Heklina at Trannyshack at The Stud, June 20, 2006. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Goebel)
Posted in Drag Community Featured Story LGBT Entertainers Memorials

Heklina (1967-2023)

San Francisco’s legendary drag queen Heklina, creator of the infamously transgressive drag show Trannyshack and one-time co-owner of the SOMA nightclub Oasis, was found dead…

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Harvey's in San Francisco
Posted in Castro Featured Story Gay Bars & Clubs

Harvey’s closes after 27 years

Harvey’s, the restaurant/bar at the corner of 18th and Castro, abruptly closed last week after 27 years in business. Although rumors had been swirling the…

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Posted in Featured Story Gay Bars & Clubs South of Market

The Stud to close after 54 years

The artist/nightlife collective owners have announced that The Stud, which lays claim to being San Francisco’s oldest gay bar, will not reopen at its current…

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Posted in Gay Bars & Clubs Polk

The City’s oldest gay bar to close?

SFist.com is reporting that the Gangway, the oldest remaining gay bar in the City — and perhaps the City’s very first gay bar — may…

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Posted in Gay Bars & Clubs LGBT Academics & Writers LGBT Heroes LGBT Political Leaders Political Organizations Sexual Liberation This Week in SF Gay History

This month in SF Gay History: September

September 17, 1859 On this date in 1859, Joshua Norton proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States, becoming one of SF’s most colorful characters and…

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Posted in Drag Community LGBT Activitists Mass Media & Pop Culture Protests Sexual Liberation

Stonewall film faces backlash

A trailer released for Roland Emmerich’s film Stonewall, a fictionalized accounting of the 1969 riots in New York City widely cited as the public “coming…

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Posted in Gay Bars & Clubs Pacific Heights

Lion Pub, Alta Plaza, JJ’s Piano Bar, and other Pac Heights bars of yesteryear

Clockwise from top left: bar ad for the Lion Pub; Alta Plaza Park; site of the old Alta Plaza bar, site of the old JJ’s…

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Posted in Bathhouses Gay Bars & Clubs Memoires

Sex, Drugs & Disco

This week’s Bay Area Reporter has some fascinating excerpts from Mark Abramson’s new autobiography, Sex, Drugs & Disco: San Francisco Diaries from the Pre-AIDS Era….

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Posted in Gay Bars & Clubs LGBT Business People Memorials

Mary Ellen Cunha (1935 – 2015)

Mary Ellen Cunha, one of the original lesbian owners of the Twin Peaks Tavern, passed away in Palm Springs in January, a month before her…

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Posted in Gay Bars & Clubs LGBT Academics & Writers This Week in SF Gay History

This week in SF Gay History: January 19 – 25

Sports Illustrated’s photo in Hi Tops helped make the gay sports bar nationally famous just a weeks after they opened. January 25, 1882 On this date in…

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