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Harvey Milk (1930-1978) 1970 – FeBe’s is closed briefly after allegations of sexual activity on the premises. Sylvester James, Jr., better known simply as Sylvester, moves to San Francisco and begins performing solo and with the Cockettes.
- 1971 – The Boot Camp opens at 1010 Bryant Street, meriting a mention in Herb Caen’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club is formed by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Jim Foster, Rick Stokes, and Advocate publisher David Goodstein, becoming the nation’s first gay Democratic club.
- April 1, 1971 – Bob Ross and Paul Bentley create the Bay Area Reporter, which later grows into being the nation’s oldest and largest local gay publication. Bentley would sell his interest in the paper to Ross five years later.
- 1972 – The City joins East Lansing and Ann Arbor, Michigan, in passing the first local homosexual rights ordinance, prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation by the City and by companies doing business with the City. San Francisco police stop routine raids of gay bars.
- July 10-13, 1972 – Jim Foster becomes the first openly gay person to deliver a prime time speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention.
- October 11, 1972 – MaryEllen Cunha and Peggy Forster purchase the Twin Peaks Tavern in 1971 and get their liquor license in October of 1972. They turn it into a fern bar and uncover the bar’s plate glass windows, becoming the first gay bar in the country to have windows that allow patrons to see out … and be seen within.
- 1973 – San Francisco State grants Sally Miller Gearhart tenure, making her first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position in the U.S.
- March 1973 – Harvey Milk and his lover, Scott Smith, open Castro Camera at 575 Castro Street, and move into the apartment above the store. The store becomes the headquarters for Milk’s future political campaigns.
- November 6, 1973 – Harvey Milk runs for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Though he doesn’t win, he earns 16,900 votes and finishes tenth out of 32 candidates.
- 1974 – Buzzby’s opens in the Polk, eventually becoming the neighborhood’s most popular gay bar.
- October 1974 – The first Castro Street Fair is organized by Harvey Milk and the Castro Valley Association, attracting over 5,000 attendees. It is now held annually on the first Sunday in October.
- November 27, 1974 – The Elephant Walk, named after the Elizabeth Taylor movie, opens on the corner of 18th and Castro, becoming the second gay bar in the City to have plate glass windows.
- 1975 – State Assembly Member Willie Brown and State Senator George Moscone, both from San Francisco, introduce and push through the Consenting Adult Sex Bill (AB 489), which repeals California’s sodomy ban.
- September 22, 1975 – Sara Jane Moore attempts to assassinate President Gerald Ford as he leaves the St. Francis Hotel, but is tackled by Oliver Sipple, a former Marine who is outed after the resulting publicity, becoming an unwilling cause célèbre for gay rights.
- November 4, 1975 – Harvey Milk runs a second time for the Board of Supervisors, this time cutting his hair to be considered a serious candidate. He finishes seventh out of six open seats.
- 1976 – Harvey Milk is appointed by Mayor George Moscone to the powerful Board of Permit Appeals, making him the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States. Moscone fires him five weeks later when Milk announces he’s running for the California State Assembly against Moscone’s candidate, Art Agnos. Harvey Milk loses the Democratic nomination for State Assembly to Art Agnos by a narrow 4,000 votes. He then founds the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club, a chapter of the Stonewall Democrats. It was renamed the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club in 1978 following Milk’s assassination.
- June 1977 – The San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (now known as Frameline Film Festival), premiers, eventually becoming the oldest continuing LGBT film festival in the world.
- August 1977 – Theatre Rhinoceros, San Francisco’s first gay theater company, opens its first production, Lanford Wilson’s The Madness of Lady Bright.
- November 8, 1977 – After the City reorganizes elections to the Board of Supervisors into 11 districts, Harvey Milk runs and wins for the seat representing the Castro, becoming the fifth openly gay person elected to public office in the U.S., and the first nonincumbant gay man to be elected.
- 1978 – The City adopts an ordinance prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation in the private sector. The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band becomes the first openly-gay musical group in the world. The founder, Jon Sims, later also creates the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus as well as the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco. After years of struggling, Sylvester — who was called “Castro’s undisputed First Lady” — achieves his first significant commercial success with the release of his album Step II, which includes the chart-topping disco songs “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and “Dance (Disco Heat).”
- June 1978 – Gilbert Baker sews a flag with eight rainbow stripes for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. The flag, later reduced to six stripes, quickly becomes an international symbol of the gay rights movement.
- November 7, 1978 – John Briggs’ ballot initiative, Prop. 6, which would have prohibited lesbians and gays from working as school teachers, loses by a million votes. More than 75% of San Franciscans vote against it.
- November 27, 1978 – Former Supervisor Dan White, who had resigned due to financial difficulties but then sought to be reappointed to his old seat, sneaks into City Hall through a back window to avoid metal detectors and assassinates Mayor George Moscone and then, a few minutes later, Supervisor Harvey Milk.
- 1979 – The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence make their first appearance in the Castro, eventually becoming an international philanthropic drag network.
- January 1979 – Dianne Feinstein, who is appointed by the Board of Supervisors to succeed George Moscone as Mayor, appoints Harry Britt to replace Harvey Milk. The city has always had at least one an openly gay or lesbian Supervisor ever since.
- March 11, 1979 – Sylvester sells out the War Memorial Opera House and is awarded the keys to the City by Mayor Dianne Feinstein.
- May 21, 1979 – Former Supervisor Dan White is convicted of two counts of voluntary manslaughter rather than first degree murder for the assassinations of Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. The reduced conviction leads to riots at City Hall, and later that evening the police retaliate by storming the Elephant Walk in what is later known as the White Night Riots.
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In Drummer Issue 24 September 1978 p. 88, there is an essay “Men’s Bar Scene: A Farewell to Larry’s,” describing LAPD harassment leading to the closing of a bar.
Thank you for the tip! Do you happen to know if Drummer covered much of the San Francisco scene?
And what about the rest of the Lesbian businesses, bars and organizations? I guess by Gay History you mean gay men’s history with a token Lesbian here and there.
We’ve really only done a comprehensive historical look at the gay bars in the Castro, not the rest of the city. Unfortunately, the Castro doesn’t have much of a history of having lesbian bars, though we do discuss the lesbian bars that we knew about. For example, Scott’s Pit at 10 Sanchez and Francine’s at what is now The Edge. Twin Peaks was always a mixed bar, but we do talk about it being founded as a gay bar by lesbian owners.
Do you know of lesbian bars in the Castro that we’ve missed?
As a tiny, volunteer operation, we haven’t had the resources to do a similar historical look at other neighborhoods, but our overview of The Haight, for example, talks about Maud’s Study and The Golden Cask.
If there are resources that you’d like us to review, please let us know.