How many gay bars are in an francisco2/10/2024 Defining Our Termsīefore we can explore the history of gay bars in the Castro, we have to determine whether they are bars, whether they are gay, and whether they’re in the Castro. Here, then, is our work-in-progress history of every place in the Castro that is now or (coming soon) ever was a gay bar. Later, certain bars started to be known for a particular sort of crowd - leather bars, upscale “sweater queen” bars, drag and trans-friendly bars, and more - and though bars could be subject to dangerous police raids, they were often the only opportunity for gay people to find their own. For generations, gay people could only surreptitiously meet other gays through clandestine hookups in parks or the piers. Then after the Summer of Love, gay people - particularly gay hippies - started to flood into the mostly working-class Scandinavian and Irish neighborhood, and new gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses opened: restaurants, bookstores and other retail shops, hotels, and bathhouses.īut still, bars remained a strong part of the neighborhood’s gay life, and any history of gay life would be incomplete without covering the history of gay bars. The first gay-related businesses in the Castro were gay bars - the Missouri Mule in 1963, followed by Libra and I-Do-Know in 1967 and then the Mint in 1968. The Missouri Mule, the first gay bar in the Castro.
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