OASIS - SF's Bt Drag Show, Cabaret & Gay Nightclub Dancg

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• SEARCHG FOR A KIKI: SF'S FIRST BLACK-OWNED GAY BAR
• SF'S FIRST BLACK-OWNED GAY BAR OFFERED REFUGE OM RACISM THE '90S QUEER SCENE
• 5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
• NEW SFMOMA EXHIB REIMAG SAN FRANCIS’S FIRST BLACK-OWNED GAY BAR
• GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• THE 10 BEST SAN FRANCIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SAN FRANCIS
• SAN FRANCIS GAY SNAS

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

Jun 10, 2022Failed to save articlePlease try agaRodney Barte, owner of The New Eagle Creek Saloon (Courty Rodney Barte)When Rodney Barte first moved to San Francis 1969, he noticed that “ wasn’t all rah rah gay pal of the world. ” His experienc wh racism San Francis’s historic gay muny led him to open the New Eagle Creek Saloon, the cy’s first Black-owned gay bar, 1990. Corey Anton Rose: Tell me about your first time gettg adjted to the gay muny here San Francis.

Rodney Barte: When I first moved here, wasn't known as the gay pal of the Uned Stat. They started openg more rtrants … and the more whe gay men that me, the more racist got.

SEARCHG FOR A KIKI: SF'S FIRST BLACK-OWNED GAY BAR

You know, thgs were so bad that they even created racist language to pict if a whe gay guy had Black gay iends or was attracted to Black people. But … when we left the bar, the San Francis Police Department was wag outsi wh paddy wagons and arrtg Black gay people who were standg around talkg, tryg to exchange numbers.

My brothers always knew that I was gay and I never tried to hi , but they got a lot closer and unrstood every aspect of beg gay.

They beme iends wh other gay ctomers and so forth, and they weren't gay. We had women DJs, which they didn't have at that time any of the gay bars. Rodney Barte: One of the thgs that people wanted, they said, 'Rodney, we never had reprentatn the gay pri para.

SF'S FIRST BLACK-OWNED GAY BAR OFFERED REFUGE OM RACISM THE '90S QUEER SCENE

In the 1970s and 1980s, Rodney relled, gay bars were among the least hospable plac San Francis for black people such as himself. There was hardly a place for gay black people to dance, let alone throw a fundraiser for a gay black polil ndidate. Sadie Barte (L) ed her rincy at The Lab to honor San Francis's first black-owned gay bar the Eagle Creek Saloon, which her father Rodney (R) opened 1990.

Sadie was five years old 1990 when her father acquired the bar that for the next three years provid gay people of lor a se of prott, refuge and revelry on Market Street—"a iendly place wh a funky bass for every race, " as s slogan went. Rodney, who moved to San Francis 1969, said he was surprised to fd racism the gay scene to be more pronounced than the cy over all. At the Mhaft, like other gay bars, black people were often asked for three forms of intifitn at the door.

A news em on a whe gay man found strangled to ath at home noted that he was an Eagle Creek regular wh a "sexual preference for black mal, " unsubtly implyg a nnectn.

5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED

A hub of gay rights activism, the bar hosted fundraisers for groups such as Lbians and Gays of Ain Dcent for Democratic Actn, which turn prsured the San Francis Board of Supervisors to pass legislatn fortallg the discrimatory intifitn checks. (Above: A scene om The Tool Box picted a Life magaze story lled "Homosexualy Ameri.

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.

NEW SFMOMA EXHIB REIMAG SAN FRANCIS’S FIRST BLACK-OWNED GAY BAR

)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. :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?

GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

: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.

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

As we s down this year to figure out where to dance the weekend away, let’s take a moment to remember the San Francis gay bars of yore — the foundatns on which our current venu were built, and the plac that went to battle wh the cy so future generatns wouldn’t have to. In s earlit days, the tavern garnered a reputatn for entertag naval men who were on leave and lookg for a good (and very gay! The cisg and htlg that had been happeng the streets for at least a started movg si when the first gay bars — the College Inn and the Pirat’ Cave —arrived 1933 wh the end of prohibn.

SAN FRANCIS GAY SNAS

Dpe beg a relative lateer to the downtown gay scene (which was nicknamed “the Meat Rack, ” cintally), the Silver Rail was a notor dive om day one. In 1952, a man named Jimmie Taranto succsfully extorted money om the bar manager exchange for not reportg the rampant homosexual activy takg place the jot. In the end, wasn’t legal scty that put an end to Fe-Be’s; was the toll of the AIDs epimic on San Francis’s gay muny.

When Geist and Kissger first opened the bar, they hired artist Mike Caffee to make them a versn of Michaelangelo’s famo sculpture, transformed to a gay biker. Once scribed by Allen Gsberg as the “greatt gay bar Ameri, ” the Black Cat Café started life 1933 as a hangout for bohemians, jt doors away om where the Transameri Pyramid currently stands.

In the early ’40s, when the venue was taken over by Sol Stouman, the Black Cat began fearlsly embracg all thgs gay. Gsberg once mented: “It was totally open … Everybody went there, heterosexual and homosexual … All the gay screamg queens would e, the heterosexual gray flannel su typ, longshoremen. ” When Stouman had his liquor license fely revoked 1949 bee “persons of known homosexual tennci patronized said premis and ed said premis as a meetg place, ” Stouman fought back — all the way to California’s Supreme Court.