7 openly gay lears have served as heads of state. Latvian print Edgars Rkēvičs is the latt

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• 5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
• THE GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

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

GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

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.

5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED

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? :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.

THE GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS

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.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

San Francis gay bars are a popular statn for not only the cy’s gay men, but for straight men and women terted havg a “gay old time”. 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.

While not exclive any sense, some gay bars are signated for only certa typ of patrons (i. 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!

— a hotbed of gay socializg. Was, on a nightly basis, awash wh gay men lookg to party.

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. 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. 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.