Richard Haggen - The Outwords Archive

Content Advisory: Racism / Ethnic Discrimination, Sexism / Genderism, Homophobia, Child Abuse, Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Physical Violence, Suicide / Suicidality, Drug and Alcohol Use, Medical Oppression, Health Struggles, Loss / Grief

Richard Haggen (left) smiling with his brothers Eric and Michael and maternal grandmother. In Los Angeles, CA, circa the late 1960’s. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Greyscale photo of Richard as a gradeschool kid, for an ad for “Foremost California’s Favorite Dairy”. In Los Angeles, CA, circa the early 1960’s. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (middle) sits and smiles with his mom and dad while wearing a graduation cap and gown after his high school graduation. In La Puente, CA, 1975. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (left) happily chats among friends Donna, Terry, and Jan at a New Year’s in Berkeley, CA, 1981. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (white pants) smiling with Peter Butler in San Francisco, CA, 1994. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Portrait of Richard outside in the sun amidst plants, during New Years. In Oakland, CA, 1982. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) with Isabelle clinking beers together at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, in 1983. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Carnelian Bay vacation group photo (L-R) David, Fredgy, Richard Haggen, and Scully playing cards. In Lake Tahoe, CA, 1986. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) and Richard hold hands sitting together in Washington D.C., 1984. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Group outing photo of Gerry, Gail, Richard (2nd from left), and friend in Philo, CA, 1984. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen and Matthew in 1980’s gogo-femme drag outfits for Halloween in San Francisco, CA, 1988. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

San Francisco Pride parade photo of (L-R) David, Meri, Richard Haggen, and Eddie sitting on a sidewalk after drinking Bloody Mary’s. San Francisco, CA, mid 1990’s. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard smiles outside of a camping tent, in Tsavo National Park just after a baboom stole a chocolate bar out of his tent. Kenya, Africa, 1987. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Collaged photo montage of Richard Haggen with various friends (clockwise): with Jerry Windley, J.C., and Mark Cromwell in San Francisco, CA, 1996. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) with Steven Renteria, both wearing patterned suits out in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA, 1994. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (R) and Carl Weber topless and wearing leather the Castro Street Fair. In San Francisco, CA, 1992. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (R) and Richard Hoff in suits and ties on a sunny rooftop in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA, 1989. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) with his auntie, mom, and dad at a waterfront restaurant in San Francisco, CA, circa the mid 1990’s. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (R, bald) with friends Toby and Rex Ray in San Francisco, CA, 1999. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) with friends Waiyde and Blair at the Eagle Bar in San Francisco, CA, 2015. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (R) with Richard Hoff and Ray Ericksen at the Restaurant Carter for his 40th birthday in Paris, France, 1997. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Full body portrait of Richard Haggen in blue jeans and a shirt in San Francisco, CA, 2017. Photo credit: Darren Ankenbauer. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard throwing up the peace sign while inner-tubing the Truckee river in Lake Tahoe, CA, 2024. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (R) and Konoa at Jeni’s Ice Cream in Los Angeles, CA, 2018. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Portrait of Richard in a red zipper-jacket in Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA, 2010. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) with cousins Ronnie and Bobby on the Yukon River (mud people) in Alaska, 2009. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen and peers crowding a room with protest posters, as part of an ACT-SF Youth Action Committee (YAC) protest in Marin, CA, 1993. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (R) gleefully smiles with Clint, both wearing bathroom mats on their heads as wigs in Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA, 2015. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Group photo for “Kim and Tracey’s Wedding” L-R: Terry, Richard Haggen (mustache), Shawn, Kim, Waiyde, Critter and Cary are all flicking off the camera. In San Francisco, CA, 2025. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Lively full body portrait of Richard in all white underlayers. In Los Angeles, CA, 2024. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) with his nephew Eric at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA, 2015. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Surfboard-beach photo of (L-R): Georgie, Frankie, and Richard Haggen on the sunny shores of La Jolla, CA, 2023. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) and Kanoa in face bandanas at the grocery store, during COVID quarantine. In Los Angeles, CA, 2021. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) with Tammy Germai walking around Los Angeles, CA, 2022. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Arctic-Circle sign group photo of (L-R): cousins Carolyn, Bobby, Ronnie, and Richard Haggen. In Alaska, during Summer Solstice June 2022. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen (L) with his Uncle Reuben at a cafe in Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA, 2016. Photo courtesy of Richard Haggen.

Richard Haggen was born in Inglewood, California in 1957 to a Mexican-Norwegian household.

Richard’s early years were made vibrant by the bold Pachuco style of his Mexican mother’s cousins and contemporaries in Los Angeles, but also shaped by the abuse, mental illness, and struggles with addiction that affected his household. As a child, Richard escaped into the worlds of comic books and birding. Today, he continues to hold a strong belief in the wisdom of nature, and has a spiritual practice rooted in ancestral healing traditions passed down from his great-grandfather, Felipe, a curandero.

Richard dated boys on the DL as a teenager, but rarely saw positive representation of his identity; all queer content was “tragic and dark.” In this context, he calls his family a “double-edged sword”; while there was pain, there was also acceptance, support, and love. When he came out to his brothers, Michael and Eric, they accepted him without hesitation. By the time he came out to the rest of his family, he was working two jobs and flying up to San Francisco on the weekends; he says his parents “really just left [him] alone.”

In the late 1970s, Richard was working at a record store and immersing himself in the punk and disco scenes of Los Angeles. A near-death overdose in 1976 provided a brief spiritual awakening, but didn’t immediately lead to sobriety. In 1978, he moved to San Francisco, arriving just after the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone and the Jonestown tragedy; he described the city’s atmosphere at the time as “grim” There at a march on city hall on May 21, 1979, which would come to be known as “The White Night Riots”, Richard experienced his “indoctrination into activism.”

Richard’s activism took place primarily through involvement with ACT UP San Francisco, through which he threw himself into the fight for HIV/AIDS awareness and education. For years, he worked to make safe sex materials available in schools, while simultaneously experiencing the devastating personal effects of the AIDS pandemic. “There was a memorial every week,” he says.

In 2004, Richard moved to Los Angeles, where his health took a sharp turn. He was diagnosed with AIDS and pneumocystis pneumonia and entered hospice care. Miraculously, he survived, one of only two people from that hospice cohort to do so. Richard continues to navigate the effects of early HIV treatments. He also lives with Stage 3 kidney disease and prostate cancer, conditions that he confronts with candor and courage.

While living in San Francisco, Richard joined a writer’s group in the Mission. His writing practice was jump-started when he responded to a call for submissions and was published in a book called Quickies 2. When he read the piece at A Different Light Bookstore, his cousin and uncle sat proudly in the audience. Richard is currently at work on a book about four generations of his family history.

Today, Richard splits his time between San Francisco and Los Angeles, where his life revolves around his communities. Of his love for his friends and family, he says: “I show up, they show up for me. These are the people I get to grow old with.”

Bio Author: Adelaide Barrett

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