Gay bars castro san fran
The Castro
The Castro District, one of the original same-sex attracted neighborhoods in the nation, is located right in the center of the city of San Francisco near The Mission, Lower Haight, Cole Valley and Noe Valley. A vibrant neighborhood filled with great restaurants, bars, clubs, museums and more, The Castro is one of the most popular tourist areas in the city.
The history of the neighborhood dates advocate to the late 1800s, about 40 years after the peak of the Gold Rush and 20 years before the 1906 earthquake and fires that devastated the city. It was built in 1887 after a new railway line was created that would link the area to downtown. The neighborhood went through many changes as the city grew. Several years after the 1906 earthquake, the neighborhood became known as Minuscule Scandinavia, due to the large population of Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish people who settled there. It wasn’t until the overdue 1960s that the same-sex attracted population began to develop and The Castro wasn’t the first gay neighborhood in the city. In fact, the Polk Gulch area of San Francisco was the initial male lover center of the town starting from the 1940s and then slowly failing through the 1960s and 1970s as The Castro started
Vibrant and eclectic, the Castro/Upper Market neighborhood is an internationally known symbol of gay freedom, a top tourist destination full of well-dressed shops and well-liked entertainment spots, and a thriving residential area that thousands of San Franciscans call home.
Its streets are filled with lovingly restored Victorian homes, rainbow celebration flags, shops offering one-of-a-kind merchandise, heritage streetcars, lively bars and restaurants, and numerous gay-borhood landmarks including Harvey Milk Plaza, the Castro Theatre, Pink Triangle Park and Memorial, and the massive SF Lesbian Same-sex attracted Bisexual Transgender Collective Center.
The Castro District, better known as The Castro, is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, which is also known as Eureka Valley.
San Francisco’s homosexual village is most concentrated in the business district that is located on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends down Market Street toward Church and on both sides of the Castro neighborhood from Church Street to Eureka Street. Although the greater male lover community was, and is, concentrated in the Castro many gay people reside in the surrounding residential areas bordered by the
Map: The Castro's Most Significant Gay Locations
Operated by Harvey Milk from 1972 to 1978, the store became the center of the neighborhood's growing gay community. It was more than a camera shop in that it offered support to those who moved to and lived in San Francisco in search of autonomy to openly express their sexual identity, and was also headquarters for Milk's various campaigns for elected office. Later turned into a much-missed toiletry store, it is now the HRC's San Francisco's office.
Nurse and early AIDS activist Bobbi Campbell used the front window of this pharmacy to post a flyer in 1981 warning the community of "Gay Cancer”—because neither the local nor national government would sound the alarm—showing photos of lesions caused by Kaposi sarcoma (the rare cancer was found to be a result of HIV's toll on the immune system). Star Pharmacy closed in 1985, but the Walgreens across the street has erected a commemorative plaque in honor of Campbell and those who have been affected by HIV/AIDS.
The theater opened June 22, 1922, and is the crown jewel of the neighborhood. It’s also home to the annual Frameline LGBT Production Festival, countless sing-a-longs, and Peach
San Francisco’s fabulous LGBTQIA+ scene is no surprise if you know anything about the city’s history. SF is recognizable for electing Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the US, and is still known today for its thriving queer community.
At the epicentre of it all is San Francisco’s Castro District, full of flamboyant shows, bars and great restaurants, but there’s plenty more to discover throughout SF (and Oakland) if you understand where to stare. Whether you’re looking for friendly woman loving woman bars, balls-to-the-wall Latinx dance parties or a very remarkable drag show, these are the foremost gay bars in SF right now.
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This mentor was written by Bay-Area based journalist Clara Hogan. At Time Out, all of our journey guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.
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