Rainbow Honor Walk

Set into the sidewalks of the Castro are 46 bronze plaques, each honoring a deceased LGBTQ pioneer — Oscar Wilde, Alan Turing, James Baldwin, Frida Kahlo, Audre Lorde, Sylvester and more. This is the Rainbow Honor Walk, the neighborhood's open-air hall of fame, and it turns an ordinary stroll up Castro Street into a walk through queer world history. The first twenty plaques were unveiled in September 2014, with further installments in 2018, 2019 and 2022 and a new phase extending along Market Street announced in 2025. The all-volunteer nonprofit behind the walk, founded by David Perry, plans dozens more honorees as fundraising allows — the long-term vision runs to hundreds. The route threads the neighborhood's core: the 400 and 500 blocks of Castro Street, stretches of 18th and 19th Streets near the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, and Market Street reaching toward the SF LGBT Center at Octavia. Each three-foot bronze square carries a portrait and a few lines on the honoree's contribution. How to do it: entirely free, always open, and best combined with the rest of the Castro's heritage cluster — start at Harvey Milk Plaza, drift down Castro past the plaques, detour to Castro Camera at 575 Castro and the GLBT Historical Society Museum on 18th. Twenty minutes covers the core; completists can hunt all 46.