Gay Nightlife San Diego: Bars, Clubs, & More

Contents:

• THE 5 BEST SAN DIEGO GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SAN DIEGO
• GAY NIGHTLIFE SAN DIEGO: BARS, CLUBS, & MORE
• GAY SAN DIEGO TRAVEL GUI
• SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY
• SD CONFINTIAL: INSI A LOST GAY PAST OF ‘FAIRY DIV,’ RAIDS AND A FALLEN ADMIRAL
• SAN DIEGO’S GAY BAR HISTORY: REFLECTNS ON COMMUNY HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROCS
• SAN DIEGO GAY MAP
• SAN DIEGO GAY SNAS
• SAN DIEGO GAY DISTRICT: HILLCRT
• SAN DIEGO GAY DANCE CLUBS
• MOVG TO LGBT SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

THE 5 BEST SAN DIEGO GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SAN DIEGO

ClubFly provis a gay bar, club, nightlife, and GLBT center mapper for San Diego, California and the rt of the US filtered by ary San Diego gay bars and clubs are mapped the gayborhood wh an overview, tags, ntact tails, webse, social media lks, trans/walkg directns, and drivg directns. 9 plac sorted by traveler favorGay Bars • Dance Clubs & DissGay Bars • Dance Clubs & DissWhat travelers are saygDoug MCalgary, Canada579 ntributnsWish we had found Mo’s earlier our trip. Consired the world's first and only gay-owned brewery, 's a great spot to grab a pizza or two and make iends at a munal table, while enjoyg the many beers on tap.

The San Diego gay nightlife scene manag that rare balance between beg remarkably iendly and also rife wh betiful people—'s pretty much a reflectn of this sunny Southern California cy. Martis Above Fourth: San Diego's favore gay baret, Martis featur some tremendoly talented performers—not jt piano and sgg, but edy, magic, and more. Number One Fifth Avenue: A great all-around neighborhood gay bar, balanc an timate ambiance and iendly atmosphere whout the tired, divey feel that sometim domat smaller loung.

GAY NIGHTLIFE SAN DIEGO: BARS, CLUBS, & MORE

Park & Rec: Set the space formerly occupied by the popular gay bar Bourbon Street, this is an expansive nightspot and rtrant that still draws plenty of LGBT folks and open-md revelers. SRO Lounge: Known for s great jebox, long history the neighborhood, and a lotn that's much closer to downtown than the gay bars Hillcrt, the SRO has a strong followg among drag queens and their fans, but all kds tend to drop by here, albe not necsarily large numbers. Rich's: As San Diego's five gay warehoe-style dis, this club offers a good-sized space wh an dtrial, circu-style vibe, and mic supplied by some of Southern California's most illtr DJs.

The Brass Rail: The longt-nng gay bar San Diego, the Brass Rail serv cred for always fdg new ways to revent self for the current tim. Overall, San Diego is a welg and open-md cy, but you'll fd the heart of the cy's gay nightlife scene Hillcrt specifilly.

"The birthplace of California, " Gay San Diego is the first lotn European explorers land when visg the Wt Coast for the first time. Vised Augt 2018Traveled soloWrten September 23, 2018FerporroLondon, Uned Kgdom21 ntributnsGood ambiance and micMy hband and I went on Sunday after dner to check the gay area and heard about this club before. Vised October 2017Traveled as a upleWrten October 16, 2017Jeremy044Los Angel, California398 ntributnsA great gatherg of gay men out to dance and have fun!

GAY SAN DIEGO TRAVEL GUI

Read our transparency report to learn 2017 • CouplMy hband and I went on Sunday after dner to check the gay area and heard about this club before. The new documentary San Diego's Gay Bar History surveys some of the 135 bars that have existed the cy and chronicl the var aspects of the LGBTQ muny that have grown wh them.

The earlit example of a gay bar San Diego me the 1957, when straight ally Lou Arko bought the popular lunch club of the 1930's, the Brass Rail, and extend to a meetg spot for gay people at post-World War II era herald the openg of many more bars, terg to the pennt men and women who had moved to the btlg port cy for ary jobs. Durg this time, when homosexualy was crimalized and was even agast the law for two men to dance together, the bars provid a meetg place for LGBTQ people who were otherwise isolated. The Ball Exprs, a massive club hoed an airplane hangar, drew crowds of a thoand people gathered for acts such as Barbara Cook, Gloria Gaynor, and Eartha Kt.

WCPC also hosted some of San Diego's first Pri events, but they quickly outgrew the AIDS began vastatg the gay muny the '80s, the bars beme the plac for folks to gather, grieve, and raise money for men dyg om the disease.

SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY

Interviewe cred lbians for steppg up to re for gay men when nurs wouldn't touch or feed their patients and for donatg blood bee gay men weren't allowed to do so.

Gay bars provi a sanctuary for people to really be themselv, people who didn't intify as male or female, or were still qutng.

" Whatever your orientatn or lotn, San Diego's Gay Bar History will make you want to n out to your neart gay bar and nnect wh our muny like never before. On KPBS TV / Stream now wh the PBS AppSce WWII, no ls than 135 gay bars have operated San Diego, and provid sanctuary for GLBT people to disver themselv and form muny.

SD CONFINTIAL: INSI A LOST GAY PAST OF ‘FAIRY DIV,’ RAIDS AND A FALLEN ADMIRAL

“San Diego's Gay Bar History” exam the rol bars have played across three major time perds: after WWII until the birth of the morn gay rights movement 1969; durg the 1970s and until the onset of HIV 1981; durg the AIDS epimic (1981-1995), and beyond.

Through archival photographs, historic footage, and terviews wh bar owners, bartenrs and proment muny members, this documentary provis a glimpse to the rich history of San Diego's gay history and culture.

SAN DIEGO’S GAY BAR HISTORY: REFLECTNS ON COMMUNY HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROCS

Stream your favore PBS shows, create the perfect watchlist, nnect wh your lol statn, and more — anywhere you The Conversatn: "San Diego's Gay Bar History" is on Facebook. In 1952, the thors of an overheated btseller lled “USA Confintial” promised to blow the lid off the natn’s praved triumvirate of Communists, labor unns and gays. As the annual LGBT pri para and ftival approach this weekend, here are five surprisg facts about San Diego’s gay world before the Stonewall uprisg, the seri of New York Cy protts 1969 that birthed the morn fight for LGBT rights.

The well-rpected 1990 book “Comg Out Unr Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women World War II” says so-lled “rough bars” San Diego, like Blue Jacket and Bradley’s, “tered to enlisted men of many rac, gay civilians and ‘tra’ (enlisted men and workg-class civilian men willg to go wh gay men).

SAN DIEGO GAY MAP

San Diego’s populatn explod durg and after World War II, and the cy’s gay populatn — both men and women — grew wh the fense dtry boom. In “Comg Out Unr Fire, ” a veteran scrib gog to yeoman school at the San Diego Naval Trag Statn and fdg mararie wh other gay sailors.

Whatever the se, many of them chose to stay San Diego, part of a wave of service members who transformed ci like San Francis, New York Cy and Los Angel to even bigger hot spots of gay culture.

“World War II may be nsired the birth moment of morn gay and lbian history, ” wre two historians the new troductn to “Comg Out Unr Fire. As thor Lillian Farman chronicl her 2015 book “The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle, ” big nam the lol civic world spoke Hooper’s fense at his urt martial, and a psychiatrist said he wasn’t gay.

SAN DIEGO GAY SNAS

But an unintified man told the San Diego Rear 1999 that an timated 30-50 gay bars me and went downtown, often fallg victim to vice raids. In 1951, a surprisg state Supreme Court cisn allowed gay bars to legally exist, although they had to be reful about “illegal or immoral nduct. In 1950s Los Angel, the owner of a gay bar adored her patrons so much that she even wrote a recently redisvered book about them.

SAN DIEGO GAY DISTRICT: HILLCRT

“The drks were watered down, and the plac were not attractive, ” said Frank Nobiletti, a historian of gay San Diego, a 2011 terview wh me for KPBS. In the 1999 Rear story, a man named Lou Arko relled that the Brass Rail was a gay bar, at least the evengs, when he bought 1957. A few years later, the Brass Rail moved to Fifth and Robson and, as the Rear puts , “may have been the talyst for Hillcrt’s birth as San Diego’s gay district.

SAN DIEGO GAY DANCE CLUBS

It’s a far cry om the early 1970s, when there was no LGBT neighborhood and the cy’s first gay center opened not Hillcrt but Goln Hill. There’s a shirtls, mtached blond on roller skat ont of a 1965 red Plymouth Barracuda; the posn of the Giant Dipper roller aster and street signage the background tablish the photo was taken the vicy of the Apartment, a women’s gay bar that opened Missn Beach 1974.

A third snapshot: a ftive lp of Halloween-stumed nttants—a drag versn of Tippi Hedren (a stuffed crow entangled her stylish platum updo), a garish clown, and a butch female wboy—all vyg for priz award long ago an unintified San Diego gay bar.

MOVG TO LGBT SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

From 2017 to mid-2018, I sorted through a multu of photographs, gay perdils, and ephemera the procs of producg San Diego’s Gay Bar History, a documentary that was ially broadst June 2018 on KPBS, San Diego’s public televisn statn, and had s premiere at FilmOut 2018, San Diego’s LGBTQ Film Ftival. San Diego’s LGBTQ history, viewed through the lens of s postwar gay bars and nightclubs (and through the voic of wns who lived through this history) many ways parallels the velopment of the morn LGBTQ muny other large ci throughout North Ameri, and giv the documentary, while regnal s foc, a wir relevance.

A ma this of the documentary poss that gay bars have been a foundatnal part of the LGBTQ experience, not only as safe plac for socializg and formg terpersonal relatnships, but also as cultural stutns that have played important rol the formatn of muny over generatns.