| San Francisco: the Gay and Lesbian capital of the world! |
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History of the Rainbow Flag
The "world’s gay and lesbian capital" in the minds of many, San Francisco is also one of the United States’ most striking and beautiful cities. The setting is dramatic enough, with the hill, the bay, and the famous fog. Throw in the uniquely charming architecture, world-class restaurants and cultural institutions (including one of the best Asian art museums in the country), and a vibrant multicultural mix, and it’s clear why this city of just 725,000 has become a favorite destination for all manner of travelers, both novice and seasoned -- but perhaps none more than gays and lesbians.
Covering 47 square miles of peninsula jutting out into the Pacific Ocean, the site was first visited by Europeans (Sir Francis Drake’s expedition, to be exact) in 1579, but didn’t get the world’s attention until the famous gold rush began at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. San Francisco became known as a place to get rich quick -- and to spend it all, as the miners and other high rollers flooded to the pleasure places of the Barbary Coast. Such was its reputation as "Sodom by the Sea," that when the famous 1906 earthquake leveled the city, the moral guardians of the time saw the righteous hand of God at work.
But the city rebuilt and kept--even cultivated--its freewheeling reputation through the years, which is one reason it became a magnet for the counter-culture, including the flower children and their "Summer of Love" in the late 1960s, and the thousands of gays and lesbians who flocked here to escape intolerance and find a vibrant subculture that promised freedom, acceptance and belonging.
The gay and lesbian community of San Francisco is predominantly young (the average age is 31), and pervasive. Unlike other cities that have only one or two gay-popular neighborhoods, gays and lesbians live in every part of this metropolis. There are, however, a few hot spots, like lesbian-popular Noe Valley and the Mission; guppie-laden Pacific Heights; the anything-goes SoMa (South of Market); and such areas outside the city proper as Berkeley. But homo central is definitely the Castro. First settled by gay men in the early 1970s, along with New York City’s Christopher Street, this roughly 14-square-block area became a defining symbol of gay America. Today the Castro is less male and more diverse, but still a lively center of the city’s queer culture.
Visitors to the Bay Area will find that in many parts of the city’s gay and lesbian community a small-town intimacy reigns, with people placing more value on personal growth, spiritual exploration, and human rights than in most other urban areas. But like New Englanders, the locals can have a certain surface reserve that is easily cracked if you make the first move. Many folks still tend to be politicized but are less "in your face" about it these days. Lesbians play a larger and more visible role here than ever, and there are plenty of dyke venues for visiting women to enjoy.
Through all its travails--earthquakes and epidemics, gold rushes and market crashes, strikes and sit-ins--San Francisco has preserved a sense that it is in America’s progressive cultural land social vanguard. It’s easy for visitors to get swept up in that feeling, too, as they explore the ins and outs of the gayest city in the United States.
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