How do SF queereas evolve?

To the San Francisco Bay Times:

Recently, some SF queers have been wondering whether Polk Street is, or isn't, losing its queerity.

So how do "queereas" and bohemias evolve in SF? Via bohemia and "vice"? By proximity?


Circa 1969, Polk Street, the Tenderloin, SOMA and the Haight were considered the leading queer-friendly areas; while the Castro was still seen as mainly non-queer (according to Gay By The Bay).
Three of those Sixties queereas are contiguous. SOMA adjoins the Tenderloin, and the Tenderloin adjoins the Polk Street area. These three, all in the older parts of SF, plus North Beach (queer & bohemian mecca in 1930s/40s/50s), can be seen as descending from "the Barbary Coast" (19th century "vice" district, circa 1848-1917). In a sense, these three older "ghayttos" carry on Gold Rush traditions of a "wide open city" serving the needs of single men.



In contrast, The Haight-Ashbury and The Castro started as "respectable" neighborhoods of family homes, far away from the "sinful" downtown. The Haight is especially attractive because it adjoins the first two public parks in SF (Golden Gate & Buena Vista, circa 1870); plus two university campuses (UCSF and Catholic USF). In the Sixties, the Haight attracted students from SF State (located in far southwest SF, on the M streetcar line, in a student-rejecting neighborhood), plus bohemians fleeing from increasingly touristy North Beach.
As the Haight became ever more hippified, it became (relatively) queer-friendly. There queer bohemians could form a semi-visble community, which they later expanded (and "outed") on nearby Castro Street.
Should the Haight/Castro complex, plus the feminist movement (Women's Building, etc.) be seen as the main ancestor of the lesbian-friendly Valencia queerea, near the Castro and inside the Latino Mission district?
Today, are we queers partly responsible for the wider ongoing "hipsterization" of the Mission, whereby educated childless English-speaking bohemians displace less-educated ("working-class") Sanish-speaking families?
Many hipsters chant "Shame! Shame!" at upward-mobile "yuppies",
ironically failing
to notice their demographic similarities.
Or is "irony" merely what We paint on Them?



Tortuga Bi LIBERTY
(downward-mobile in "the Trendyloin")
SF
Thursday, 17 March 2005
...............
[ Above LTE is posted on queer page of IndyBay.org
Could editors also, like,
link to poverty/housng page??? ]
........

PS:
things 2 do:


..........

CAL-SF: reading at
A Different Light, on Castro Street,
ONE TEACHER IN 10
(Second Edition)
Friday, March 18, 7pm
Brian Davis, Jan Goodman, Anafaith Lubliner
From Kevin Jennings, the director of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN),
comes a new collection of accounts by openly gay and lesbian teachers who tell about their struggles and victories, as they have put their own careers on the line to fight for justice. Each narrative recounts experiences as an openly queer teacher, or while coming-out.

http://www.adlbooks.com/events.cfm

Free.
..........


*CAL-SF: 19 March, Saturday:
another ANTI-WAR MARCH
[or Anti-Fascism march... ]

Gather 11am at Dolores Park.
in Mission District;
march to SF Civic Center;
rally 1 pm.
........

-- QUEERS meet near the main ENTRANCE STEPS,
at 19th & DOLORES, where we've met before.
Look for the "Queers for Peace and Justice" banner.
Everyone welcome.
Bring banners, signs, noisemakers, etc.
Let's be loud and visible.


-- NUDISTS: meet at 10:45 am, on main entrance steps,
19th Street & Dolores, where queers gather.
Wear clothing which you can slip out of and back into,
quickly and easily; such as a bathrobe,
a loose skirt, or a large towel.
Look for bizarrely decorated picket sign, held by person in blue mask.
Most nudes won't fully strip in the Mission District,
but will disrobe when entering the Civic Center area
(aka the Tenderloin).

......

CAL, northern: Berkeley:
Free compost
Saturday, March 19, enjoy National Nutrition Month
and get free compost matter for your garden
at the Berkeley Farmers' Market. Bring your own bucket(s).
10 a.m.-3 p.m.,
Berkeley Farmers' Market,
corner of Center and MLK Jr. Way, Berk.
Free.
(510) 548-333
http://www.ecologycenter.org
.............


20 March, Sunday morning, 10am:
Unitarian-Universalist Forum,
on "Making Women's History:
from America to Iraq".
FREE
1187 Franklin St, SF (near Geary & Van Ness).


http://www.uusf.org

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