Join Shawn Sprockett, senior adjunct professor in San Francisco, as he uncovers how San Francisco became the “Gay Capital” of America.

For more than sixty years, San Francisco has been a beacon for LGBTQ people from all over the world. But how did it achieve this role? The true story begins more than 200 years before the rainbow flag or Harvey Milk. Hear the surprising story of how a parade of saloon owners, drag queens, sex workers, psychologists, hair fairies, Pentagon officials, and armed Evangelical activists together made San Francisco America’s "Gay Capital."

Shawn is a designer and senior adjunct professor in San Francisco, where he has lived for ten years. He has been studying lesser-known queer history in the city since 2018 and now runs a volunteer queer history walking tour project called Unspeakable Vice, which highlights queer heroes, stories, and places beyond the Castro.