Black gay bars san francisco
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The Pendulum was the Castro’s only gay bar where black men and white men went comfortably to meet the other Castro bars catered primarily to whites. As Rick Crane told the Bay Area Reporter in 2014, “Gays as a group were considered second-class citizens and, ironically, gays themselves were treating gay blacks the same way - as second-class citizens.” Although racial tensions had eased somewhat from the flashpoints of the ‘60s and ‘70s, there was still a clear racial divide in the bars in the Castro.
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How many times did we hear in the early 1980s, “At least AIDS is killing all the right people”? The poster’s sex-positive message was condemned as an affront to decency and family values.Įven more lamentably, the poster inadvertently shone a light on the racial animus within San Francisco’s gay community. Even before AIDS, gay sex had been viewed as aberrant, “unnatural.” As an offshoot of that prejudice, AIDS was thought by many as a visitation of the wrath of God on immoral men who were violating God’s law. Regrettably, the poster also launched a two-pronged backlash, one prong based in religious prudery, the other in racism.īy asserting that gay sex could be both fun and safe, the poster was the first to portray gay sex as normal, healthy, and fun. Gray told me, “As the young kids would say today, ‘it went viral,’ no pun intended!” “You Can Have Fun Too” poster, created by Mick Hicks for SFAF, 1984 The poster caused a huge sensation and started appearing in gay bars, discos, and bathhouses from San Francisco to New York. The sex-positive message of the poster advocated “mutual masturbation,” “erotic massage,” “imagination and fantasies,” and “limiting social drugs.” The poster portrayed and promoted gay sex as normal, expected behavior, and emphasized the pleasure that could be had while still protecting oneself against transmission of the virus. Even the Chronicle columnist Herb Caen took notice of the photo. The image that Hicks created featured Robert, shot from the back, embracing a white model (Hicks’ partner Nick Cuccia), his white arm and bubble-butt standing out prominently against Robert’s skin. “You Can Have Fun (and be safe too)” read the final poster. I needed to take action, whatever I could do to be a voice of action and help my community.” He agreed on the spot to do the poster. I asked myself, ‘Why not?’ With AIDS affecting so many of my gay brothers and sisters, I felt it was my responsibility to do something to contribute to AIDS awareness and prevention. Having seen so many of my personal friends succumb to this deadly virus, I felt it was something I needed to do to help stop the spread of this horrific disease.
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“The gentleman advised me that a young photographer named Mick Hicks was looking for two subjects, one Black male and one white male, for the poster. One day, as 24-year-old Robert wandered down Castro Street, a man approached him and asked if he would pose for a photo for a safe-sex poster for San Francisco AIDS Foundation. I would find my way up through the bar scene during that time, sneaking into gay bars and discos.” Of course, he realized that AIDS was rampant through the city. “I went to high school four or five blocks from the Castro. “I had started meeting and dating guys in my junior year in high school,” he told me. He quickly accepted the commission.Īt the same time, a young Black man named Robert Gray, a native San Franciscan raised in the Bayview Hunter’s Point area of the city, and a proud sixth-generation descendant of the Georgetown 272 (a group of 272 African slaves who were sold, in 1838 by the Jesuit priests who ran George University to keep the school afloat), was rather well known in the Castro and Tenderloin areas. Hicks worked for virtually all the LGBTQ newspapers in the Bay Area and had spent a year and a half photographing people with AIDS, chronicling their struggle with the disease.
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In 1984, Rick Crane, director of the Foundation at the time, hired famed local photographer Mick Hicks to photograph two men for a safe-sex poster to be put in the city’s gay bars, baths, and other locations. As the virus spread through the gay community, the Foundation became a fervent advocate for safe-sex practices. From the beginning, they have known that neither being HIV-positive, nor the fear of contracting the virus, should prevent one from having a rich, satisfying sexual life. This article was produced in honor of San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s 40th anniversary, which we are commemorating in 2022.įrom its inception, San Francisco AIDS Foundation has approached the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in a very sex-positive manner.