San Francis Rtrants Gay Gui│misterb&b

Contents:

• UNVERG GAY HISTORY SAN FRANCIS
• GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND
• GAY SAN FRANCIS
• THE GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS
• SAN FRANCIS GAY RTRANTS
• GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

UNVERG GAY HISTORY SAN FRANCIS

“This clud workg wh gays, sex workers, ‘young chickens, ’ youth, hippi, gangs, dg addicts, and others. ) Anti-black discrimatn exists the gay muny and the Castro.

This famo bar was a regular for gay men of lor who didn’t feel wele at other predomately whe clubs. 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).

GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND

Tw Peaks Tavern go down history as the first gay bar Ameri wh wdows, meang patrons weren’t hidn om outsi view. The wdows allowed gays and lbians to sip cktails whout shame while lettg the sunshe and nightlife vibe . G., the Dghters of Bilis and the Mattache Society) were jt begng, homosexualy was still registered as a pathology by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn.

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

(Above: A scene om The Tool Box picted a Life magaze story lled "Homosexualy Ameri. ")We don't give gay bars the rpect they serve.

GAY SAN FRANCIS

After several proment bars San Francis started shutterg -- victims of Manhunt and Grdr and time -- I started mappg a cy's worth of shuttered gay bars. Cheers, Dash (1908), 547 Pacific:San Francis may have had gay bars before the The Dash, but none were as notor. Focch's (1936), 506 Broadway:The drag show at Focch's was more of a tourist draw than an hont-to-goodns gay club, but helped brg gay culture -- and drag culture -- to the mastream spotlight.

)The Black Cat (1951), 710 Montgomery:"There's nothg wrong wh beg gay -- the crime is gettg ught!

I951, after two years of police harassment, owner Sol Stouman took the police to the California Supreme Court, and argued that a bar uld not be shut down jt bee gay men ngregated there. He prevailed, providg stenance to the growg homophile Handle Bar (1960), California and Hy:Until 1960, most gay bars were expected to pay brib to police officers for 'protectn' om raids. But 1960, the "gay-ola" sndal exposg such brib beme a media sensatn, and began a discsn about the rights of gays to equal protectns unr the Q (1962), Polk St.

THE GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS

:In rponse to police harassment, San Francis bar owners formed the Tavern Guild -- the first gay bs associatn the Uned Stat -- at the Suzy-Q bar on Polk Street. Members set up a phone-tree to warn each other of impendg raids, set up relief funds and raised money for homophile groups like the Dghters of Bilis, the Mattache Society and the Not? :In 1964, Life magaze featured a special report lled "Homosexualy Ameri.

One of the first mastream discsns of S&M, the article tablished San Francis the mds of middle Ameri (and lns of gay men) as a place of sexual diversy and tolerance. :The Stud helped cubate San Francis's gay hippie movement -- even Janis Jopl would e when she was town -- and provid an alternative to sweater queens and htlers. Wdows were smashed, police were fought off for hours and a muny showed s strength, providg a flashpot for gay and trans anizg on the Wt Coast: In 's wake a work of social, polil and LGBT-centric medil groups Hall (1971), 482 Castro:The origal Toad Hall -- a bar of the same name recently opened a nearby space -- is often creded wh lnchg the Castro as a gay district.

One of the first bars to chew a jebox favor of a DJ, Toad Hall ma the sleepy Eureka Valley a statn for gay men on the weekends, and soon bs owners and homebuyers saw the potential for a real neighborhood where gays uld live Peaks Tavern (1972), 401 Castro:Prr to Tw Peaks, gay bars were secretive affairs wh eher black-out wdows or no wdows at all. While the relaxatn rooms, snas and a seclud ck for nu sunbathg were all gone, somehow the bathhoe’s spir liv Flaherty for The New York TimWhen one thks of gay San Francis, this isn’t ually what to md.

SAN FRANCIS GAY RTRANTS

But the Natnal Park Service has started a lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr history iative, mappg out dozens of hidn gems like Osento San Francis and other plac wh unacknowledged ti to gay culture. I cid to e the Natnal Park Service survey map — and a gui — to go search of the and other nearly visible landmarks to get a better unrstandg of the Bay Area’s unherald gay tour started at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front Natnal Historil Park Richmond, Calif., on the eastern shore of San Francis Bay.

The shift was so formative for the gay muny that the mm is seekg to clu lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr stori permanent exhibn mak clear that while the fense dtry employed women huge numbers — 12 ln 1941 and 18 ln by 1944 — there were still others whose liv were siarly shiftg amid war and discrimatn. ’ ”The next morng, I was joed by Donna Grav, a public historian who, together wh her lleague Shayne Watson, has studied the Bay Area’s gay historic s and has worked wh the Park Service sce 1999. She offered to gui me around the Tenrlo and peel back the layers, as she put , of the district’s rich gay Grav and I head for the Tenrlo, which today has a smatterg of attractively refurbished buildgs but mostly is not easy on the ey.

Built around 1911 and listed today on the Natnal Register of Historic Plac, the Ambassador was managed by Henry Wilson, a lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr activist, om 1978 until 1996, when he left to re for his dyg parents. In the early 1960s, when he was Gli’s pastor, he was a pivotal figure llg for cln and tolerance, and he still is; he helped form the Council on Relign and the Homosexual, a muny anizatn, and his work has been praised by Maya Angelou and Bill Clton. One display foc on the Compton’s Cafeteria rts, placg the Tenrlo at the epicenter of San Francis’s nascent gay rights sendg me off to Valencia Street, Ms.

GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn TR, Page 5 of the New York edn wh the headle: Unverg Gay History San Francis. Back at the Jam and Julia Show, Jam tak Julia to a gay bar the Missn.

Remember, Julia Child exhibed a fair amount of homophobia  her lifetime before seemg to have a change of heart the 1980s durg the AIDS crisis.

A team of historians, partnership wh the GLBT Historil Society, is velopg a cywi historic ntext statement to document lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer (LGBTQ) history San Francis. Them to be addrsed will clu same-sex social and sexual relatns the 19th century; the fluence of 1920s bohemian culture; the tablishment of social gatherg plac 1933 after the repeal of Prohibn; the effects of World War II; police harassment, bar raids, lawsus and the nsequential formatn of gay and lbian rights anizatns the 1950s; formatn and tablishment of var LGBTQ muni neighborhoods throughout the cy; LGBTQ rights movements the 1970s; and the AIDS crisis the 1980s.