The History of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, San Francisco, California, 1971-2004, by Nathan Purkiss

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This is a short history of the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club, published originally on OutHistory in 2013. 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.

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

1960s

Milk, Harvey

Toklas, Alice B.

Feinstein, Dianne

Clinton, Bill

Brown, Willie

Foster, Jim

Purkiss, Nathan

Morrison, Jack

Masonek, Jeff

Stein, Gertrude

von Beroldingan, Dorothy

California

San Francisco

Los Angeles

alice-b-toklas-lgbt-democratic

Oral History