LGBTQ culture in San Francisco

San Francisco has one of the largest and most important communities for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender in the United States. The city is often called "the original 'gay-friendly city'" because of how welcoming it has been to these groups throughout history.

This community has played a big role in fighting for equal rights and fairness for everyone, working together with similar groups in places like New York City. Today, this culture continues to grow and thrive, even influencing companies in nearby Silicon Valley, which is part of the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area.

LGBTQ culture in San Francisco helps show the world that all people deserve respect and kindness, no matter who they love or how they express themselves.

History

19th century

San Francisco's LGBTQ culture began when the city was a growing town. The discovery of gold brought many people, mostly young men, to the area. With so many men and fewer women, some took on roles usually filled by women. People dressed in ways that didn’t match their birth gender, and same-sex dancing was common at parties.

Later, new laws made it hard for people to express their gender freely. This pushed the community to gather in bars and entertainment areas away from strict rules.

20th century

Through WWII - in the shadows

The first well-known gay bar opened in 1908. During World War I, some men were sent away from the military for being gay, which helped form a community in San Francisco. In the 1920s and 1930s, the community grew, with North Beach becoming a center. The first lesbian bar opened in 1934, and nightclubs with drag shows attracted many people.

During World War II, the military began to identify and exclude people who were gay. Those affected often ended up in San Francisco. Police sometimes raided gay bars, creating tension.

1950s - the Beats, and first organizations

The 1950s brought new cultural changes. Beat culture, which rejected mainstream values, often included LGBTQ people. The first lesbian civil rights group, the Daughters of Bilitis, and the Mattachine Society, an early gay rights group, were both started in San Francisco. Police raids on bars like The Black Cat led to legal fights for protections.

1960s - SF as gay capital, first struggles for recognition

In 1961, José Sarria ran for public office and almost won, showing the growing political power of the gay community. The Tavern Guild, the first gay business group, formed in 1962 to fight against police harassment. A 1964 article in Life magazine called San Francisco “The Gay Capital of America.”

The Society for Individual Rights, founded in 1964, helped build the community. In 1965, a large police presence at a fundraising event led to arrests, but the lawyers defending them were very famous and helped change laws. Vanguard, a group for LGBTQ youth, started in 1965. In 1966, a riot at Compton’s Cafeteria helped start support services for transgender people.

1970s - Gay liberation, The Castro comes out

After events in New York, San Francisco saw growth in LGBTQ rights. The Gay Liberation Day Parade began in 1972. The Castro became known as a gay neighborhood, with the Twin Peaks Tavern being the first bar to have clear windows. Many lesbian bars and women’s groups grew in the Mission District.

The first gay softball league formed in 1974. The Cockettes, a theater group, became popular. In 1976, the San Francisco Bisexual Center opened. In 1977, a film called Word Is Out shared stories of LGBTQ lives. Harvey Milk was elected in 1977, becoming the city’s first openly gay supervisor. Sadly, he was killed in 1978.

1980s and 1990s - the AIDS crisis and response, and bi activism

The AIDS crisis deeply affected San Francisco’s LGBTQ community starting in the early 1980s. Many people were lost, and the community came together to support each other. Bisexuals began to be included more in health reports. The Gay Games were held in San Francisco, and new groups formed to support bisexuals and lesbians.

After 2000 - same-sex marriage and trans awareness

In the 2000s, San Francisco saw big steps for same-sex marriage and transgender rights. In 2004, the city allowed same-sex marriages, though they were later stopped. The first Trans pride march was held in 2004. In 2007, Theresa Sparks became the first openly transgender person to lead a city commission.

San Francisco made August Transgender History Month in 2021, the first city to do so.

Organizations and community institutions

San Francisco has many groups that support people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT). The Daughters of Bilitis started in 1955 and was the first group for lesbian women in the United States. The Mattachine Society moved to San Francisco in the 1950s as well.

Other important groups include the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club, which began around 1971, and the Gay Latino Alliance (GALA), started in 1975. These groups worked to make sure everyone felt included and supported many community projects.

There are also groups like the GLBT Historical Society, which keeps important history items related to the LGBT community. Today, San Francisco still has many places where people can meet, learn, and support each other.

Demographics

See also: List of LGBT people from San Francisco

In the 1970s, the number of people who identified as gay in San Francisco grew from 30,000 to 100,000 in a city that had 660,000 people total.

Surveys show that many LGBT people in San Francisco moved there from other places. A poll in 2015 found that 6.2% of people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area identified as LGBT, the highest percentage in the United States. In San Francisco itself, a 2006 survey found that 15.4% of its residents identified as LGBT. In one district of the city, 16.6% of adults identified as LGBT.

A survey in 2013 found that 29% of people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco identified as LGBT.

Neighborhoods

In the 1920s and 1930s, the most well-known area for the LGBTQ+ community was North Beach. Polk Gulch was a popular place for gay people from the 1950s to the 1980s and hosted the first annual Halloween street fair, which later moved to the Castro. Folsom Street was where the first special-interest bars opened and still holds an annual street fair and food event in September, called the Folsom Street Fair. By 1977, many LGBTQ+ people lived around upper Market Street and Haight-Ashbury.

The Castro is famous as a gay neighborhood. This began in the 1960s and 1970s when many LGBTQ+ people moved there. It was where Harvey Milk had his camera shop and worked hard for rights in the 1970s. Today, the neighborhood has rainbow Pride flags all year, an LGBTQ+ History Museum, and a special sidewalk with the names of famous LGBTQ+ people. Though The Castro keeps its special feeling, it has become a bit more for everyone and a nice shopping area.

The Mission has always had many Latino/a LGBTQ+ people. It was home to the first Latino gay bar in San Francisco, Esta Noche, and other bars like La India Bonita and El Rio. The Mission also had an important group working to help people stay healthy. Many lesbians, both Latina and others, liked this area in the 1980s. It had several lesbian bars, a Women’s Center, coffee shops, a bookstore, and a special bathhouse just for women.

Chinatown in San Francisco is also closely tied to LGBTQ+ history. In the middle of the 19th century, many special places opened there. By the middle of the 20th century, many nightclubs and gay bars appeared, making it a famous spot that attracted many LGBTQ+ people from around the world. In 1994, the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance and Asian Pacific Sisters joined the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown for the first time, marking an important moment for Asian American LGBTQ+ groups.

Culture and recreation

San Francisco has a rich history of LGBTQ culture and activities. Gay and lesbian bars were important places for the LGBTQ community to gather and be visible. The first well-known gay bar, The Dash, opened in 1908, and the number of gay bars grew in the 1960s. Some bars closed over time due to changes in the neighborhood or because of the loss of many people during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Lesbian bars have always had a harder time staying open compared to gay bars. Softball games became a popular activity for LGBTQ people in the 1970s, and many other sports leagues are also popular today. The city has special art works honoring leather culture, and it hosts many events like the National Queer Arts Festival, Frameline (a big LGBT film festival), and San Francisco Pride. There are also musical groups like the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, as well as the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, which was named the official band of the city in 2018.

Media

San Francisco has special newspapers for its LGBT community, such as the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco Bay Times, and San Francisco Sentinel. There are also magazines just for lesbians, like Curve and Girlfriends.

Because there are so many people in San Francisco who are part of the LGBT community, some publishers started calling the city “San Fagcisco,” and people living there were called “San Fagciscan.”

Politics

San Francisco has always welcomed people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender into its government. In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected as the first openly gay leader in the city, joining the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He helped start groups for LGBTQ+ people to support each other and work together in politics.

The city also had important votes about whether gay and lesbian couples could get married. Some areas of the city voted for allowing marriages, while others voted against it. The different choices showed how people in San Francisco had many different views on these topics.

In fiction

The series Tales of the City and Looking show the lives of people in San Francisco who are part of the LGBTQ community.

The book Valencia by Michelle Tea looks at lesbian life in the 1990s in a neighborhood called the Mission District. Another book, A Horse Named Sorrow by Trebor Healey, is set in San Francisco during the 1980s and 1990s. The Emma Victor series by Mary Wings follows a woman who solves mysteries in San Francisco. In Pixar's 2015 film Inside Out, a character mentions seeing someone in San Francisco who looks like a bear.

Notable people

San Francisco has many well-known people who have made a difference in politics, activism, and culture. Some of these include:

Politicians and officials

• Roberta Achtenberg, politician
• Tom Ammiano, activist and politician
• Harry Britt (activist and city supervisor)
• David Campos (gay member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors)
• Matt Dorsey, politician
• Bevan Dufty, politician
• Joel Engardio, politician
• Rafael Mandelman, politician
• Carole Migden, politician
• Harvey Milk (gay former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors)
• Mark Leno, politician
• Jeff Sheehy, politician
• Scott Wiener, politician

Activists and cultural figures

• Gilbert Baker, artist and creator of the Rainbow flag
• Bobbi Campbell, AIDS activist
• Margaret Cho, (bisexual comedian and native San Franciscan.)
• Cecilia Chung, activist
• Lea DeLaria, comedian, actress and musician whose career started in San Francisco
• Cleve Jones (gay activist)
• Ken Jones, activist
• Jim Foster, activist
• Sally Miller Gearhart, activist
• Roma Guy, activist
• Lenn Keller (photographer, founder of the Bay Area Lesbian Archive)
• Bill Kraus (gay rights and AIDS activist)
• Marsha H. Levine (LGBTQ+ activist, founder of the International Association of LGBT Pride Coordinators InterPride)
• Alec Mapa (actor)
• Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon (lesbian activists)
• Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City
• Pat Norman, activist
• Michael Petrelis, AIDS activist
• Jose Sarria (entertainer and activist)
• Bradford Shellhammer, (entrepreneur, co-founder Fab, Bezar and founding editor of Queerty)
• Randy Shilts, (writer and reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and The Advocate)
• Theresa Sparks (transgender executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission)
• Rikki Streicher (businesswoman, activist, tavern owner, Gay softball promoter, co-founder of the Gay Games)
• Sylvester, singer who began his career in San Francisco
• Michelle Tea, (author of San Francisco lesbian novel Valencia)
• Carol Queen (bisexual author, editor, sociologist and sexologist)
• Adela Vazquez (trans Cuban activist, HIV case manager, Latino AIDS Education and Prevention Program Coordinator)
• Heklina (aka Stefan Grygelko was an actor, drag queen, entrepreneur, activist, owner of The Oasis, theater and cabaret nightclub located in San Francisco's SOMA district and co-founder of Mother (formerly TrannyShack) the longest running drag show in San Francisco)