San Francisco has been a haven for the LGBTQIA+ community since its free-wheeling frontier days in the 1850s, when cross-dressing and same-sex couplings were common practices among intimacy-starved Gold Rush miners. Queer-friendly saloons and dance halls that dotted its Barbary Coast red-light district in the following decade eventually gave way to bars and clubs like Mona’s, Finocchio’s, and Li-Po Lounge, which served San Francisco’s exploding LGBTQIA+ population, many of them ex-servicemen who were discharged from the military for being gay.
For its electrifying gay nightlife, far-out artists like Allen Ginsberg and The Cockettes, and groundbreaking gay-rights organizations (the Mattachine Society, Daughters of Bilitis, and the Society for Individual Rights), San Francisco was dubbed “The Gay Capital of America” by Life magazine in 1964.
Whenever queer freedoms were compromised by local politicians or police, the community was quick to jump off their bar stools and pick up protest signs. Three years before Stonewall, one of the first documented transgender uprisings in the U.S. occurred at Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin district.
As the gay liberation movement gained steam, the Castro district became ground zero for queer activism. Local camera shop owner Harvey Milk became the city’s first openly gay politician when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, famously fighting to defeat Proposition 6, which would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in California public schools. But even Milk’s assassination in 1978 and the subsequent AIDS epidemic couldn’t turn the tide in that century. In 2004, then-mayor Gavin Newsom permitted San Francisco City Hall to grant licenses to gay couples—an act that helped pave the way for the legalization of same-sex unions in all 50 states, which came in 2015.
Since the summer of 1970, San Francisco’s LGBTQIA+ community has held an annual parade and festival—part celebration, part protest—that’s known today as San Francisco Pride. If you’re looking to celebrate Pride in San Francisco this year while supporting gay businesses and causes at a time when queer rights remain at risk, here’s how (and where) to do it.
Where to watch the 2023 San Francisco Pride parade
The 53rd annual San Francisco Pride parade kicks off with San Francisco Dykes on Bikes this Sunday, June 25th, at 10:30 AM. Culminating at Civic Center, the two-hour parade with nearly 200 contingents includes hometown favorites Versaphere, Cheer San Francisco, and the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band.