San Francis Gay Bars : The Official San Francis Gui

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.

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

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). 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.

GAY SAN FRANCIS

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. 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 GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS

)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.

SAN FRANCIS GAY RTRANTS

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. :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.

GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

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.