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
• GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• SF GAY HISTORY
• BT GAY & LBIAN BARS IN SAN FRANCIS
• BEHOLD: A MAP OF SAN FRANCIS'S LOST GAY BARS
• GAY SAN FRANCIS

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!

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

GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

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.

GAY BARS 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.

SF GAY HISTORY

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. Tripadvisor performs checks on historic venue, the first gay bar SF that had wdows so folks uld look om the street.

BT GAY & LBIAN BARS IN SAN FRANCIS

Tripadvisor performs checks on TSan Francis, CA354 ntributnsThe Pilsner is a tried and te sual gay bar that offers iendly service.

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.

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

Gay Bars.

GAY SAN FRANCIS

It’s not necsarily a te queer bar but a genuely mixed environment whose format attracts a large gay followg. Black Cat CafeIt wasn’t until after World War II, when gay men and lbians swarmed San Francis after service the Pacific, that the Black Cat assumed a “gayer” personaly. The poet Allen Gsburg, who knew the ’50s, scribed as an enormo bar wh a honky-tonk piano that “everyone” went to: “All the gay screamg queens would e, the heterosexual gray flannel su typ, longshoremen.

” At a time when homophile anizatns like the Mattache Society were largely nciliatory to the police and to cy officials, the Black Cat was noteworthy as a se of ristance.

31, 1963, a dozen placloth policemen observed the New Year’s ftivi si the Black Cat, a gay bar Los Angel’ Silver Lake neighborhood. Sixteen patrons were arrted si the Black Cat, and police chased two more men to New Fac, another gay bar nearby. An inic fern bar on Divisaro, which for about 30 years was a neighborhood gay bar before beg more of a straight-people hang the last , has closed followg the ath of s longtime owner.

Its heyday as a gay fern bar the early 1970's, after openg around 1968, gave way to perds of both more preppy, and more leather-y clientele, as Ellis told the Bay Area Reporter back 1989. The Ln Pub was not alone this neighborhood as a gay bar, bee the Alamo Square and Upper Fillmore areas long had a gay enclave all their own and a no of homo hangouts anchored by this and the nearby Alta Plaza (2301 Fillmore), which changed hands 1999 and soon turned to a noodle bar, and now an Indian rtrant.

Last year the BAR spoke to a uple of longtime gay rints who equented both bars, as well as JJ's Piano Bar, which opened 1987. But most of the bars' longtime clientele would not live to see the new lennium, and by around 2005 The Ln Pub was pretty much domated by young straight people, spe still beg gay-owned. As has been talked about a lot the last several years, neighborhood gay bars all over the cy, outsi the Castro and SoMa, have died off for a variety of reasons — both bee of real tate prsur, dwdlg crowds, and the rise of cellphone apps that negate the need for neighborhood bars as pickup spots.