San francisco gay area

Jul 29, 0. In at the height of the AIDS crisis, the City and County of San Francisco filed a lawsuit against the operators of bathhouses, citing them as a public health nuisance. The court issued an order allowing the businesses to remain open on the condition that they employ monitors to prevent unsafe sex from occurring and remove most of the doors to individual video cubicles, booths, or rooms. Although the bathhouses technically could have remained open under the rules established by the court, all of them closed. In , the Department of Public Health adopted minimum standards codifying the court order.

The main drag of the Castro runs on Castro Street from Market to 19th although the neighborhood extends a few blocks in either direction. The Castro is also the home of the Castro Theater, a popular cinema and historical monument that was built in Organ player? Yes, the Castro Theater has a resident Wurlitzer organ player who comes out about fifteen minutes before a movie starts and warms the crowd up with an eclectic mix of tunes that can range from ragtime to rock-n-roll. Shopping is a must-do in the Castro and you can find items not readily available elsewhere. You can find things like leather chaps, scented massage oils, and cute totchkes for your home.

Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products and services; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links. Most San Francisco hotels are located downtown.

If the flyer was simple, the matter of the closures certainly was not. By the time city health officials announced the closure of 14 bathhouses, most of them gay, along with other clubs and bookstores that offered private rooms for sex, they had counted at least dead. For city leaders, it was a matter of public health. For many in the gay community, bathhouses were where men would have sex with men, yes, but also places where they might build community. What mattered most?