If you plan to get a lot done car hire in San Francisco is a very affordable option and popular to see more far-flung attractions such as the vineyards and Redwoods. In this world-class city famed for its queer community and liberal outlook, you can bet there are going to be plenty of gay attractions here – by day or by night. Beach days, hiking and cycling are also popular, as is dining, exploring the wonderful arts scene of San Francisco or just heading the Castro for some of the world’s best people watching.
However, if you are lucky enough to be considering a move here, we recommend reading our article about moving to LGBT San Francisco or getting in touch with a local gay realtor. Read on to discover why even today San Francisco is still the world’s gay mecca…Īre you relocating? This guide will help travelers discover the queerer side of the city. Sure it might be becoming a haven for the ultra-wealthy tech elite as is facing huge issues of income inequality, but at its core, this is a city still ruled by love and fuelled by diversity. And that without even talking about the secondary gay scene around Folsom Street in SoMa (South of Market). From the Eastside to Hollywood: Chicano Queer Trailblazers in 1970s L.A.But leave you should! At least to explore the rest of wonderful San Francisco, with its wealth of historical attractions, miles of gorgeous coastline, unique neighborhoods, a revitalized downtown, and marvelous dining experiences."At that time in our lives we were not able to talk about our sexual identity, but we could perform it on the dance floor while burning off our youthful energy," he writes.
Rojas’s story paints a picture of a part of Hollywood’s history not often told, but hugely influential on the lives of the LGBT youth that flocked there from across Southern California. He describes the restaurant and popular pickup spot as exemplifying the, "quiet world of mainstream gay white culture." In Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons’s Gay LA, the authors describe how restaurant staff used to splash the bathroom floors with ammonia-the smell encouraging patrons not to linger longer than necessary. Now, developers are razing most of the structure to make way for a large mixed-use project.Īnother lost establishment mentioned by Rojas is Arthur J’s coffee shop, once located at the intersection of Highland and Santa Monica. Eventually, it grew into a destination for LGBT people of color, lasting into the new millennium as an EDM venue. The popular disco formed in response to prejudice within the gay community, as one of its founders told LA Weekly in 2015. The latter club, established in 1974, was formerly located at Santa Monica Boulevard and Las Palmas Avenue. "The dance floors of such Hollywood and North Hollywood clubs as the Outer Limits, Other Side, Paradise Ballroom, Sugar Shack, After Dark, Gino’s II, and, ultimately, Circus were where we communicated with our bodies – an essential, enduring part of our queer development and identity," he writes. During this time, underused storefronts and warehouses with low rents became intimate dance clubs by night-often, as Rojas points out, in spaces smaller than 3,000 square feet.įor Rojas and his friends, who grew up in East LA, the small nightclubs became refuges from the expectations of family and community: West Hollywood has long been the rainbow-draped capital of the gay community in Los Angeles, but in an article for KCET, city planner James Rojas describes the diverse and somewhat under-the-radar gay disco circuit of 1970s Hollywood.