Why San Francisco?

[Guest empire]

I would think most here would agree that San Francisco is the unofficial gay homeland (well at least in the US). I'm really interested in finding out why so many gay people ended up in this specific city?

 

The only thing I've been able to find so far is that the military used a San Francisco base during WWII to process the discharge of gays. And I haven't been able to even confirm this.

 

So if anyone might have some insight please share it.

[doctordoctor]

hey empire......I asked a similar question a while back...I'd wondered about not only the gay origins, but the history of SF's liberal rep in general going, possibly, way back to gold rush days...this really interests me and your WWII story was one response I had gotten here...I guess the gay military discharges couldn't face going home, the story goes, and they decided to stay in SF...seems a little too convenient, though, to answer why SF really became such a capital of gay life...were there really that many that stayed in SF???...still looking for a solid history of SF's rep for being liberal and gay-friendly...maybe it's the mix of ethnic backgrounds in gold rush days or liberal labor unions at the turn of the 20th century????....this history fascinates me.....

[Guest bighugbearphx]

San Francisco's public TV station, KQED, produced a 1997 documentary called "The Castro", which would answer most of your questions. In a nutshell, the influx of gays was mostly a byproduct of the countercultural movement of the 1960's, which was concentrated mostly in the Haight-Ashbury area which is adjacent to the Castro (which was, at that time, a relatively conservative community settled by returning veterans from WW2 and the Korean War.) When the hippie movement fizzled out in the late 1960's, the gays who had embraced its freedoms essentially moved to the Castro, and it became what KQED called 'the first real gay neighborhood' in the USA, a place where they actually felt they belonged and could make a difference.

 

The KQED website has some basic info about the documentary at: http://www.kqed.org/w/hood/castro/

The special also goes into the political climate for gays, which was not that friendly in the days before Stonewall, but that did an abrupt turnaround with the election (and subsequent assassination) of Harvey Milk, an openly gay city supervisor. There are also links at the site to other sites with info on the gay history of SFO.

 

PBS used to offer the documentary on video, but it is out of print (It might still be available used from some online sources or perhaps gay-friendly video stores). The site has a link where you can get on a list to be told when it is re-released. Another film, which *is* available on video and DVD, and which give you some background about the Castro as well, is "The Times of Harvey Milk" which shows up occasionally on Logo and Sundance/Showtime cable channels.

[poiuyt]

It goes farther back than the Castro and Harvey Milk. I've been in the Bay Area since '74, when Castro was just getting started, and there was already a considerable gay presence by then. The main gay neighborhood back then was Polk Street, and a bit before that it had been the Tenderloin.

 

I knew a bunch of older gay gentlemen back in the 70's, who had come to the City back in the 30's and 40's, attracted first by the jobs (lots of shipbuilding, especially during the war) and then by the sailors. SF may have been fairly conservative back in the 50's and 60's, but the whole country was. It always had a sort of Bohemian reputation probably going back to the Barbary Coast days, and it was probably as tolerant a place you could find this side of New Orleans.

[Guest zipperzone]

I had always presumed that a very big factor was the physical beauty of the setting. Gays seem to appreciate atmosphere more than straights and are tuned into mood and the artistic aspects of a city.

 

I realize this doesn't address the tolerance aspect. Perhaps it was a case of "if you can't beat them - join them".

[+ deej]

>It always had a sort of Bohemian reputation probably going

>back to the Barbary Coast days

 

SF never outgrew the rough-and-tumble anything goes nature from the gold rush days.

 

The natural beauty of the geography probably attracted its fair share of artists (which automatically drags us in as well).

 

But lets not forget that gays have always parked in the "less desireable" neighborhoods and made them their own, and cleaned them up in the process.

 

In the 20's, before it was called Chelsea, that area of NYC was the whorehouse district. Fags moved in and cleaned it up.

 

Today's boystown in Chicago was one of the worst ghettos in the city when gay bars were chased out of the Rush Street district downtown. Gay establishments landed on Halstead and over the next 20 years made it a desireable neighborhood.

 

Let's face it. Wherever we land, we decorate, and then everybody wants to live there. ;-)

[Samai139]

Remember also that where numbers of gays go, so goes their money. In the past that meant individuals with a fairly large amount of money to be spent on themselves--houses, clothes, businesses and oh yes, FUN. And thinking about it, I guess it still applies

[Lookin]

Lots of people have been attracted to San Francisco over the years, and the City has always found room for them. As a port city, it’s learned to absorb and benefit from all kinds of people from all kinds of places. It’s been a welcoming place with a live-and-let-live attitude for a long time.

 

I think it’s similar to Amsterdam in that respect, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that gay men and women have thrived in both cities for many years.

[Bilbo]

RE: Pslychic geography

 

If I remember correctly what I learned in a history of the English language course in college, if you study all of the countries, at least in Europe and here, there is an odd tendency for the Southern part of the country, any contry, to be conservative (at least in speach and dress) and the Western part to be even more liberal than the North.

[+ Axiom2001]

RE: Pslychic geography

 

If you are serious about this query, contact the SF Public Library; there lies an entire department/section/wing focusing on gay history, culture, and virtually whatever one is seeking. This area is dedicated in the name of a very, very wealthy gay entrepreneur (Mr. Homel (sp)).

This would be a valid start...

[+ honcho]

RE: Pslychic geography

 

James Hormel (as in the Meat packing company). You may remember some political fighting about Clinton appointing him as the offical US Ambassador to Luxembourg.

[the hose]

After world war II homosexual activity was considered illegal and a form of mental illness. The military would dishonorably discarge any one caught engaging in homosexual activity and treated them harshly. They sent a letter to your family, the chief of police in your hometown, and your old employer telling them why you were dishonorably discharged. If you lived in a large city like New York or Chicago it was not a big deal, but if you lived in Kokomo or Peoria you risked being locked up or being commited to a mental institution by returning to your hometown. As result many gays chose to stay in San Francisco.

[PoppedRice]

Funny you ask this, but a few days ago, on Yahoo, the same very question was asked, and here's the answer.

 

http://ask.yahoo.com/20060502.html

 

-PoppedRice

[+ Charlie]

SF's reputation as a gay haven was well established before the Castro or the hippie movement. When I came out in 1960, gay men were talking about SF as the place to go. It already had bars, baths, and a gay rights group that excited other fledging activists around the country. Gay artists and writers had moved there in the 1950s because of its "bohemian" lifestyle opportunities, and that included gays. After all, the city exploded into existence with the Gold Rush in the 1840s and 50s, and the population in those early years was overwhelmingly male, so it was inevitable that men who were most comfortable around other men (and who wanted to avoid domestic entanglements back home) would flock there right from the start.