The 1970s – SF Gay History

Contents:

• GAY SAN FRANCIS (1970)
• GAY SAN ANCIS 1970S STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• GAY SAN FRANCIS: LOST FILM, 1965-1970
• BEHOLD: A MAP OF SAN FRANCIS'S LOST GAY BARS
• SF GAY HISTORY
• GAY SAN FRANCIS
• EVERY SF PRI THEME SCE THE FIRST-EVER GAY FREEDOM DAY 1970

GAY SAN FRANCIS (1970)

Shot between 1965-1970, Gay San Francis featur a llectn of credible footage of San Francis’s thrivg LGBTQ culture, wh a foc on the Tenrlo, San Francis’s first queer neighborhood. Addison Gallery of Amerin Art, Phillips Amy, Andover, MassachettsPictured: Hal Fischer, Signifiers for a Male Rponse om Gay Semtics, 1977. The California Supreme Court l that gays have the right to assemble, leadg to a proliferatn of gay bars and eventually the formatn of social and polil groups San Francis’s gay muny.

GAY SAN ANCIS 1970S STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

This photo is of the sprawlg La Galleria ndomiums on the rner of Bh and Taylor streets on Thursday June 20, 2013, the se of the raid at the gay nightclub. Entertaer and drag queen Jose Sarria ns for San Francis supervisor, the first openly gay ndidate to n for public office the Uned Stat.

A group march down Polk Street to Cy Hall San Francis's first gay rights march. Harvey Milk is sworn to the San Francis Board of Supervisors beg the first openly gay cy official California history. Supreme Court l 5-4 that gays and lbians have the nstutnal right to marry their chosen partner.

GAY SAN FRANCIS: LOST FILM, 1965-1970

“They are maly important for their documentatn of San Francis’s gay muny and for recent shots of San Francis which the library llectns lack. 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.

BEHOLD: A MAP OF SAN FRANCIS'S LOST GAY BARS

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.

SF GAY HISTORY

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.

“It’s very tertg—three gay photographers the Bay Area the 1970s and 1980s, ” Bersch add. On December 1, the Tenrlo Mm will screen a piece of redisvered history: Gay San Francis by Jonathan Raymond, a prevly lost documentary pictg queer life San Francis five s ago. Shot between 1965-1970, Gay San Francis featur a llectn of credible footage of San Francis’s thrivg LGBTQ culture, wh a foc on the Tenrlo, San Francis’s first queer neighborhood.

Scen om gay bars are tercut wh fascatg terviews featurg gay men, lbians, and trans women discsg issu om harassment to sex to job secury. The film also clus a not-to-be missed Halloween drag show at On The Levee, one of SF’s many historic gay bars that closed ’s doors long ago.

GAY SAN FRANCIS

Filmmakers San Stryker and Victor Silverman unearthed this film while rearchg their Emmy-wng documentary Screamg Queens: The Rt at Compton's Cafeteria, which clud footage om Gay San Francis. Rare photos of backstage drsg rooms, streetsp, legendary clubs, and daily hangouts together form a kaleispic view, showsg the diversy and energy that the neighborhood is still known for Tenrlo is where San Francis keeps s secrets – home to unrground gay bars, illic nightclubs, and the re of the vice dtry.

EVERY SF PRI THEME SCE THE FIRST-EVER GAY FREEDOM DAY 1970

Last month we brought you a roundup of ads om funct gay bath ho town, and about a year ago we showed you a semi-current map of the dozen gay bars that rema the Castro. But back the days before the ter and Grdr, there were two or three tim more bars for the homosexual set sttered around town than there are now. Well, filmmaker and gay historian (and GayPornBlog-ger — lk NSFW) Mike Stabile has done a solid and created a Google map verg any and every historic gay and lbian bar he uld fd an addrs for.

Two gay bars have closed already this year, Marlena's and Kok (formerly My Place), and both are beg mixed bars the future, jt the tert of foot traffic. See the map below, and as Stabile wr for the Pop-Up Mm of Queer History, the hand-drawn ads and matchbooks om this other era of gay bar culture reflects two generatns of gay men existg San Francis the 1970s. " As source material, he ed ads om vtage gay magaz like Vector and After Dark, and there's also a PDF list that's been kept on the webse of the Cch Saloon, last revised 1996, that has some 700 bar nam on , most of them wh addrs.