Oct 29
Castro history plaque unveiled
BAR Staff READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Neale Richmond, TD, left, Ireland's Minister of State from International Development and Diaspora, and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie unveiled the newest plaque on the Rainbow Honor Walk honoring Irish human rights activist Roger Casement. The October 28 ceremony took place outside 501 Castro Street, near the Bank of America building.
Casement, who was hanged for treason in 1916, was outed as gay when authorities found his diaries, the authenticity of which has been debated for decades, as the Irish Times noted last December. He’s credited with human rights investigations. Matthew Rothschild, a gay man and retired attorney who used to work for the city attorney’s office, spearheaded the fundraising for the plaque and considers Casement a hero, he previously told the Bay Area Reporter.
Casement risked everything to expose the brutal atrocities committed against people in the Belgian Congo. In the early 1900s, he traveled deep into the heart of Africa and documented the horrific abuse, forced labor, and mass killings carried out under King Leopold II’s rule – a regime that left millions of people dead. Casement’s report shocked the world and helped ignite an international movement that saved countless African lives.
The nonprofit Rainbow Honor Walk is expected to have more plaques installed soon, including one for the late Bob Ross, founding publisher of the B.A.R.
Correction, 10/30/25: This has been corected to state that the person on the left is Neale Richmond, TD, Ireland's Minister of State from International Development and Diaspora.
