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

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• GAY SAN FRANCIS
• SAN FRANCIS GAY SNAS
• GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• THE 10 BEST SAN FRANCIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SAN FRANCIS
• SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

The Castro, an endurg symbol of LGBTQ+ history, stands as Ameri's pneerg gayborhood and headquarters of the gay liberatn movement post-Stonewall. (Above: A scene om The Tool Box picted a Life magaze story lled "Homosexualy Ameri.

GAY SAN FRANCIS

")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!

SAN FRANCIS GAY SNAS

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.

GAY 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?

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

(They don't ll the 'gay pal of the world' for nothg. So whether you're here June or not, honor SF's storied gay history at the mms, bars and cultural landmarks.

SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS

Nowadays, s gay populatn per pa is one of the hight the world.

San Francis has long been synonymo wh the gay muny and the LGBT movement at large. It’s fair to say that while San Francis was beg a bean of hope for gay men and women around the world – the policy of the Uned Stat ernment and s treatment of LGBT cizens (particularly the stigma surroundg the HIV/AIDS crisis) was everythg but supportive and welg to the muny.

The Stonewall Rts of 1969, while geographilly distant, voked a surge anizatns for the gay muny. In the subsequent years – bars, galleri, cultural tablishments and social and cultural bonds were cemented to make San Franciso one of the homosexual epicenters of the world.

As the first openly gay man to be elected to public office the state of California – his robt, hands-on mpaigng lead to him beg, spe an ially osty receptn, wily accepted by the public.

The gay history of San Francis is embedd to s history still prent both physilly and atmospherilly and enjoyed by s LGBT rints and all those who choose to vis.