DEAR FRIENDS,

This past year, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the GLBT Historical Society's founding, and while we are immensely proud of the decades of LGBTQ+ history we have preserved and shared, it has never been clearer how profoundly necessary this work remains. Pride flags were removed from Stonewall. Transgender, nonbinary, and immigrant community members face escalating attacks on their rights, their dignity, and their lives. In this moment, our work is an act of resistance. It is vital that we remain committed and united in defending the history, stories, and voices of the LGBTQ+ community.

In 2025, we proudly joined with eight co-plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging executive orders designed to erase transgender and gender-expansive people from public life. We are relieved to have won a preliminary injunction with expert representation by Lambda Legal, and remain committed to continuing this fight in the weeks, months, and years to come.

The road ahead will be challenging. We will face continued rollbacks in federal funding and institutional support for our community. Nonetheless, we continue the work of unapologetically sharing our stories with tens of thousands of people from across the globe, while also preparing for our historic move to 2280 Market Street. In our new, permanent, state-of-the-art home in the Castro, visitors will have expanded access to our vast collections and programming, and we will carry on our mission of making the LGBTQ+ community's rich, dynamic history and culture accessible to all.

For forty years, we have understood that visibility is not incidental to survival — it is essential to it. We remain committed to upholding that truth and to uplifting these stories, for the next forty years and beyond.

With gratitude, for every member, visitor, researcher, staff member, volunteer, community member, and ally who make this work possible,