Profiles in Pride

Bay Area LGBTQIA+ Transportation and Housing Advocates

Pride Month is extra poignant this year as queer and trans communities are under attack from the new regime in Washington. So it’s a good time to lift up some of the LGBTQIA+ community members who have worked toward housing and transportation equity in the Bay Area. 

Harvey Milk (1930–1978)

Harvey Milk, also known as the Mayor of Castro Street, was the first out gay candidate elected to office in California. After three unsuccessful campaigns for San Francisco City Supervisor, in 1976, Mayor George Moscone appointed Milk to the Board of Permit Appeals, making him the first out LGBTQIA+ commissioner in the United States. The following year, in November 1977, Milk won his election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, using his position to fight against anti-LGBTQIA+ efforts in California. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a former member of the Board of Supervisors, in City Hall.

Roma Guy

Roma Guy was a founder of several community-based women’s and girl’s organizations such as SF Women’s Building, SF Women Against Rape, The Women’s Foundation, and La Casa de las Madres, a safe haven for women escaping abusive relationships. She served on the Mayor’s Local Homeless Board and the James Hormel LGBTQ Advisory Council for the SF Public Library.  She was appointed Co-Chair, along with the Director of Public Health and Sheriff, to the City/County and Community Jail Replacement Project 2016–2017, to develop alternatives to incarceration.

Whit Joaquin Guerrero

Joaquin Guerrero was the first Director of Our Trans Home SF, a BIPOC-led trans housing program. He led the opening of the first Transgender Navigation Center in the U.S. and helped envision the End Trans Homelessness initiative, the first initiative of its kind for trans and gender nonconforming people. Guerrero also served on the Trans Advisory Committee of the Office of Trans Initiatives and the City and County’s Shelter Monitoring Committee. He is currently a Program Officer for the Arlene and Michael Rosen Foundation, a mediator in supportive housing for the San Francisco Bar Association’s Conflict Intervention Services, and a Capacity Coach for the Transgender Strategy Center.

Megan Rohrer

Megan Rohrer has worked to support unhoused people, including LGBTQIA+ populations, for over two decades. They have worked on homelessness in their native Sioux Falls, SD, San Francisco, and Kona, HI. Since 2022, Rohrer has served on the Local Homeless Coordinating Board, which advises the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. They also serve as the co-chair of the San Francisco Local Homelessness Coordinating Board.

Courtney Brousseau (1997–2020)

Courtney Brousseau founded Gay for Transit, an LGBTQIA+ group that advocated for better transit in San Francisco. He was also a committed bike rider and bike advocate before he was tragically killed in a drive-by shooting at age 22.