A photography exhibition marking five decades of San Francisco’s Pride festivities is not yet available for viewing in person at City Hall during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the GLBT Historical Society has made it available online.
The “50 Years of Pride” exhibition, a project between the GLBT Historical Society and the San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries, shows photos from previous years of the annual parade and celebration dating back to 1970.
San Francisco Pride usually takes place during the last weekend of June, although the 2020 version has been canceled by organizers due to the pandemic.
Curated by local artists Lenore Chinn and Pamela Peniston, the exhibition will be shown inside City Hall once the city’s shelter-in-place orders are relaxed, but it went online Friday.
The exhibition features photojournalism, portraits, posters and magazine covers from prior Prides. Many images came from the GLBT Historical Society’s archives but others are from other institutions and more than a dozen independent queer photographers.
“The history of Pride over the last half century in San Francisco is as complex and diverse as our city,” GBLT Historical Society executive director Terry Beswick said. “It is also a great lens through which we can examine the evolution of our LGBTQ rights and freedoms, as well as our awareness of how our movement intersects with other social justice movements.”