San Fran gay bars

It goes without saying that it didn't take long at all for the authorities to begin keeping a close watch on the happenings at Fe-Be's. Beginning in the year nineteen sixty-seven, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, or ABC, conducted multiple discussions regarding the activities of the staff and also the patrons at Fe-Be's. During nineteen sixty-nine, the ABC made accusations that the bar was showing "behavior contrary to public morals", this included intimate physical touch between men, below their waists. At a subsequent hearing, upon being accused of possessing adult toys on the property, Geist jokingly stated that they were simply being utilized as unique drink stirrers.

In nineteen seventy, when the bar had been shut down for a year, the community, that Geist and Kissinger had constructed with such care, united to support Fe-Be's, other establishments hosted fundraisers and offered support vocally. In December of nineteen seventy-one, the establishment made a roaring comeback and remained open until nineteen eighty-six. Ultimately, it wasn't judicial investigation that signaled the conclusion of Fe-Be's; it had been the devastating consequence of the AIDS pandemic on the gay community located in San Francisco. Kissinger passed away in nineteen eighty-eight, followed by Geist in nineteen ninety-eight.

Fe-Be's legacy lives on today via the Leather David. When Geist and Kissinger initially inaugurated the bar, they commissioned artist Mike Caffee in order to craft a rendition of Michelangelo's celebrated sculpture, altered into a gay biker. Caffee's artistic interpretation proceeded to adorn an array of merchandise. When Fe-Be's shuttered its doors and the Paradise Lounge assumed its place, Leather David remained. Replicas of Caffee's camp masterpiece are positioned in bars today, even as distant as Melbourne, Australia.

Black Cat Café

Once portrayed by Allen Ginsberg to be "the greatest gay bar found in America", the Black Cat Cafe commenced its journey in nineteen thirty-three as a hangout for bohemians, only steps from the site where the Transamerica Pyramid is currently erected.

During the early portion of the nineteen forties, when Sol Stouman gained ownership of the venue, the Black Cat commenced to embrace all aspects of the gay community fearlessly. Stouman was a straight person who comprehended the significance of safe environments. This became something that the already subversive demographic within the bar wholeheartedly embraced. Ginsberg once remarked: "It was entirely open... Everyone frequented it, heterosexuals along with homosexuals... All of the flamboyant gay queens would come, as would the heterosexual gray flannel suit individuals, and the longshoremen. All the poets came there as well."

Absolutely nobody was under any false impressions concerning the character of the Black Cat along with the individuals who frequented it. The legendary LGBTQ+ rights champion José Sarria would frequently act in drag within the establishment during his younger years, having begun as a waiter within the Black Cat. Sarria was fond of singing an interpretation of "God Save the Queen" while using altered lyrics; he would vocalize "God save us nellie queens" as a substitute. Moreover, he performed an adaptation of the opera Carmen, in which he evaded pursuing law enforcement.

In a similar fashion to the Silver Rail, the Black Cat was exposed to significant judicial investigation commencing in the latter part of the nineteen forties, and was categorized as "disorderly". In nineteen forty-nine, when Stouman had his liquor license revoked without end due to "individuals of known homosexual tendencies being patrons of said location and utilizing the premises for the purpose of a meeting place", Stouman retaliated - all the way to California's Supreme Court. Ultimately, in nineteen fifty-one, he was victorious.

The court made the conclusion:

Numerous individuals were taken into custody [at the Black Cat], some on the grounds of vagrancy while others due to the fact that they were 'demonstrating homosexual actions,' however, there was an absence of substantiation that those taken into custody were convicted. There was an absence of evidence pertaining to any illicit or immoral actions occurring on the premises... The act of frequenting a public bar and restaurant by homosexuals... without there existing proof regarding the carrying out of illicit or immoral acts on the property... lacks the ability to adequately demonstrate a transgression.

The Black Cat Cafe carried on operations for an additional decade, in spite of the fact that harassment at the hands of the local authorities remained an ongoing concern for the establishment throughout the remainder of its operational days.

The Gangway

If ever there existed a gay bar that ought to have endured indefinitely, it is undoubtedly the Gangway, initially established in nineteen ten. Up until two thousand eighteen, what was San Francisco's longest continuously running gay bar had successfully navigated Prohibition, anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and the AIDS pandemic; a remarkable journey that came to an end in an unceremonious fashion following a straightforward transfer of a liquor license.