Anyone who loves local history can’t help but cheer the opening of a new exhibition exploring the challenges and triumphs of Santa Clara Valley’s LGBTQ community.
“Coming Out: 50 Years of Queer Resistance and Resilience in Silicon Valley,” which opened to the public at History Park in San Jose on Saturday, tells stories most San Joseans have probably never heard — stories that deserve to be told.
You may never have heard of Casa de San Jose, the first Imperial Court in the South Bay, which crowned an emperor and empress for more than 40 years starting in 1976. You might not know a thing about nearly a dozen newspapers that once made up the thriving “Gay Press” (or that the Mercury News didn’t publish same-sex commitment announcements until 1992).
And you’ll be forgiven if you’ve forgotten that the South Bay’s LGBTQ community was galvanized by the 1980 defeat of Measures A and B, which would have preserved anti-discrimination ordinances in Santa Clara County and San Jose.
Wiggsy Sivertsen, an LGBTQ icon in the South Bay who was San Jose State’s first openly gay employee, toured the exhibition at a VIP reception Thursday night and described it as “perfect,” which is not a word she is known to throw around lightly.
Sivertsen was among nearly 150 elected officials and community members Thursday night collectively thanking Ken Yeager, who curated the exhibition in his role as executive director of the BAYMEC Community Foundation.
“It’s hard to put it into words, but this is my love letter to the LGBTQ community in the Santa Clara Valley,” said Yeager, who was the first openly gay elected official in the county and the first to serve on the San Jose City Council and Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
He spent the past two years working on the show, which was derailed from opening a year ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the interim, Yeager launched queersiliconvalley.org, a growing online archive of the community’s history that he sees as an important resource for younger generations who may not know how much the LGBTQ community struggled in the “progressive” Bay Area.
But Yeager wouldn’t call the exhibition “perfect,” more like a work-in-progress that can be improved. There’s a community room in History Park’s Pacific Hotel steps away from the exhibition in the Arbuckle Gallery where visitors can ask questions, process what they’ve seen or make suggestions for bits of history that may have been overlooked.
“If we had done it a year ago, I don’t think it would have been as complete,” Yeager said. “All of this is just a reflection of everything since I was 17 years old. I just never threw anything away.”
“Coming Out” will be on display at History Park for the next year before going on tour to libraries and other public venues. You can get hours and book a visit at www.historysanjose.org.
HISTORIC LOSS: The fire that destroyed the H.G. Wade Warehouse in Alviso early Friday morning prompted me to look into the building’s history. It dates back to 1860 and was owned by Henry “Harry” Wade, an English immigrant who came to California with so many others in 1849. His route to the Golden State took him through Death Valley, where there’s a historical marker for the “Harry Wade Exit Route,” which should tell you it was not an easy journey.
He settled with his wife, Mary, in Alviso in 1851 where they had a house next to the brick warehouse. The “H.G. Wade” emblazoned on the warehouse was actually the name of Harry’s son, Henry George Wade. The younger Wade stored a stagecoach in that warehouse for an Alviso to Monterey line that never quite took off. The preserved coach was sold for $500 in 1928 to Wells Fargo, where it was repainted with the bank’s branding and put on display at its museum in San Francisco. The same coach also crossed the Bay Bridge during its opening ceremonies in 1936.
Much of this lore is included in the Images of America book, “Alviso,” by Robert Burrill (of “The Milpitas Monster” fame) and Lynn Rogers. Another local tie: Harry Wade is the great-great grandfather of the Rev. Jerry Wade, chancellor of Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose.
GOOD DEED DEPT.: Child Advocates of Silicon Valley, the nonprofit that trains court-appointed special advocates to work with foster youth, has made some partnerships that should make life a little happier for its young clients.
Eight community organizations — including the Children’s Discovery Museum, Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, YMCA Silicon Valley, the Santa Clara Open Space Authority and Red Ladder Theatre Company — will offer free admission, programming or other resources to foster youth in the program. Child Advocates CEO Fred Ferrer says that it’ll not only create the opportunity for fun experiences, but healing ones, too.
“We know through the research that children who experience adverse childhood experiences have trauma and suffer the challenges of toxic stress,” Ferrer said. “Being able to go into enriched environments where they can learn, have fun and really explore with that trusted relationship of a CASA is the key to healing that toxic stress.”
FLAG DAZE: While we’re all waiting for the hotel formerly known as the Fairmont San Jose to come out from under its cloud of bankruptcy — as the Signia by Hilton, it seems — Steve Sosnowski wonders if anyone will come to the rescue of the flags displayed on the building.
“I couldn’t help but notice the many torn, tattered and dirty flags from countries around the world limply hanging from the shuttered building,” Sosnowski said. “What a sad commentary on our current situation here in the heart of Silicon Valley. Not only are the deteriorated flags disrespectful to their home countries, they express our valley’s sense of exhaustion after a difficult year.”
He wonders if the building’s owner or anyone else could respectfully remove the flags until the hotel reopens — and reinstalling some bright new ones might be a great image of rebirth to send to downtown visitors.
