10 Castro Plac That Used to be Gay Bars – SF Gay History

Contents:

• TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS THE CASTRO (SAN FRANCIS)GAY CLUBS & BARS THE CASTRO
• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• SF GAY HISTORY
• SF GAY HISTORY
• THE CASTRO, SAN FRANCIS GAY DISTRICT
• SF GAY HISTORY
• GAY MARSEILLE
• MARSEILLE GAY MAP
• A GAY GUI TO THE CASTRO

TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS THE CASTRO (SAN FRANCIS)GAY CLUBS & BARS THE CASTRO

6 plac sorted by traveler favorWhat travelers are saygAn historic venue, the first gay bar SF that had wdows so folks uld look om the street.

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

But that tty-soundg nickname— was the first gay bar San Francis to have plate-glass wdows that let passersby see who’s si, and the patrons skew silver—is one the regulars willgly share.

SF GAY HISTORY

) Whether ’s Cole Porter standards, a jazz night, or a te sg-along, this curtaed, Art De-accented bar is where tried-and-te Friends of Dorothy n be spac have been vanishg for a long time, but few subspeci are rarer than the neighborhood gay bar.

A gay sports bar was practilly a ntradictn terms when Hi Tops opened the Castro nearly a ago, but no one should doubt the near-universal appeal of rn dogs and a pork-chop-on-a-stick. If you’ve hung out the Castro long enough, your jar has probably accumulated more than a few drk tokens om here, a gay bar? Well, ’s neher and both: a majory Irish-owned, majory LGBTQ-owned venue named for a gay Irish humanarian.

Sectn at a mic ftival, and a queer-iendly ambiance all nspire to make this Missn spot among the most hospable bars the Street has all but been annexed to the Mara, but once upon a time, there was a htler-filled gayborhood lled Polk Gulch—of which the Cch is the sole survivor. A rpeted dive narrow enough that you n touch the bar wh one hand and the oppose wall wh the other, ’s home to the Hot Boxxx Girls, a troupe of olr drag performers who, as well as the Tubteak Connectn, DJ B Statn John’s re-created dis and SF’s longt-nng gay party. As early as the Barbary Coast days, the cy has also been known to be famoly gay.

SF GAY HISTORY

Operated by Harvey Milk om 1972 to 1978, the store beme the center of the neighborhood's growg gay muny.

Nurse and early AIDS activist Bobbi Campbell ed the ont wdow of this pharmacy to post a flyer 1981 warng the muny of "Gay Cancer”—bee neher the lol nor natnal ernment would sound the alarm—showg photos of lns ed by Kaposi sara (the rare ncer was found to be a rult of HIV's toll on the immune system). This famo bar was a regular for gay men of lor who didn't feel wele at other predomately whe clubs. The baret ran for a om 1988 to 1998 as a platform for ic voic, drag shows, and activist baret the gay muny.

The bar was a favore of Harvey Milk, who praised as “a place where the gay muny uld meet and feel safe and secure. Rough, sual, and sparsely rated, the first gay bar the Castro opened pre-Stonewall way back 1963. Over the next few s, approximately 30 more gay bars and shops opened around the Mule.

THE CASTRO, SAN FRANCIS GAY DISTRICT

Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office, and fought tirelsly for the rights of mori San Francis and beyond. This powerful memorial honors the thoands of persecuted homosexuals Nazi Germany durg the Holot.

SF GAY HISTORY

It was the first gay bar the neighborhood to allow same-sex dancg—at least up until the police noticed they didn’t have the required dance perm.

Matlovich, a Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, challenged the ban on gays the ary when he me out on the ver of the 1975 TIME Magaze unr the headle “I am a homosexual”.

GAY MARSEILLE

G., the Dghters of Bilis and the Mattache Society) were jt begng, homosexualy was still registered as a pathology by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn.

MARSEILLE GAY MAP

Uncle Donald served the gay muny on Castro Street by curatg lists of events, bars, and even . The olst gay bar the Castro, the MISSOURI MULE (now JET) on Market, dat back to 1963.

This data was culled om var sourc cludg ads lol gay magaz and newspapers and the archiv of the GAY AND LESBIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. San Francis’s Castro District is currently home to 20 gay bars – more or ls, pendg how you fe the parameters of the Castro, or even how you fe “bar, ” much ls “gay bar. But at the peak of the Castro’s glory gay days, there were even more.

A GAY GUI TO THE CASTRO

Here are ten lotns the Castro (om Castro Street down Market to Church Street) that ed to be gay bars but aren’t even bars any longer. The spot briefly beme a gay bar lled Cy Dump 1973 before aga beg the Midnight Sun om 1974 to 1981.

In 1981, the same year that MTV premiered, they took over an old plumbg warehoe around the rner at 4067 18th Street, where beme the cy’s (and perhaps the natn’s) first gay vio bar. In 1971, a street-level bar at 482 Castro beme Toad Hall, a bar for gay hippi that played mic wh refully prepared mixed tap at a time when most bars still ed jebox. The owners origally wanted to ll the Iron Nun, but the landlord, though willg to rent to gays, was a vout Catholic who didn’t want a blasphemo name.

In the 1950s, a straight bar at 469 Castro Street — Club Unique — proudly lled self “the gayt spot town! ” Years later, fally did bee a gay bar when beme the aptly-named Nothg Special 1972.