Sac’s Queer Secrets: The LGBTQ+ History Hiding in Plain Sight

What if some of Sacramento’s most consequential history is the history we’ve barely been taught?

Behind familiar storefronts, ordinary buildings, and neighborhood landmarks lies a history of defiance, political struggle, and extraordinary community building. Sacramento wasn’t simply a backdrop to the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Its people helped shape it. Often while confronting laws, institutions, and social attitudes determined to keep them invisible.

Join scientist, photographer, and LGBTQ+ history advocate Mitchell “Mitch” McCartney, creator of the Stop Whispering, Start Shouting series, for a revealing exploration of Sacramento’s queer past. Going beyond the individual stories he has shared publicly, Mitch will trace the larger historical forces, unexpected connections, and pivotal moments that shaped LGBTQ+ life in Sacramento and influenced movements beyond our city.

From Indigenous histories of gender and sexual diversity and the social world of Gold Rush-era Sacramento to the emergence of organized LGBTQ+ resistance in the late 1960s, we’ll explore how people challenged discrimination, claimed public space, and created communities when acceptance was far from guaranteed.

You’ll Learn
How Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ communities and identities evolved across generations, including histories often absent from traditional accounts of the city.
How local activists, organizations, and publications contributed to broader struggles for LGBTQ+ rights.
How gathering spaces, neighborhood institutions, and Lavender Heights became part of the city’s social and political history.
How discrimination, the AIDS crisis, and decades of organizing shaped Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community and its enduring legacy.
History doesn’t disappear simply because we stop talking about it. Come discover the Sacramento that was here all along.

Mitchell Mark McCartney is a Sacramento-based scientist, photographer, storyteller, and LGBTQ+ history advocate. He serves as Director of Research for the Bioinstrumentation and BioMEMS Lab at UC Davis, where he develops portable chemical sensors for human, animal, agricultural, and environmental health monitoring.

Beyond his scientific work, Mitch created Stop Whispering, Start Shouting, a social media series uncovering Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ history and honoring the activists who shaped it. He is also a passionate advocate for preserving and recognizing the historic significance of Sacramento’s Lavender Heights neighborhood.