How Gay/Lesbian Sierrans Came to Be

In 1984, San Francisco was considered one of the most liberated cities in the country. It was home to queer activists who fought for equal rights for LGBTQI+ people, including Daughters of Bilitis organizers Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, civil rights leader Cecilia Chung, and gay Indigenous rights activist Randy Burns. San Francisco queer activists notched a major victory in 1977, when Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California history, was voted in to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk believed that “all young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.” But tragically, he was assassinated a year after his election, along with San Francisco’s mayor at that time, George Moscone. From the collective devastation of their assassinations grew a new era in the fight for equality, one that Milk himself had encouraged, which emphasized increased queer representation, equality before the law, and justice for the unspeakable harms inflicted on queer communities.

Six years after Milk’s death, two Sierra Club employees -- Steve Griffiths and Alan Weaver -- canvassed the intersection of Castro and 18th Street in the center of gay San Francisco. According to a 1994 article in Sierra magazine, Griffiths and Weaver hoped to form a Gay/Lesbian Sierrans (GLS) outings group in their local San Francisco Bay Chapter, where queer people could go hiking in the company of friends, engage in environmental activism, and be fully “out” without fear of judgement or violence from the heterosexual world.  They also hoped it would offer LGBTQI+ folks a chance to momentarily escape the devastation of the AIDS crisis. Since the San Francisco Bay Chapter already had approved activity groups for “Singles” and “Couples,” GLS had an established model to follow. They also had a cautionary tale to learn from: Three years earlier, attempts to organize gay/lesbian outings at the Great Lakes chapter had been shut down by chapter leadership for being too controversial.

From 1984 to 1986, efforts to form a San Francisco Bay Chapter gay & lesbian section intensified. After an initial year of campaigning, the proposal to form a Bay Chapter GLS group was put to a vote. The Bay Area Reporter -- the oldest continuously published LGBTQI+ weekly newspaper in the US -- reported that the chapter executive committee voted 4-4 to deny the formation of GLS. Some dissenting members argued that the group would be ‘“divisive,” while others openly proclaimed, “We are not attempting to make the Sierra Club a voice for Gay and Lesbian political concerns.” In response these sentiments, one person wrote in to the Bay Area Reporter to say, “This is but another example of the heterosexual world taking the homosexual’s contribution to society and then denying the homosexual’s existence.” 

When the first Bay Chapter GLS vote was held in 1985, mainstream perceptions of LGBTQI+ people were still largely based on ignorance and negative stereotypes. Unfortunately, some leadership in the Sierra Club echoed these judgments by failing to see the link between membership diversity and the Sierra Club’s mission to “explore, enjoy and protect the planet.” Whether Griffiths and Weaver were aware of it or not, their efforts pushed the club forward in its equity journey by demonstrating to leadership the value of creating a more inclusive Sierra Club: “The more representative [Sierra Club] membership is of the citizenry at large,” Griffiths said, “the more powerful we are as advocates for the environment.” 

Despite initial setbacks in 1985, allies of GLS pushed for another vote. They laid the groundwork by getting new members on the San Francisco Bay Chapter executive committee who were known to support the creation of GLS. They drew attention to their cause by  participating in the 1985 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Freedom Day Parade (or, as it’s more commonly known, the Pride Parade), publishing ads about GLS in queer-friendly newspapers, and self-publishing a newsletter, Committee to Form Gay/Lesbian Sierrans. “We demonstrated to the public at large that the Sierra Club could be accepting of diversity. Doing so was ultimately to the [Sierra] Club’s benefit,” Griffiths reflects. By January 1986, the SF Bay Chapter executive committee voted 7-2 in favor of forming the Sierra Club’s first LGBTQI+ outings group. 

Thirty-four years after this historic vote, the Bay Chapter’s GLS outings group continues to foster equity and inclusion in the outdoors. Other Sierra Club chapters, including Angeles, Mother Lode, and Loma Prieta, have established their own GLS groups as well. As queer identities evolve, so have the chapters: In 2018, the original GLS group changed its name to “Rainbow Sierrans” to more fully reflect the diversity of its community and membership. While these groups welcome anyone regardless of gender or sexual orientation, Griffiths stresses one important element for ensuring a safe and welcoming atmosphere: emphasizing the Sierra Club’s equity, inclusion, and justice principles on outings, at meetings, at events, and in every Sierra Club space. 

To start a LGBTQI+ section in your local Sierra Club chapter, reach out to your chapter executive committee. Their contact information should be listed on the chapter website.