Fal Words: SF Gay Men’s Chos & SF Symphony | July 13, 2022

Contents:

• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• 5 REASONS WHYSAN FRANCIS'S ORIGAL GAYBORHOOD REMAS TIMELS
• CATEGORY:FRANCISQUE GAY
• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• SAN FRANCIS GAY MEN’S CHOS TRI TO CSH THE ‘EVANGELIL DARK WEB’ FOR EXPOSG THEM AS SEX OFFENRS
• FINAL WORDS: SF GAY MEN’S CHORUS & THE SF SYMPHONY
• ‘WE’RE COMG FOR YOUR CHILDREN’: GAY MEN’S CHOIR DELET ‘TONGUE-IN-CHEEK’ MIC VIO AMID BACKLASH
• CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR
• THE 10 BEST SAN FRANCIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SAN FRANCIS
• GAY MEN'S CHOIR THAT SANG 'WE'RE COMG FOR YOUR CHILDREN' RH TO COVER AFTER PEDOPHILIA ACCATNS
• HOW MILARY HISTORY WAS CENTRAL TO SAN FRANCIS BEG THE GAY CAPAL OF THE WORLD

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

“[World War II] properly marks the begng of the natn’s, and San Francis’s, morn gay history, ” wrote historian John D’E his book “Makg Trouble: Essays on Gay History, Polics, and the Universy. Until 1973, homosexualy was still diagnosed as a mental health disorr when the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn removed om the send edn of s Diagnostic Statistil Manual (also known as DSM 2).

5 REASONS WHYSAN FRANCIS'S ORIGAL GAYBORHOOD REMAS TIMELS

“By uprootg an entire generatn, the war helped channel urban gay life to a particular path of growth—away om stable private works and toward public mercial tablishments, ” wrote lol historian Allan Bébé, his book “Comg Out Unr Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women World War II. “Ironilly, the creasg harassment of gay men and lbians the armed servic, cludg the e of the notor, unsirable ‘blue’ discharg, helped to build a sense of muny among s victims, ” Bebe wrote “Comg Out Unr Fire. Latvia swore the first openly gay print of a Baltic natn Rkēvičs, who sce 2011 was the untry’s foreign mister, was elected by Parliament May after Print Egils Levs did not seek re-electn.

She is thought to be the first openly gay prime mister the was an active unnist her nearly 10 years workg as a flight attendant, acrdg to the Council of Women World Lears, a work of female heads of state. ”Xavier Bettel Prime Mister of Luxembourg (2013-prent)Luxembourg Prime Mister Xavier Bettel at a news nference Belgra, Serbia, on July Vojovic / APBettel was first elected prime mister of Luxembourg 2013, and 2018 he beme the first openly gay prime mister the world to be re-elected for a send marriage beme legal Luxembourg 2015, and the same year Bettel beme the first servg European Unn lear to marry a same-sex partner, the BBC recently cricized a Hungarian law that bans school tnal materials and TV shows for people unr 18 that are emed to promote LGBTQ ntent, Rters reported.

CATEGORY:FRANCISQUE GAY

“To be natnally blamed, to be nsired as not normal, to be nsired as a danger for young people — ’s not realizg that beg gay is not a choice, ” Bettel said, acrdg to Rters. “Hopefully this will blow over three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay mister, ” she told The Associated Prs at the Varadkar Prime Mister of Ireland (2017-20, 2022-prent)Irish Prime Mister Leo Varadkar Bssels on June 30.

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

Major topics clu San Francis’s gay muny: home life, leather muny South of Market and Castro Street, gay paras, Leonard Matlovich race for supervisor and portras, Closet Ball 1979, The Balny Rtrant and Bar on Market Street near Castro, Milk-Mosne assassatn by Dan Whe, Women’s Buildg before renovatn. As the Bay Area Reporter noted a recent article, Matlovich beme an overnight media sensatn when a photo of him uniform appeared on the ver of Time magaze September 1975 unrneath the headle “I Am A Homosexual” at a time when most LGBT people feared to e out of the closet.

Also disvered wh the photos, some of which show leathermen full regalia givg each other “the look” si long-gone bars, prumably South of Market, were “ephemeral ems related to the gay muny. Among the ephemera available to view onle are an envelope for ntributg to the 1979 Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay Rights, mpaign materials agast the 1978 Briggs iative (which would have banned LGBTQ people and their supporters om teachg public schools California), a flyer for an all-ag lbian piic potluck at Goln Gate Park on Saturday, June 25, 1977, and a flyer om Lbians and Gay Men Agast the Death Penalty proclaimg “Dan Whe Gets Special Treatment” and advertisg an 8 p.

Of urse, that prott on the night of May 21, 1979, beme known as the Whe Night rts, followg the lenient sentencg of Whe, who was nvicted of the 1978 killgs of gay supervisor Harvey Milk and San Francis Mayor Gee Mosne. It noted that his film provid “a rare and need reflectn upon the awakeng gay movement San Francis sce the early 1970s” and that numero PBS statns aired rponse to the LGBTQ muny’s outrage at a ntroversial 1986 Frontle episo about AIDS. The Altman llectn ntas 77 black and whe prts of the Pri paras (lled the San Francis Gay Freedom Day Para 1979 and 1980, and subsequently the San Francis Internatnal Lbian and Gay Freedom Day Para) om 1979 to 1985.

SAN FRANCIS GAY MEN’S CHOS TRI TO CSH THE ‘EVANGELIL DARK WEB’ FOR EXPOSG THEM AS SEX OFFENRS

In the pictur, one n see ntgents om what was then lled the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club (now the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club); the San Francis Gay Freedom Day Marchg and Twirlg Corps (the cy’s official band now known as the San Francis Lbian/Gay Freedom Band); the Goln Gate Bs Associatn; Dyk on Bik; Congregatn Sha’ar Zahav synagogue; and manifold shuttered—yet storied—bathho and bars such as the Boot Rack, The Watergarn San Jose, Bulldog Baths, Club Baths, the I-Beam, and the Troro Transfer south of Market. Part of the crowd at the Civic Center celebratn at the end of the 1977 San Francis Gay Freedom Day Para; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historil Society. On June 27, 1970, a ty band of hippi and “hair fairi” staged San Francis’s first Pri celebratn: a march on Polk Street, followed on the 28th by a “gay-” Goln Gate Park.

—Leo Lrence scribg the arrival of equtrian officers om the San Francis Police Department at the June 28 Gay-In that attracted some 200 people to Speedway Meadows Goln Gate Park.

Inially referred to as the Gay Liberatn March, then as Christopher Street Wt, then as Gay Freedom Day, the celebratn ployed both ivoly and prott hop of iatg a cultural shift how society viewed LGBTQ people. View om the stage ont of San Francis Cy Hall, Gay Freedom Day Para, 1978; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historil Society. No formal statement was issued that first year, but one activist ma clear the purpose of the “betiful and peaceful” event: In the face of opprsn, “homophil gathered pri their inty.

FINAL WORDS: SF GAY MEN’S CHORUS & THE SF SYMPHONY

”, the Para Commtee statement of purpose the published program tabloid distributed at the 1975 Gay Freedom Day Para; Ephemera Collectn, GLBT Historil Society. “A Statement by the Para Commtee: Brothers and Sisters, ” published the program booklet distributed at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Para; Ephemera Collectn, GLBT Historil Society.

Del Mart servg as emcee at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Para wh Harvey Milk seated at left; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historil Society. The para is the Gay muny for all the world to see, and if don’t like what se, n damn well look the other way, bee we are betiful, we are real, and we are not gog away! Safety monor holdg a walkie-talkie at the 1973 Gay Freedom Day Para; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historil Society.

‘WE’RE COMG FOR YOUR CHILDREN’: GAY MEN’S CHOIR DELET ‘TONGUE-IN-CHEEK’ MIC VIO AMID BACKLASH

Organizers distributed photopi of the typed, llaged and hand-drawn documents seen here to gui marchers and sponsors of a 1975 lumn the Bay Area Reporter, muny lear and mera-store owner Harvey Milk (1930–1978) poted to two challeng for Gay Freedom Day anizers: promotg the para through the media and obtag municipal fundg.

By the time Milk beme California’s first openly gay elected official as a member of the San Francis Board of Supervisors 1978, mastream media were creasgly providg advance verage of the event—and that same year, the Para Commtee obtaed s first grant om the cy. One of the origal eight-lor flags flyg at Uned Natns Plaza San Francis durg Gay Freedom Day, 1978; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historil Society. Now an ternatnal symbol of LGBTQ muny, the flag buted wh two exampl flown on the monumental flagpol at Uned Natns Plaza on Gay Freedom Day, June 25, Para 1978; footage by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers, GLBT Historil Society.

Behd the ftivi, another aspect of the Gay Freedom Day Para returned year after year throughout the 1970s: arguments about goals, disagreements on tactics and fights over cln and reprentatn. The headle that starts on the right page ntu on subsequent pag to give a full 1928 quote by early German homosexual-emancipatn lear Kurt Hiller: "The liberatn of homosexuals n only be the work of homosexuals themselv.

CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

Gee Mennhall, the edor of Vector, the magaze of the Society of Individual Rights, published an edorial 1972 stg doubt on the value and anizatnal tegry of what he lled the “Gay Para.

” 1972 Emms Hoe, a “gay swchboard” and service anizatn, sued the Christopher Street Wt Para Commtee for $200 small claims urt, claimg that the proceeds om the year’s event had not been distributed to the cy’s gay social-service anizatns as promised by the mtee. Sprg 1973 Gay Freedom Week chair Steve Gsburg quashed mors about an irreparable rift the Gay Freedom Day anizg mtee, whose members asserted that the San Francis para would be “the largt and only one the Wt. The San Francis Gay Liberatn Alliance prott of the Imperial Court at the 1974 Gay Freedom Day Para; photographer unknown, Steve Gsburg Papers (1990-17), GLBT Historil Society.

THE 10 BEST SAN FRANCIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SAN FRANCIS

The San Francis Gay Liberatn Alliance protted the participatn of the Imperial Court, a charable anizatn of drag performers, that year’s Gay Freedom Day Para. 1976 A aln of anizatns cludg the Gay Lato Alliance, Gay Amerin Indians, Bay Black Cc and Lbian Actn Organizatn voted a rolutn clarg that the Gay Freedom Day Para had lost sight of the te meang of the 1969 Stonewall rts.

The rolutn characterized Stonewall as a moment durg which “Third World Gays, Lbians, transsexuals, and transvt rose up as one and shouted ‘I’m here’ to the fascist forc of opprsn.

GAY MEN'S CHOIR THAT SANG 'WE'RE COMG FOR YOUR CHILDREN' RH TO COVER AFTER PEDOPHILIA ACCATNS

1976 Liane Esstelle, llg herself the “token woman” on the Gay Freedom Day Commtee, clared an open letter to the muny that she refed to be phed around, “not even by a queen.

1978 The Gay Unrground Theater protted the Bay Area Commtee Agast the Briggs Iniative’s efforts to turn the Gay Freedom Day Para to a polil march and rally.

HOW MILARY HISTORY WAS CENTRAL TO SAN FRANCIS BEG THE GAY CAPAL OF THE WORLD

The Commtee was workg agast the Briggs Iniative, a state ballot measure put to the voters November that would have banned gays and lbians and their supporters om workg California public schools. The satiril flyer on the right oppos the fictnal “Larry Rice” of “Gays Opposg Discrimatn” (GOD) who urg para-goers to wear gray bs sus so that gay people will “appear as socially acceptable members of the bourgeoisie.

September 1980Disgntled members of the LGBTQ muny mpaigned agast the move of the Pri “rporate board” to elimate general membership and muny volvement direct cisn-makg about the Gay Freedom Day and Para. A month later, the newly rporated Lbian/Gay Para Commtee, phg for equal reprentatn, replaced the Gay Freedom Day Commtee and drafted bylaws to prerve “grassroots ntrol” of the para.

1980Durg s planng for the 1980 para, the Gay Freedom Day Commtee proposed rolvg disput about who should addrs the crowd at Civic Center by dog away wh all speakers. What remas remarkable is how, even as endured perennial dangers of ternal divisn and external attack, Gay Freedom Day ntued to grow to the huge event that we know as San Francis Pri today.