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Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
New study documents over 600 early LGBTQ protests in US by Cynthia Laird
A
new study released Wednesday shines a light on the hundreds of protests led by LGBTQ people in the United States from 1965 to 1973. The study, pubCourtesy Marc Stein lished jointly by OutHistory and San Francisco State Queer Pasts, docu- University professor ments more than Marc Stein 600 LGBTQ+ direct actions, stated Marc Stein, a gay man who’s a history professor at San Francisco State University and the study’s lead researcher. Stein is the new director of OutHistory and the coeditor of Queer Pasts. “The project, completed with the support of student researchers at San Francisco State University, can be understood as a survey of more than 600 events that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies want to cancel, censor, and closet when we teach U.S. history,” Stein stated in a news release, referring to the Republican leader of the Sunshine State and potential 2024 presidential candidate. For the nine years studied, Stein and his research team identified 646 direct action events, averaging 72 per year. The study cites more than 1,800 media sources from the 1960s and 1970s, the release noted. According to these sources, more than 200,000 people participated in these protests and nearly 200 were arrested. Stein noted that protests during the period took place in 20 states and the District of Columbia, “challenging the notion that these only occurred in New York, California, and a few other states,” he explained. The frequency of protests increased significantly in April 1969, two months before the well-known Stonewall rebellion in New York City, which is considered the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Stein told the Bay Area Reporter that he and his team were unable to find the exact date of the August 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria riot in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. The date has been lost to history, and other academic researchers over the years have also not been able to identify just when the sit-in by transgender people took place. Last October, the California State Historical Resources Commission voted 6-0 to nominate the site of the 1966’s Compton’s Cafeteria riots for addition to the federal registry, as the B.A.R. previously reported. A month later, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved local landmark status for the Turk and Taylor intersection, which is near the long-closed cafeteria, as the B.A.R. noted at the time. The riots were one of the early uprisings by queer people against police harassment. Stein said that he was able to find the date for a Compton’s demonstration, and that it took place July 18, 1966, about a month before the riots, according to an inventory of the documented protests that are part of the study. The inventory listed the demonstration as being reported on in the late Herb Caen’s San Francisco Chronicle column, the Berkeley Barb newspaper, and Cruise News and World Report, among other sources. The federal office that oversees the National Register of Historic Places has yet to announce if it will approve adding 101-102 Taylor Street, where Compton’s Cafeteria was located, to the list. While it has not responded to an inquiry on the status of the listing, the California Office of Historic Preservation told the B.A.R. it has not been rejected. See page 9 >>
Vol. 53 • No. 09 • March 2-8, 2023
Beleaguered Castro seeks signs of hope amid vacancies by John Ferrannini
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anuary’s abrupt closure of Harvey’s – the restaurant and bar named for the slain supervisor Harvey Milk, also known as the “Mayor of Castro Street” – lit a fire under mounting anxieties that San Francisco’s storied Castro LGBTQ neighborhood is in decline. The apprehension had been growing for years, fueled by the rising number of vacant storefronts and business closures, street conditions that have similarly outraged San Franciscans across the city, and the ongoing effects of the COVID pandemic. “I know people who don’t go to the Castro,” Cleve Jones, a longtime gay activist who was a former aide to Milk and was a co-founder of both the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the AIDS Memorial Quilt, told the Bay Area Reporter. “They don’t want to go – gay and straight – they don’t want to see what you’ll see on Castro Street. The last time I went out in the Castro, I walked three blocks. I saw rats. I saw unconscious people sprawled on the sidewalk who’d soiled themselves. I saw a fight.” And Jones isn’t alone. Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who holds the job Milk once held representing the Castro on the city’s Board of
John Ferrannini
Cafe Flore at 2298 Market Street, is set to become Fisch and Flore this summer.
Supervisors, agreed that the neighborhood is in need of renewal. “There’s still a lot that’s great about the neighborhood – businesses, it’s a draw for queer people, it has gay bars, some great res-
taurants – but I would have to agree with Cleve: it’s not nearly as vibrant as when I was coming out 20-30 years ago and that’s a loss not only for the neighborhood but for all who are connected to the Castro.” See page 8 >>
SF Gay Softball League celebrates 50 years of breaking barriers by John Ferrannini
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he San Francisco Gay Softball League is celebrating 50 years of uniting the LGBTQ and athletic communities. Steven Bracco, a gay man who is the director of communications for the league’s board, was among several players who spoke with the Bay Area Reporter on the occasion of the milestone. Bracco, who also writes for Hoodline and serves on the board of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, said he’s been a part of the league for 14 years. Bracco has worked at the San Francisco Fire Department since 2017. “I joined to play sports but also to find friends and community in the Castro and in San Francisco,” he said. “It’s an amazing feat to be able to be around that long.” The league is “one of the last gay leagues around” from the 1970s, according to league Commissioner Vincent Fuqua, also a gay man. “It’s such a milestone,” Fuqua said. “Especially considering how things are in this world, it’s a remarkable achievement and I’m thrilled and excited.” The league has consistently been popular with B.A.R. readers in its Besties polls. Bracco said that over the 50 years, the organization estimates that approximately 30,000 members have participated. The new season starts March 26. “This season we will have an estimated 600-700 members,” Bracco stated. SFGSL is open to everyone in the LGBTQ+ community and allies, Bracco explained. The league has two divisions, the Open Division and the Women’s+ Division. Jess Graves, a lesbian who has been involved with the league for 13 years, said,“the biggest thing is community, not only as a whole, but my team as well.” The tournaments help foster [community],” Graves said. “I think it’s the variety of teams, the flexibility over the years – for example we’re the women’s+ division because we accept anyone who identifies as a woman – and I feel the league is ahead of the game on that.” Women have full support of the league, Graves said.
Courtesy Steven Bracco
The SF Fury Unleashed A team traveled to Dallas in 2022 for the Gay Softball World Series. The team took second place in the A Division.
“We volunteer for Pride, we have booths where each team if they choose can send volunteers to serve drinks and make money for both the league and teams, and so that gets us interacting with people,” Graves continued. Graves took up the game again as an adult after a brief stint in junior high school. “I grew up playing ball in the backyard and played one year in junior high and didn’t make the team the following year,” Graves said. “I was at that point, as a tween or whatever, where I thought I sucked. I didn’t start playing again till 2001 when the dot-com bubble burst, I was out of a job and my wife left me. I started in the city league, and when I heard about the gay league through a friend of a friend, I got involved. The all-volunteer, nonprofit league has a budget of $136,000 for the coming year, according to Bracco. “The league collects fees from its members and their sponsor organizations, which fund softball operations,” Bracco stated. “The primary expenses of the league are field rental and setup, umpire fees, and playing equipment. In addition, the league works with corporate sponsors to help fund activities for the league members.”
Victory over police team was ‘enormous news’
During its history the softball league is perhaps best known for a game against members of the San Francisco Police Department 49 years ago. Roger Brigham, who was a longtime gay sports columnist with the B.A.R. and has been a sports journalist since 1982, said that while he was never a member, the league’s first big impact was to “normalize and de-escalate relations between the queer community and the police community.” Homosexuality was first legalized in the Golden State after the Consenting Adult Sex Bill was passed in 1975. It was carried by thenassemblymember Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who would go on to become the city’s mayor. It was signed by then-governor Jerry Brown during his first stint in office. Before then, and even afterward under different pretenses, police raids of LGBTQ establishments were common. Starting in 1973, police and gay softball teams began playing each other. The gay softball team won for the first time the following year. See page 5 >>