Eileen Hansen papers, 1977-2002

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Summary

Creators:
Hansen, Eileen
Abstract:
Extent:
5.2 linear feet (2 cartons, 1 manuscript box, 1 half manuscript box, and 1 oversized box)
Language:
Preferred citation:

Eileen Hansen papers. GLBT Historical Society

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains subject files related to the political work and professional career of Eileen Hansen. The records span from 1977 through 2002, though most stem from the time period after she moved to San Francisco in 1985. The files include a range of formats, including board materials; correspondence, emails, and memos; executive summaries, reports, and working papers; flyers; mailing lists; meeting agendas and minutes; news clippings; newsletters; notes; photographs; speeches; audiocassettes and VHS. Organizations represented include the National Lawyers Guild AIDS Network (NLGAN), Citizens for Medical Justice (CMJ), the Marin AIDS Support Network (MASN), Coalition Against Surveillance (CAS), and the Women’s AIDS Network (WAN). Events documented include the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbain and Gay Rights (particularly the civil disobedience action about the verdict in Bowers v. Hardwick), National Lesbian Conferences, and the Creating Change Conference. The audio cassettes contain recordings of conferences she attended or presented at. Also included are materials from electoral campaigns she participated in, including Tom Ammiano’s mayoral campaign, Hansen’s 2000 and 2002 Supervisorial campaigns, the People’s Budget, as well as work with the Progressive Alliance. The collection’s video tapes stem from the mayoral campaign Hansen ran for Tom Ammiano in 1999, except for one tape of the 1989 San Francisco Pride parade.

Biographical / historical:

Eileen Hansen was born on May 1, 1951 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She moved to San Francisco in 1985 from Boston, and spent the rest of her life living in San Francisco, most of that time with her partner, Denise Wells. Hansen was heavily involved in progressive politics, lesbian and queer activism, and the women’s movement throughout her adult life. Before moving to San Francisco, Hansen participated in protests against the Vietnam War, Black civil rights protests, and labor organizing. In San Francisco, her activism centered on HIV/AIDS and queers communities. Her organizing spanned from neighborhood projects about community spaces to getting out the vote during local elections to helping organize the Bay Area contingent for the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Support for womens causes were a consistent throughline of her political work, as seen in her support for domestic violence survivors, advocacy for abortion access and reproductive rights, and work centering women with HIV/AIDS. Hansen’s professional life was spent running AIDS advocacy organizations and electoral campaigns. She was the executive director of the Marin AIDS Support Network from 1987 to 1988, the executive director of the National Lawyers Guild AIDS Network from 1990 to 1994, and the policy director for the AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP) from 1994 to 2000. In the 1990’s, she ran political campaigns for progressive and queer candidates, including Tom Ammiano, Carole Migden, and Simeon White. She also helped organize progressive political coalitions. Eventually, she ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors herself in 2000 and 2002, narrowly losing the District 8 seat both times. She also received many appointments to city commissions, including the Building Inspection Commission, the Mayor and Board of Supervisors' Joint Task Force on the HIV Epidemic, and the San Francisco Ethics Commission. Eileen Hansen died on April 29th, 2016 of multiple myeloma, two days shy of her 65th birthday. An obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle described her as “devoted… to the work of advocating for people left out and left behind.” Tom Ammiano and Aaron Peskin, speaking to the Bay Area Reporter, recalled that her integrity and ethics were remarkable in city politics.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Eileen Hansen on June 14, 2008. Additions by Denise Wells in April 2024.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright to materials created by Eileen Hansen has been transferred to the GLBT Historical Society. All requests for reproductions and/or permission to publish or quote from material must be submitted in writing to the GLBT Historical Society Archivist. Copyright to other materials in the collection may be held by their creators, or the creators' heirs or assigns. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Preferred citation:

Eileen Hansen papers. GLBT Historical Society

Location of this collection:
989 Market Street, Lower Level
San Francisco, CA 94103, US
Contact:
(415) 777-5455
reference@glbthistory.org
Website