The Gay Traveler’s Gui To San Francis - Gayety

Contents:

• UNVERG GAY HISTORY SAN FRANCIS
• THE GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS
• 5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• LOOKBACK: WHAT GAY LIFE WAS LIKE SAN FRANCIS 1976
• GAY SAN FRANCIS: LOST FILM, 1965-1970
• SF GAY HISTORY

UNVERG GAY HISTORY SAN FRANCIS

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.

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. While the relaxatn rooms, snas and a seclud ck for nu sunbathg were all gone, somehow the bathhoe’s spir liv Flaherty for The New York TimWhen one thks of gay San Francis, this isn’t ually what to md.

THE GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS

But the Natnal Park Service has started a lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr history iative, mappg out dozens of hidn gems like Osento San Francis and other plac wh unacknowledged ti to gay culture.

I cid to e the Natnal Park Service survey map — and a gui — to go search of the and other nearly visible landmarks to get a better unrstandg of the Bay Area’s unherald gay tour started at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front Natnal Historil Park Richmond, Calif., on the eastern shore of San Francis Bay. The shift was so formative for the gay muny that the mm is seekg to clu lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr stori permanent exhibn mak clear that while the fense dtry employed women huge numbers — 12 ln 1941 and 18 ln by 1944 — there were still others whose liv were siarly shiftg amid war and discrimatn.

’ ”The next morng, I was joed by Donna Grav, a public historian who, together wh her lleague Shayne Watson, has studied the Bay Area’s gay historic s and has worked wh the Park Service sce 1999. She offered to gui me around the Tenrlo and peel back the layers, as she put , of the district’s rich gay Grav and I head for the Tenrlo, which today has a smatterg of attractively refurbished buildgs but mostly is not easy on the ey.

5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED

Built around 1911 and listed today on the Natnal Register of Historic Plac, the Ambassador was managed by Henry Wilson, a lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr activist, om 1978 until 1996, when he left to re for his dyg parents. In the early 1960s, when he was Gli’s pastor, he was a pivotal figure llg for cln and tolerance, and he still is; he helped form the Council on Relign and the Homosexual, a muny anizatn, and his work has been praised by Maya Angelou and Bill Clton.

One display foc on the Compton’s Cafeteria rts, placg the Tenrlo at the epicenter of San Francis’s nascent gay rights sendg me off to Valencia Street, Ms. 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.

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.

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

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.

LOOKBACK: WHAT GAY LIFE WAS LIKE SAN FRANCIS 1976

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. ” 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.

GAY SAN FRANCIS: LOST FILM, 1965-1970

Latvia swore the first openly gay print of a Baltic natn Rkēvičs, who sce 2011 was the untry’s foreign mister, was elected by Parliament May after Print Egils Levs did not seek re-electn. She is thought to be the first openly gay prime mister the was an active unnist her nearly 10 years workg as a flight attendant, acrdg to the Council of Women World Lears, a work of female heads of state. ”Xavier Bettel Prime Mister of Luxembourg (2013-prent)Luxembourg Prime Mister Xavier Bettel at a news nference Belgra, Serbia, on July Vojovic / APBettel was first elected prime mister of Luxembourg 2013, and 2018 he beme the first openly gay prime mister the world to be re-elected for a send marriage beme legal Luxembourg 2015, and the same year Bettel beme the first servg European Unn lear to marry a same-sex partner, the BBC recently cricized a Hungarian law that bans school tnal materials and TV shows for people unr 18 that are emed to promote LGBTQ ntent, Rters reported.

“To be natnally blamed, to be nsired as not normal, to be nsired as a danger for young people — ’s not realizg that beg gay is not a choice, ” Bettel said, acrdg to Rters. “Hopefully this will blow over three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay mister, ” she told The Associated Prs at the Varadkar Prime Mister of Ireland (2017-20, 2022-prent)Irish Prime Mister Leo Varadkar Bssels on June 30.

SF GAY HISTORY

From 1942 to 1943, ary patrols known as the San Francis Moral Drive targeted and raid the gay bars of San Francis, claimg to be protectg servicemen om homosexuals. However, by the end of the 1940s, the gay bar scene was growg and queer bars beme not only a safe space for gay and lbian people, but also a statn for visors to the cy, who watched performanc and mgled wh the lols. Many beat poets, cludg those who were openly gay such as Allen Gsberg, me to San Francis due to the more permissive environment and aligned themselv wh LGBTQ+ groups.

The Dghters of Bilis, found 1955, was the first lbian-centred anisatn the USA, while the Mattache Society, one of the earlit gay rights anizatns the USA, beme headquartered San Francis 1956.