsp;community and found his voice. He&nbsp;became a leader in the fight for Gay Rights and was known colloquially as the "Mayor of Castro Street."&nbsp; Milk first announced his candidacy for a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1973. With little money and a&nbsp;lack of political experience, Milk lost the election. Two years later, Milk lost a second election for the same position. In 1977 Harvey Milk finally won a seat on the San Francisco City-County Board, becoming the city's first openly gay official, as well as one of the first openly gay politicians to be elected to office in the United States.&nbsp; Harvey Milk led a community initiative to strike down Proposition 6, which would have required the city's schools to fire gay teachers and refuse job applications to potential teachers on the basis of their sexual orientation.&nbsp;The film, "The Times of Harvey Milk," tells the story of&nbsp;how many people, including Milk, lobbied and fought against Proposition 6. Their campaign gained support, and the proposition was ultimately rejected with 75% of San Franciscans voting against it. The result shocked the&nbsp;gay community and led to massive celebrations&nbsp;across the state.&nbsp; Harvey Milk's death march is an example of the impact he had on the gay community. After he had died, hundreds of people attended a candlelit march in support of&nbsp;him. After Milk's killer, former supervisor Dan White was only found guilty of involuntary manslaughter (after confessing to shooting both Milk and the Mayor in City Hall) riots broke out all over San Francisco. White served just over five years of his sentence and was released from prison in 1985. Less than two years later White was found dead in his ex-wife's garage after committing suicide via carbon monoxide inhalation.&nbsp;

This plaza honors the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly-gay elected official in Californian history. Harvey Milk was an influential gay rights activist and became one of the first openly gay officials in the United States in 1977 after he was elected to be on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 2002, Harvey Milk was cited as the most significant LGBT elected official in the United States. Tragically, one of the reasons that many remember Milk is related to the nature of his death. Former City Supervisor Dan White snuck through a basement window in City Hall and killed Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone on November 27, 1978. 

Harvey Milk Plaza 

After being expelled from the US Navy alongside his male lover for homosexual conduct during the Korean War, Tommy Dorsey Jr. began travelling the country as a successful drag performer and prostitute. During these years, he developed an addiction to methamphetamine and frequently abused other hard drugs. In the early 1960’s, Dorsey moved to San Francisco’s Castro District after hearing about the area’s substantial gay and hippie community. There, he founded a commune, became manager for a rock band, and began dealing drugs. Due to his drug usage and dealing, Dorsey overdosed and was arrested multiple times in San Francisco. Around 1965, however, things changed for Dorsey after he witnessed Beat poet Allen Ginsberg break up a street brawl by simply reciting a Zen chant. This experience deeply impressed Dorsey, who then began studying Buddhism and sitting zazen (meditating in the Zen practice) at the nearby San Francisco Zen Center under famous monk, Shunryu Suzuki. After the death of Suzuki in 1971, the San Francisco Zen Center’s new abbott, Richard Baker, ordained Dorsey as a Buddhist priest and made him director of the Center in 1975. He was also given the name Issan, as a part of his ordainment. While still in this position, Issan Dorsey helped form the Gay Buddhist Club- a discussion group specifically for gay Buddhists in the San Francisco area- in 1980. Eventually, the Gay Buddhist Club began holding their meetings in the basement of one member’s Victorian-era house located at 57 Hartford Street, where they hosted guest speakers such as Allen Ginsberg, Baker Roshi, and Ram Dass. On December 8, 1981- the holiday commemorating Buddha’s enlightenment- a ceremony was held inaugurating the building as an official zendo. Thus, the Hartford Street Zen Center was born. In 1987, Maitri Hospice was opened by Issan Dorsey in the Center to serve gay men and addicts in the Castro District who were dying of AIDS. The Buddhist hospice was the first of its kind in the United States. The Center eventually leased the building next door in order to add nine beds for those in extremis. Dorsey was officially made abbott of the Hartford Street Center in 1989. One year later, he died of AIDS-related complications in one of the beds of the hospice which he helped create. In 1997, Maitri Hospice moved out of the Center and into larger facilities with room for fifteen beds at the intersection of Church and Duboce Streets. Hartford Street Zen center, meanwhile, was led briefly by another abbott who departed after a difficult tenure. Beat poet Zenshin Philip Whalen became the Center’s third abbott in 1991 and served there until his retirement 5 years later. Today, the Hartford Street Zen Center is led by Rev. Myō Denis Lahey who has served there since his induction on October 13, 2013.

Founded in 1989 by Issan Dorsey, a former drag queen and drug addict, Hartford Street Zen Center is a Soto-Zen practice and temple. During the 1990's, the Hartford Street Zen Center operated an eight-bed hospice for those dying of AIDS that eventually became as the Maitri Clinic. Both Maitri and the Zen Center are still in operation today.

Hartford Street Zen Center

The museum’s Main Gallery has been remodeled and and is now showing “Queer Past Becomes Present,” the first entirely-new exhibition since the museum opened in 2011. The following information about current exhibits comes from the&nbsp;museum's webpage: Queer Youth: Out and Active "Queer Youth" traces the activism of San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQQ youth 25 and under from the 1970s to the present. The Assassination of Supervisor Harvey Milk This section looks at one of the most horrific events in queer history, the assassination of activist and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, and includes related artifacts, photographs and an excerpt from Milk's political will. José Sarria: Activist and Entertainer Costumes, artifacts, and ephemera document the life of José Sarria, "The Nightingale of Montgomery Street," from his days waiting tables and performing at the Black Cat Café through his historic run as the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States.&nbsp; Constructing Jiro Onuma: Putting the Pieces Together "Constructing Jiro Onuma" details how history is a dynamic process involving continuous excavation and discovery through the personal collection of Japanese immigrant Jiro Onuma. His collection offers the only known visual documentation of same-sex intimacy in the Japanese American incarceration camps.&nbsp; Fighting for Our Lives: Four Organizations Respond to AIDS A look at four pioneering Bay Area organizations that fought for a greater response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic: People with AIDS-SF, the ARC/AIDS Vigil, the National Task Force for AIDS Prevention and WORLD (Women Organized in Response to Life-threatening Diseases).&nbsp; Gayborhoods: Lost Queer Landscapes Using unique artifacts and images, this exhibit recaptures the clubs, bars, restaurants, and other venues of three vibrant queer communities - North Beach, the Tenderloin, and the Valencia Street corridor - now all merely memories.&nbsp; History is Now: The Dragon Fruit Project "History is Now" showcases an intergenerational historical preservation project within the queer Asian Pacific Islander community.&nbsp; The Lesbians of The Ladder: Courage Under Attack In 1955 a small group -- many of them women of color - courageously founded the Daughters of Bilitis, a social club for lesbians. The organization's publication, the Ladder, quickly became a lifeline for women across the country struggling to come out in a virulently homophobic society.

San Francisco's GLBT History Museum opened in 2011, becoming the first full-scale, stand-alone museum dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and sharing the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the United States. Recognizing the need to serve patrons beyond the San Francisco area, the museum offers a variety of online displays. For those who live or are visiting the area, the museum also offers a number of permanent and rotating exhibits. The current list of exhibitions appears below, as well as links to the museum's virtual exhibits and related books.

GLBT History Museum

Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church was established in 1900 to serve as a parish for 370 Catholic families living in Eureka Valley. The church building was dedicated on Christmas Day of 1901. 16 years later, Most Holy Redeemer School was constructed across the street. Beginning in the 1950’s, the Castro District saw a major shift in its population demographics. During these years, Most Holy Redeemer became a haven to the remaining religious conservatism in the neighborhood. Tensions between the church and the area’s gay community culminated on April 30, 1961, when three teenage male students from Most Holy Redeemer robbed and threw a 27-year-old schoolteacher named William Hall onto tracks where he was run over and killed by a streetcar. During trial, the boys were unrepentant for their crimes and even argued that it wasn’t murder because the victim was reportedly homosexual. All three boys were convicted and went to a juvenile correctional facility, where they remained until June 30, 1976. In 1979, Most Holy Redeemer School closed down due to a lack of students. The parish, meanwhile, was suffering from extremely low membership and attendance. This was the case until 1982 when, following the sudden death of the church’s pastor, Father Anthony McGuire was appointed to lead the congregation. In one of his first meetings with the congregation, he asked for each member’s advice regarding how to boost membership at Most Holy Redeemer. Although the group consisted mostly of elderly couples and women, one of the few gay men who attended the church stood up and recommended that more outreach be done to include the LGBTQ population of Castro in activities and services at Most Holy Redeemer. The matter was put to a vote and passed unanimously. Most Holy Redeemer began hosting holiday parties and potlucks that featured LGBTQ speakers. The outreach was so successful that in 1983 the Board of Directors officially formed the Gay and Lesbian Outreach Committee- the first known committee of its kind in any Roman Catholic church. The remaining elderly members of the church- most of whom were widows- reportedly relished spending time with and doting after the influx of largely gay men who arrived at Most Holy Redeemer in the following years. The unlikely friendship between the two groups led Father Tony McGuire to nickname his congregation “the gays and the grays”. Since this influx of gay men was occurring in the mid-1980’s during the beginning stages of the AIDS epidemic, a significant percentage of the church’s new parishioners had HIV/AIDS. Quickly, education meetings and support groups were created in response. Meal distribution and ride sharing programs were also established to help individuals who were in the final stages of life. The elderly women at Most Holy Redeemer were heavily involved in these programs, and would often spend hours visiting and cooking homemade meals for “their boys” in hospice. In 1987, Father McGuire did a forty-hour prayer service in honor of those who had AIDS. The service was repeated the next year, establishing it as an annual tradition which continues to this day. In 1990, Father Tony McGuire stepped down and was replaced by Father Zachary Shore. Shore’s leadership during the 1990’s cemented Most Holy Redeemer’s position as a gay-friendly parish. In fact, by 1998, the number of gays and lesbians in Most Holy Redeemer's congregation was estimated by Shore to be as high as 80-90%, making Most Holy Redeemer the only known majority-out gay Catholic Church. Today, the church reportedly still has a similar demographic makeup. Hanging on the walls are photographs of many of the church’s former parishioners who died of AIDS. A scroll is also kept with the names, birthdates, and dates of death of each person. The AIDS support group at Most Holy Redeemer is still active, however with far less members nowadays thanks to the increased availability of preventative and therapeutic medications.

The Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church parish was established in 1900 by the Archdiocese of San Francisco. For decades, it served as a community hub for the Castro District's largely Irish-Catholic, immigrant, working-class population. As the Castro saw a diverse influx of gay men in the 1950's, Most Holy Redeemer maintained its standing as a conservative parish. After the church received a new pastor in 1982, however, Most Holy Redeemer began doing outreach events for the neighborhood's LGBTQ members who had felt previously felt alienated by the church. The events were successful and Most Holy Redeemer became known as the community's "gay" Catholic church. During the AIDS crisis which devastated the Castro, the church and many of its elderly women parishioners were heavily involved in operating programs to help those living with the virus. Today, photographs of gay parishioners who died during the epidemic line the church's walls and a 40-hour candlelight vigil is held every year to honor them.

LGBTQ+ Castro District Walking Tour

Castro Camera and Harvey Milk Residence

Introduction

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Backstory and Context

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