Making a Case for Community History Hello, Recently, I have been very involved with a project called "Remembering Our Dead," which is dedicated to memorializing individuals killed by trans hate and prejudice. In working on this project, I have been indebted to the many materials provided by the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California (GLHS). Indeed, much of the information on the "Remembering Our Dead" website would not be there if it wasn't for the efforts of the staff and volunteers of the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California (GLHS). They have an extensive collection of transgender history materials, and have a commitment to preserving trans history. It is especially heartening to see this, when so much already lost in the sands of time, that there are organizations like the GLHS that are willing to make sure that our history is preserved for our future generations. The GLHS is a professional organization with on-staff archivists and oral historians, and a fully-climate controlled archive on-site. They are also free to those who wish to use the archives for their own research needs. By the way, don't let the name of this organization fool you. The GLHS has always been involved with transgender materials. Lou Sullivan was a founding member of the organization, and all of his papers are preserved there. The current Executive Director of the GLHS, Susan Stryker, is herself transgendered. The GLHS also has a Transgender Community Advisory Committee, of which I am a member, which is dedicated to fostering a stronger relationship with our community. As part of this, the GLHS are committed to acquiring a museum-quality (climate and humidity controlled, etc.) display case to highlight the history of eight relevant communities, including a case for the transgender community. These cases would be used in San Francisco's pride celebration, as well as other public venues in Northern California. The case would also be available for trans events. In order to make the transgender case a possibility, however, the GLHS needs to raise $3,000.00 US dollars, and with any money raised by our community over the goal earmarked for future transgender history needs. If you see a value in preserving the history of the transgender community, would you please consider reading the below information and providing financial assistance to the below GLHS project? -- Gwendolyn Ann Smith (gwen@gender.org) ============ We need your help! During LGBT Pride Month in June 1999, GLHS is excited to curate a major exhibition - MAKING A CASE FOR COMMUNITY HISTORY. Co-sponsored by the Pride Celebration Committee and Frameline, and supported by the art and museum community of San Francisco, this exhibition will run from Friday, June 18th to Friday, June 25th, at the mezzanine of the Castro Theater. On Sunday, June 27th, the exhibition moves to a premier location at the Civic Center Pride Celebration site, and then possibly to City Hall in July. By its finish, the exhibition will have been visited by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. MAKING A CASE FOR COMMUNITY HISTORY will be more than a routine, one-time exhibition. It is a capital investment in exhibition equipment for community purposes. This year, eight LGBT communities have been selected to have their histories highlighted in eight separate display cases. The groups are: Leather Community Bears of San Francisco Imperial Court of San Francisco Lesbian Feminist Community Transgender/Transsexual Community African-American Community Latino/a Community Asian-Pacific Islander Our goal is to demonstrate how communities can "make a case" for their own history both literally and symbolically. At the center of this project are eight custom-built museum quality display cases that will be paid for through a combination of GLHS funds and community-based fundraising. These cases will be dedicated to use by the communities that pay for them. They will be able to travel to community functions where community history displays would be appreciated. Representatives of each of the eight communities will help raise money, and will receive mentoring in all aspects of professional public exhibition and historical preservation. The MAKING A CASE FOR COMMUNITY HISTORY project will also serve as a platform for building "magnet collections" of historical materials from each of the communities involved, which can then be archived at the GLHS, and for the formation of Community Advisory Committees that help insure the on-going participation of these communities in the historical preservation work of our organization. We believe that encouraging people to learn about and preserve their own histories is an activist strategy for community empowerment. This project enjoys the support of San Francisco Mayor Brown, City Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Mark Leno, and Leslie Katz, and has the pledge of long-term participation by museum professionals from the Western Museum Association, the De Young Museum, the SFMOMA, and the JFK Graduate Museum Science Program. If you would like to support the fundraising efforts of the GLHS by making a financial contribution to a particular community's case, please mail a check to: GLHS P.O. Box 424280, San Francisco, California 94142 U.S.A. Please note on the check which case you would like to help fund. To make a donation on your credit card, please call the GLHS during regular business hours at (415) 777-5455. http://www.glhs.org
	. . /\\//\ Gwendolyn Ann Smith * Area Advisor, TCF > () < Board Member, AEGIS * Webmistress, TransBay \/()\/ Webmistress, SCCatl * Webmistress, gender.org "I want this to be a harmony of voices" - Lauren D. Wilson
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