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    A Digital Archival Collection Spotlight: Victoria Fernandez/Vicki Starr Papers

    Victoria Fernandez posed with a telephone and a dog, at home. c.1985

    By Ian Fuller—

    Found within the GLBT Historical Society’s digital archives, and made available in collaboration with the Digital Transgender Archive, the Victoria Fernandez/Vicki Starr Papers document the life of Victoria Fernandez, who performed professionally as Vicki Starr. Fernandez was a Puerto Rican trans woman known for her work as a dancer in San Francisco’s topless clubs during the 1960s.

    The collection shows how Fernandez used photography to explore and express her gender, identity, and personal life from the 1950s through the 1980s. Materials include photobooth strips, Polaroids, and personal snapshots, often capturing moments with partners, friends, and members of the queer communities she was part of. They offer a glimpse of everyday trans life across several decades, reflecting both private relationships and broader social worlds.

    Victoria Fernandez posed with a telephone and a dog, at home. c.1985

    Select photographs of Fernandez are currently on view in I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live at the GLBT Historical Society Museum. Co-presented with the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive, the exhibition highlights the resilience, creativity, and cultural impact of Black, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander trans and gender-nonconforming people.

    To view the exhibition, visit the GLBT Historical Society Museum at 4127 18th Street in San Francisco’s Castro District. 

    This 1966 advertisement for El Cid, a topless club in San Francisco’s North Beach,
    featured Victoria Fernandez, who performed as Vicki Starr. Fernandez, a trans woman, is misgendered in the advertisement’s top billing. c.1966
    Victoria Fernandez posed in profile with a companion, with a landscape of palm trees in
    the background. c.1955

    Community Treasures From the GLBT Historical Society Archives
    Published on January 15, 2026