Arguably the single most famous “gayborhood” in the United States, some of the country’s best known queer artists and activists settled there in the 20th century. It was where the first out gay male politician in the US was elected, where the Pride flag was born, and where many gay, trans and nonconforming people estranged from their biological families created new ones of their own.
At the time, the Castro was known as Eureka Valley, or Little Scandinavia. Amid the tumultuous 1960s, which were marked by protests against US involvement in the Vietnam War and the dawn of the hippie movement, young people flocked to San Francisco.
“The Castro neighborhood has been made famous for its incredible welcoming of LGBTQ people. And I think that that built through word of mouth,” says Roberto Ordeñana, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society.
The San Francisco institution was founded in 1985, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Its goal was to collect as much memorabilia and ephemera as possible — today, its collection includes everything from back issues of queer zines to the original Pride flag.
Source:Edition.cnn.com
