Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club

This Exhibit was originally created as an entry for OutHistory.org's 2010 "Since Stonewall Local Histories Contest."

This is a short history of the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club. This history explains how the club got started in San Francisco, California as the first registered LGBT Democratic Club in the nation. The history recounts the decades-long struggle of the LGBT community to influence public policy at the local, state and national level by making inroads within the Democratic Party in one of the nation's most important Democratic strongholds. Unless otherwise noted, all source material for this history came from the Alice Reports newsletter, interviews with longtime Alice members, and the Gay Vote Newsletters of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club. The 1971 section on Jim Foster establishing Alice is sourced from “Out for Good – the Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America” by Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney.