THE 10 BEST San Francis Gay Clubs & Bars (Updated 2023)

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• THE 10 BEST SAN FRANCIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SAN FRANCIS
• 5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
• GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• BEHOLD: A MAP OF SAN FRANCIS'S LOST GAY BARS
• 7 BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• THE STUD, SAN FRANCIS'S OLST GAY BAR, IS CLOSG S DOORS DUE TO THE RONAVIS PANMIC
• SF GAY HISTORY
• GALLERY: SAN FRANCIS GAY BATHHOE HISTORY, IN FLIERS [NSFW]
• HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

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. 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.

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

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? 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.

5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED

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. 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. ) 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.

GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

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. 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.

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

San Francis – home of the untry's first openly gay elected official (Harvey Milk), birthplace of the rabow flag, the first cy the Uned Stat to legalize gay marriage and host of the bt damn Pri para  the untry—remas a major LGBTQ+ epicenter.

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

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.

7 BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

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. 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.

THE STUD, SAN FRANCIS'S OLST GAY BAR, IS CLOSG S DOORS DUE TO THE RONAVIS PANMIC

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.

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.

SF GAY HISTORY

” 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. A number of people were arrted [at the Black Cat], some for vagrancy and some bee they ‘monstrated homosexual actns, ’ but there was no showg that any of those arrted were nvicted. There was no evince of any illegal or immoral nduct on the premis … The patronage of a public rtrant and bar by homosexuals … whout proof of the missn of illegal or immoral acts on the premis … is not sufficient to show a vlatn.

What was, until 2018, San Francis’s olst ntuoly survivg gay bar had ma through Prohibn, anti-LGBTQ+ legislatn and the AIDs crisis — an astonishg n that end unceremonly after a simple liquor license transfer. The cy’s gay bars feature large, outdoor celebratns (not unlike a gay pri para) that attract people of all strip that wish to be entertaed by a group of eclectic and unique sgers and dancers.

Some beloved stutns have transformed to pricey cktail loung, many of the newer venu might better be scribed as “post-gay, ” and women-lovg women arguably have fewer plac than ever.

GALLERY: SAN FRANCIS GAY BATHHOE HISTORY, IN FLIERS [NSFW]

MORE INFO →KNOWN FORcraft beersgl scenegay sceneAunt Charlie's LoungeProbably the most lurid gay bar San Francsi, Aunt Charlie’s Lounge ss at one of the gngit tersectns the Tenrlo—and that’s really sayg somethg. Thursday nights brg the Tubteak Connectn, DJ B Statn John’s unique Hi-NRG dance party that troduc young gays to the dis era’s ept cuts, while Fridays and Saturdays are given over to the Hot Boxxx Girls, a drag revue popular among hip lols and bewilred tourists alike. L for the trough ural are pecially long at Cubke, the monthly no-ver party wh furry boys, vodka-soaked gummy bears and ee junk INFO →KNOWN FORday drkgoutdoor / patgay sceneMartuni'sThe shockg ath of piano bars and barets San Francis shows how much thgs have changed sce the 1960s, but Judy and Liza’s fan base will always have a home Martuni’s, a more-than-slightly mp venue wh “Gre-De” accents.

INFO →KNOWN FORday drkgdancggay scenedragThe CchWhile Polk Gulch was once a seedy strip of male prostut, the Rsian Hill of today is not typilly a gay statn. Furry parti, goth nights and dis le the other INFO →KNOWN FORdancglive micTw Peaks TavernThe first gay bar to feature plate-glass wdows, Tw Peaks Tavern is a betiful, historic place.

It’s not cheap, mic might not always be playg and the rtroom smells like the oven om the adjacent Hot Cookie; but this landmarked bar is a natnal treasure, rehgly unlike the bastns of EDM found elsewhere the INFO →KNOWN FORhistoriclow we markupsWheHorse BarFor all the queers fleeg San Francis for the more affordable East Bay, Oakland remas surprisgly bereft of a gay scene. 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. 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.

HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY

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. 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).