All language subtitles for [English (auto-generated)] A History of the Castro Neighborhood in San Francisco KQED [DownSub.com]

good morning I'm Trevor good morning and

welcome to the Castro I'm delighted

you're here the first thing I might tell

you that where you stand as I speak

happens to be the heart of San

Francisco geographically this is the

center so I find it quite poetic that

the gay community houses The Heart of

the

City

more than a quarter century ago gay men

and women began leaving closets all

across America and coming to Castro

Street they came in fear and Defiance

and they came with hope to find a

promised land to get a job to meet a

lover most of all they came to find a

home lesbian and gay people are the only

people on Earth who have have to find

their tribe we aren't born into it you

have to have a place to go to find the

tribe and so you will start with the

most obvious place now you may not end

up living in the Castro forever but you

will go to the Castro at one point or

another I just came on my own to San

Francisco because you know I know there

so many gay people here somebody had to

help me and somebody had to like you

know I love my gay ghetto I feel safe

here I like it's small it's like growing

up it's like a small town you can walk

around and Sh with your girl or whatever

you know and it won't be no thing you

know holding hands kiss whatever you

know whatever you want to do

he hey Annie how are you fine good to

see

you so how you been good to see you

today we use the term gay neighborhood

and everybody knows what that means back

then

the concept of a gay neighborhood was

just brand

new what happened in the Castro did not

happen

easily in the space of a few years a

quiet neighborhood of European

immigrants became the Cornerstone of a

[Applause]

movement it arrived with an openness the

world had never

seen and didn't always

like there were

Heroes and martyrs

[Music]

a

struggle a

[Music]

plague the Castro is still a magnet

something about this place and what has

happened here keeps drawing people into

this little Valley in the heart of San

Francisco in Hawaiian history there's a

place called Hano and it was an island

which was called the City of Refuge and

if you were declared a criminal for any

reason which we still are in so many

states um if you were declared a

criminal you were given a head start and

if you got to the City of refu Refuge

alive you were allowed to live in it and

if you didn't make it there you were

killed and getting to the Castro getting

here for many lesbian gay people that is

still a

reality

[Music]

long before there was a Castro District

when that neighborhood was still known

as Eureka Valley there were homosexuals

in San Francisco it was just harder to

see them I often tell young people we

weren't just in closets we were under

rocks it was that bad um uh you were

really like a nonperson uh in spite of

your own personality your own

intelligence I don't know how to even

describe it it was just kind of an odd

feeling that you were out of it that you

didn't really belong in the

world we were certainly in the closet to

start with because that that was not a

really big time to be open you know

people were were getting I mean McCarthy

was still around and people were losing

jobs and people were losing friends and

family and and and people were

committing suicide and and being

arrested um for being in gay bars

and uh it was a very scary

time in the 1950s Society had shut tight

the closet door on

homosexuals in California it was illegal

for them to gather in public places or

to be served a drink there were Fierce

laws prescribing jail terms of up to 10

years for committing a homosexual act so

they had to learn to disguise themselves

to pass but they were there even in the

straight world's

[Music]

institutions

you know the old expression it takes one

to know one which is uh an expression

that must go way way back in gay

life I had heard that San Francisco was

friendly to a lot of different kinds of

people including gay people so when I

was transferred to the West Coast I

decided Well I'll go to San Francisco

and take a

look the second world war had brought

tens of thousands of young men and women

to the Bay Area and before long an

underground gay nightlife took rote in

the freewheeling area known as North

Beach the threat of arrest was always

there but people came hello hello

everybody we all welcome you the black

welc you we are glad that you're

here among the visitors was a gay couple

from New York Douglas cross and George

Cory were a songwriting team Charmed by

San Francisco's gay World they later

composed a valentine to the city they

had left

[Music]

behind for most of the 20th century

homosexuals and their friends live lives

the tourists couldn't see it was a world

of private

parties of unguarded moments far from

the city

in town from the Posh Apartments of Knob

Hill to the shabby tenderloin

homosexuals made for themselves not

neighborhoods but places to gather

always after

dark there was a separation between the

gay world and the straight world and gay

people didn't want to offend the

straight world

and there wasn't a sense of personal

rights or civil rights it was an

[Music]

accommodation it was really an Irish

neighborhood working class Irish filled

with kids the Holy Redeemer which is the

parish the Catholic parish here was is

just overflowing with

[Music]

kids people didn't write songs about

urea Valley but to the generations who

grew up here it was the city's Best Kept

little

secret this was the greatest

neighborhood in the world to grow up in

you're very proud to be Irish even

though I wasn't totally Irish IR Irish

Irish the only kind Irish German oh he

we don't know what ger

Italian

isian

IR well I tell you the whole

story Eureka Valley couldn't have been

more different from the Hidden World of

homosexuals here what connected neighbor

to neighbor was visible in broad

daylight on every block in every

face everybody I knew went to Holy

Redeemer and Holy Redeemer would have

picnics and everybody would go to that I

mean going on the train for the picnics

what could be better than that and and

you were with all of the people who your

parents worked with you went to school

with your parents had gone to school

with it wasn't just what lived in your

house was your family it was everybody

around you was

family in a Suburban bar and restaurant

a men's club calling itself the Eureka

Valley Alumni Association still meets a

few times a year to renew ties made in

the old neighborhood God bless all

here good to see all you guys you know

we've got over 3,000 years of friendship

in this room so

remember don't ever forget the Eureka

Valley it's great to see so many of the

younger group here today that's younger

that's anybody under

70 and we had the most bars of any

neighborhood in the city we had nine

bars within two box that keeps coming

up

all

they had come to Eureka Valley from all

over in the 1880s Irish German and

Scandinavian families homesteading on

the sunny slopes of Twin

Peaks farms and dairies that had once

belonged to Mexican land Barons like

Jose Castro were now a short street car

ride from downtown San

Francisco it was every working man's

dream to buy a cheap piece of land and

build a stately Victorian big enough for

several generations of the

family scattered houses soon yielded to

whole city blocks a bustling commercial

strip sprang up at 18th and Castro where

the stream used to run by the 1920s

Eureka Valley was a tight little

neighborhood promoting itself as the

sunny heart of San

[Music]

Francisco the Castro theater was the

babysitter for the neighbor Ood every

kid would come here and go to the little

candy shop next door to buy Penny Candy

load up on Penny Candy come in the

theater and look at two

[Music]

features

quick and

then a cereal Fred and I we worked at

the Castle Theater as ushers yeah right

yeah oh that was Castle Theater was

wonderful we had I think that was one of

my best jobs I ever had

let all your friends in for

nothing a compact neighborhood with good

weather lots of bars Charming houses a

great theater unbeknownst to its

residents Eureka Valley in the 1950s

contained the building blocks for the

gay culture that would transform the

neighborhood decades

[Applause]

later but gay people in the 50s weren't

claiming neighborhoods they were

scarcely t tolerated in

[Music]

public the bar at the St Francis Hotel

the Oak Room the men's bar opened right

off Powell Street and it had been a

friendly place but after the war was

over the management of the St Francis

decided that they wanted to change the

Ambiance the atmosphere of the oak they

began to let you know in very subtle

ways that they didn't appreciate your

being there they'd be very slow to fill

your drink

order but then came the time when the

management decided to take its next step

and they began putting a little card by

your drink as they give you the drink

they they' put a card on the bar and the

card

said the management of the St Francis

Hotel no longer appreciates your

patronage and within in a few weeks a

month the Oak Room was no longer a gay

bar City officials soon turned to less

subtle measures in 1955 police chief

Michael gaffy assigned the task to the

head of his sex crimes Squad who

described the scene homosexuals have

flocked into the city from all parts of

the United States they are everywhere

they fill the bars and the city's cheap

tender line District they throng

together in the city's parks and squares

instead of being known as Golden Gate

City San Francisco was being tabed queer

city or a Haven for

homosexuals my orders from Chief Michael

gaffy were get rid of this offensive

mess it wasn't an easy job Lieutenant

Elden

[Music]

beon

there was a horrible Crackdown in in 54

55 lots of arrests front page headlines

in the newspapers uh to get the homos

out of San Francisco to send them back

to where they came

from

they would not only take your name and

address they would take your

occupation and you can be pretty sure it

would be in the next day's newspaper and

if you were a teacher some other

professional person that meant the end

of your job many nights I was hauled out

of bed to go down to court and bail

people

[Music]

out those crackdowns made people scared

on the other hand it would make it made

people identify as a group more that

they are attacking us why Can't We

Gather in our own places how can we

don't have any places of our own why

don't they let us

have a few secret places where we can be

ourselves why can't we do

this quietly some homosexuals began to

organize two groups made their national

headquarters in San

Francisco though small their newsletters

were beacons to homosexuals around the

country by the early 60s there were an

estimated 50,000 gay men and women in

San Francisco and a handful of

organizations began talking about civil

rights for

homosexuals in

1964 Life Magazine even proclaimed this

the gay capital of the United States it

only fueled the crackdowns the raids got

worse and worse uh and finally

culminated in in on New Year's Day in

1965 with the California Hall benefit

for the Council on religion and the

homosexual the CR was a new organization

founded by gay leaders together with the

city's Progressive clergymen who were

beginning to preach tolerance for all

minorities the costume ball on New

Year's day was going to be a marra

fundraiser but to the police it was is

just another homosexual

[Music]

Gathering we got there early because we

were supposed to take tickets and Stu

people were coming in and they seemed

like out of breath and kind of excited

and so on but nobody said anything to us

about what was going on out there that

that's when one of the ministers looked

out the door and found there were police

all around and they were taking still

photographs of people going in and out

of the building and

movies the police demanded entrance

lawyers protested in vain and then just

all of a sudden the police raided the

place and turned on their cameras and

took people off to Patty wagons it was

Havoc I mean it was a chaotic kind of

thing police started arresting some of

the CR supporters among them were a

housewife and a straight attorney who

were hauled off in full view of the

[Music]

ministers the ministers the next day had

a press conference and were outraged

heterosexuals are being arrested for

associating with homosexuals and it was

ministers and lawyers who were

arrested public opinion turned at that

point they said the police are going too

far this is enough now the police in

this city and in this country don't make

the law all they do is enforce it and

prevent its violation they have no right

to tell people what to do to tell people

how to live they have no right to

embarrass

people the charges against all the

participants straight and gay were

thrown out and the police were ordered

to appoint a liaison to the city's gay

residents it was the first action of its

kind in the

nation this really made The Wider

Community aware that this was going on

and that we had put up with an awful lot

for an awfully long time and as a

turning point it was as important in San

Francisco as Stonewall turned out to be

in New York

4 years before the riots at New York's

Stonewall bar sparked a national gay

rights movement gays and lesbians in San

Francisco had come out of the

underground at the CR ball and I think

they finally began to realize that there

really was a rather large community of

people like themselves you know there

were other women and other men who felt

the same way they did and uh that's

where the political power really

began the power would grow slowly and it

would shake the foundations of the

modest little neighborhood on the slopes

of Twin

Peaks I Liv 10 years ago I left 30 years

ago I left 30 years ago too I left 40

years ago it's changed a lot let's put

it that way that's about all I can say

Eureka Valley did change but it wasn't

because new people moved in it was

because the old families had moved out

the GI Bill the GI Bill and Automobiles

because people moved away from the

Castro families weren't staying any

longer they were moving out there there

was a general Exodus going on very

slowly at

first what had happened in San Francisco

was that shops were empty here in the in

the Eureka Valley it wasn't the little

city contained here anymore because

Supermarket Safeway was open people went

away and shopped they got in their cars

and went shopping at Stonestown the

police weren't required to live in the

area anymore and the firemen either so

they had moved

out the tight-knit neighborhood was

fraying families rented out their old

victorians or let them go all together

my ex-husband was a cop and he worked

Mission Station he was totally afraid

that the neighborhood was going down the

tubes so he said say the house is for

sale I says what he says yeah we're

selling the house I don't want the kids

being raised here anymore he says you

know all that stuff's going out in the

hate he says it's coming over the hill

at

[Music]

us it was

1967 that summer just across the hill in

the ha Ashbury District a Revolution was

happening thousands of young men and

women from all over the country had

descended ended upon the neighborhood

and transformed it beyond

recognition the be the free love the

drugs and the music of the hate sent out

a message to a new generation that in

San Francisco you could be different and

as so often before Gaye heard the

call I had read in an old issue of Life

magazine in

1971 that gay people were moving to San

Francisco and I'd heard vague reference

to to homosexuals in San Francisco so it

seemed to me that this was a place of

Refuge living in Phoenix for for me was

all about hiding I knew I was gay from a

very early age and I knew that if anyone

found out I would be beaten up and

possibly even killed I mean it was that

way and still is that way in many parts

of the

country I grew up on the East Coast just

outside of Boston and I had always

identified as a lesbian and um that of

course it was a problem because I was

raised

Catholic and it was just so horrible the

things that the church said would happen

to you if you were lesbian or

gay I at 22 or 23 I in my mind was

heterosexual my partner was a woman but

I had had fantasies all my life as I

later realized what was happening um

back to the time that I was four

probably as far back as I can remember

had fantasies of men but I never acted

on any of those and I didn't know that I

was coming to something that was going

to become a gay

Mecca I didn't know anyone when I came I

had

$400 and I got on a plane I didn't want

the plane to land at I I realized I

really didn't have any idea where I

was but I like the city right

away people really were somewhat

different

oh this was a different planet

everything about San Francisco was

different from the glitter in the

sidewalks to the way the fog rolled in

to the fact that you could see other

people on the street that you knew were

gay I immediately fell in love with a

man and then I knew something was

different that really was the beginning

of a real major change in my life I uh

ended up in a commune of sorts in the

hate and the hate at that time was

devastated really destroyed by heroin

and violence it's nothing like it is

today most of the storefronts were

boarded up so I was one of those people

that moved over the hill uh from the

hate to come to the Castro for cheap

housing the new wave of gay immigrants

needed a place to settle and word spread

about The Faded victorians convenient to

downtown I moved into a flat in the

Castro with a group of

lesbians um we all used to live in these

Flats and the people still do now with a

lot of people every single room was

turned into a

bedroom the very first time I came to

San Francisco which was February of 73 I

went to a party I don't remember how I

got there on the top of the hill up

above Castro Street one of the men who

lived in the this Victorian apartment

who held the party I was really

attracted to him I stayed on slept with

him he took me up to his b bony and it

overlooked the entire city the lights

were glittering all over the city and

the bay and he said Welcome to Oz and I

thought oh God this is really it I have

finally come to where I've been looking

for

somewhere over the

rainbow way up

high there a

land that I heard of

Once In A

[Music]

L as young gays made their way from all

over the country they began to turn the

little village on the slopes of Twin

Peaks into something the world had never

seen a kind of gay

Hometown dreams that you dare to

dream really do come

[Music]

true one by one Eureka Valley's sagging

businesses gave way to new owners with a

new

clientele the maternity shop became

All-American boy the Castro theater

began showing Classics and art

films Most Holy Redeemer Church didn't

exactly welcome the new neighbors so

they formed their own the Metropolitan

Community

Church and when two lesbians bought the

twin peak's bar they installed plate

glass windows the first gay bar in the

nation where the patrons were on view

for the world to

see it just felt like a little a little

town and you saw though a lot especially

of gay men walking around and some

lesbians and people seemed to be a

little bit more relaxed and you were in

the

daylight and everything I had

experienced on the East Coast around

being gay was happened at night it's

sort of like you only came out after

Sundown I was at a point where I was

making a switch from my life where I

had kept my gay life private and

separate and after hours I was beginning

to want a more integrated experience of

being out and gay 24 hours a day

so I decided that it's time to step out

into the sunlight and become part of uh

of a gay community that was emerging to

be able to walk around on the street and

to not be shutting down part of myself

so that I wouldn't be

detected and uh that meant so much and

and it started to change me

dramatically really

dramatically you

never you remember dancing at the M

shaft in those moments when you smoke a

joint and there'd be all these lights

and fans and this wonderful disco music

which where you felt this beat that

really United you and you had I had this

kind of spiritual moment or a vision

where you could say this is what it

could be like you have you can see what

it could be like and be inside it and

feel it if we we were totally

[Music]

[Music]

free my poor father couldn't understand

what was happening he say I don't know

what the hell is happening with him God

damn holding hands on the street for

Christ's sake you know he was funny I

remember them and more my father being

um horrified and and that that they came

from this very rigid

Catholic uh straight upbringing and the

Very idea that homosexuals were moving

into the neighborhood uh was was scary

to them they didn't know what that meant

for

them my boy had come home and he'd say I

don't want to be gay am I going to be

gay will I be gay and this went on for

two years there were problems with the

kids there are still problems with kids

coming here

but I have to say looking back on it

that I think it's remarkable how little

resentment there was part of it economic

it's not exactly like people were forced

out of here it's more like they sold out

to get out of here and they made

enormous profits on their real estate

well uh actually we moved because uh my

kids grew up and they're out of

school uh but mostly uh it was because

the gay people moved in and not that we

didn't like the gays or anything like

that but uh my boys wanted to get off

the dinner table and run down the street

and and see what they uh pick up fight

with somebody or something my oldest boy

got in with a group of people at one of

the early festivals and somebody made a

pass unfortunately now this is not

saying my son was right because he

wasn't but there was a physical

alocation and uh it was

nasty I mean he he was brought up on

charges and uh what did he do well he he

physically attacked the man and threw

him through a

window the incidents became more

frequent in the mid '70s there was a

wave of gay bashings in nearby parks the

gay church was set on fire twice and at

toad Hall a hangout for gay hippies

arson fires hit three times in 3

months

not since the crackdowns of the50s had

San Francisco's gays been the targets of

such

hostility but this time the community

had a home

base and it was about to gain an

unlikely spokesman a camera store owner

on Castro Street named Harvey

[Music]

Milk

we don't want to be harassed uh and also

we want the equal opportunity for work

like I pay my taxes but I'm not allowed

to be a policeman oh they say you are

but you aren't I'm not allowed to be a

fireman and if I have to pay my taxes

why shouldn't I have civil rights Harvey

Milk was quite a character you know he

uh it's funny to me to hear the legends

about him now because so few of them to

me have any connection with the man that

I remember who was

always irreverent often irritable his

personal life was in in disarray but

Harvey I think reflected uh what we were

about he had been a republican he had

been a stock broker from New York City

and then he drove across country and

came to Castro Street to be gay that was

the first thing he came here to be

gay Harvey Milk was convinced that a

neighborhood was more than a place to

live it was the building block for

political and economic power something

gays had never had the camera store

became a hangout for neighborhood

activists I met Harvey because I used to

take a lot of photographs and he ran the

camera shop so I would take my film down

to Harvey's camera shop and give him my

my film the process and you know he had

the barber chair there and we just talk

and and just you know chat up on on

castra

street I'm giving a few moments to tell

you why you should

vote for me I represent the voices

crying out nurses Doctors Hospitals

buses homes by

1973 Harvey Milk was running for City

supervisor ponytail and all he set up

ironing boards on the corner of 18th and

Castro and registered the new gay

neighbors to vote he lost the election

but he Charmed many of the oldtimers my

oldest daughter was 12 at the time and

was going to Gratton school and we had

taken pictures of uh her graduation at

Gratton and I brought him down to

Harvey's uh camera store on cter Street

it was the my first time ever meeting

him and I brought the film in and went

back a couple of days later to pick it

out and brought the films home and we

all the kids at our sitting around the

table at my grandmother's house and

we're looking ready to open up these

pictures of Jennifer's graduation and it

was all of naked

men

so I said well that's not a

graduation so I brought the films back

to Harvey and I said and this was the

first time I you know I didn't even know

who he was really I said I think I've

got the wrong film and so he opens it up

and he said yes I think that you did and

they laugh and you know and and from

that moment on I just was uh endeared to

him he dubbed himself the mayor of

Castro Street and began organizing the

new gay Merchants when they tried to

join for es with the long-standing

Eureka Valley Merchants Association they

were

stonewalled the traditional Merchants

had no interest in cooperating with the

newcomers so Harvey Milk became

president of a new group they called

themselves the Castro Village

Association Castro Village not Eureka

Valley it was a subtle change but it

meant everything so when people began to

talk about the neighborhood it was in a

different way it because for the first

time we were claim this as our

neighborhood and I think many of the

original inhabitants didn't particularly

care for our our our passionate

attachment to the area because within

just a few years of the gay influx uh

this became very much gay

Turf I got angry I got angry at the

first time they shut the street down I

got angry what the hell is

[Music]

this

we never could shut the street down ever

you know City Hall would be on your neck

but

uh the tide was too great I could not

hold it back by

myself street fairs Pride parades

Halloween parties Castro Street's annual

events were becoming Citywide gay

holidays the crowds came and they stayed

by

1977 as many as 20,000 gays had moved

into the cast

to be part of a full-fledged movement

and thousands more visited every weekend

the Little Valley was hatching a brand

new

[Music]

culture I will never forget our first

our first Halloween party oh oh

Lorden well I mean talk about costumes

there were some with no

costumes you know which for us boys from

the Midwest

was the cro was like Migra every weekend

and Sylvester was singing and I mean it

was just it was wonderful it was

absolutely wonderful it was like dying

and going to heaven the new immigrants

came from mainstream mainly White

America and they brought their

institutions with them there were gay

softball leagues a gay chorus three gay

and lesbian newspapers a gay and lesbian

tap troop and at the center of it all a

kind of

Cathedral go see a Betty Davis movie at

the Castro theater with a bunch of

Queens all the lines that Betty Davis

comes out with we know them by heart but

of course everybody's screaming and

carrying on what we were doing is

creating our own gay versions of the

entire world in a much more fabulous way

hey

[Music]

hey got be

a there was a look that kind of develop

the So-Cal clone

look short hair and shav their beards

often and had

mustaches the work shirt the Levis and

the hiking goods and then men were

beginning to do bodybuilding so there

was like you know built

bodies I shaved my beard had a mustache

cut my hair

um uh didn't do bodybuilding well I was

an older older guy I wasn't exactly a a

kid anymore but I didn't want to look

like I didn't belong So I dressed the

way everybody else did when I'd go out

to the bars um people were sort of

establishing a group identity and I had

I had a lot of trouble with that myself

um I felt that I had spent 10 years of

my life breaking away from the pack and

becoming an individual person and when

this sort of group look and group

thought began to emerge in the C it was

too much for me I get off the bus and I

look around and there's all these very

kind of buffed

mustached white men in their late 20s

early 30s uh running around who look uh

exactly the same in in their attire and

I'm like well I guess this is the gay

neighborhood but it sure is a vanilla

gay neighborhood as a there's there's

nobody here who looks like me Brian

Freeman had moved from Boston as a young

actor Landing a cheap apartment in the

Castro the gay culture he found nearly

drove him out there was uh uh some party

honoring Gone With The Wind that was up

at one of the bars so it had Confederate

flags flying and all all of this sort of

Ro romantic Southern hoop skirts and of

course all the Mam and it's

like you know but kind of under the

cover of it's gay and it's camp but Camp

to who who's this funny

for my friends who were gay men of color

began listening to them more and they

would tell me this is your neighborhood

not our neighborhood we get carded at

the bars and it made me realize this is

this is a white phenomenon here within

the white world of the Castro people of

color staked out their own small Havens

like the pendulum bar but they were few

and far

between I always call myself the the

last black man in the Castro I'm I'm not

there's there's other folks in the

neighborhood but for everyone who is not

a white game male we constantly get the

signal that this isn't

ours most lesbians we talked to didn't

want to go there very much of at all it

was definitely a male scene yeah and it

was definite that they just assumed we

didn't bother to come around too I mean

I think that was pretty obvious

especially in the bars there were some

gay men who had a tremendous amount of

attitude about women it was about uh

just wanting all the women out of the

Castro you know as time went on the

population increased there was just more

and more men out on the streets it was a

very sexually charged

neighborhood we believed that sex was

good that sex between consenting adults

was a good

thing and that was quite a radical

notion back then and in many quarters

it's still a radical notion you come

here from the Midwest and you know this

is quite an experience I felt like a

little boy in a candy store and I'm glad

we had 10 years under our belt when we

came here we might had a little problem

yeah there were a lot of very pretty

boys watching yeah there were it was

wonderful you know there were the

Temptations there but we had made a

commitment and you know we were very

much in love I think we need to answer

that question

again well we we Robert we went through

our period of time well but we still

were committed you know well we were

committed to one another but we did fool

around we tasted the candy in the candy

store we took a few samples yeah we took

a few samples one night

stands hell one minute stands

but there

were uh there there was something

there that showed the best of

um of human

warmth you forget the newness of it and

there was an innocence about it a naive

really about the whole thing that I

think gets lost now um people talk about

the the bath houses and the sex clubs

and things like that and it all sounds

very Toddy and and jaded but I don't

remember it that way I remember it as

being terribly exciting terribly

romantic and very much about the

individual exploration and Liberation

that was occurring in our

[Music]

lives

Felicia Felicia grew up in the middle of

that it was uh her neighborhood her

environment so to her it was you know it

was the ocean that she swam in just

before he had come out as gay Walter

Park and his partner had had a baby

daughter Felicia park Rogers would spend

half of her childhood in the

Castro it was fun it was really fun

there were people around all the time

smiling happy people um and as a really

basically like a cute little girl

walking down the street with my dad with

my cute gay dad um people would stop on

the street and give me money and give me

candy and there weren't a lot of me

around and so they were extraordinarily

loving because of that she knew that I

was seeing men and they were home with

me um they were in my bed they were

there in the morning in the kitchen

sexuality and politics they were present

they were around me and I was aware of

them and although a lot of people tried

to paint that as a negative thing it was

a very positive thing and um my dad took

me to meetings almost every night he was

very much a neighborhood activist and I

would sort of play with my Barbies in

the corner while people talked about all

kinds of things fought about all kinds

of things they were arguing more than

local issues in

1977 gays and lesbians in the Castro

found themselves once again under attack

this time not from their neighbors but

from Across the Nation Glory Glory

Hallelujah Glory Glory

hallelu Anita Bryant a former Miss

America runnerup was campaigning to

overturn a gay rights ordinance in

Miami's Dade County she took her message

Nationwide forming an organization

called save our

children the Fate they were being saved

from it seemed was San

Francisco the Orange Bowl Parade Miami's

gift to the nation wholesome

entertainment but in San Francisco when

they take to the streets it's a parade

of homosexuals men hugging other men

cavorting with little boys wearing

dresses and makeup the same people who

turned San Francisco into a hot bed of

homosexuality want to do the same thing

to Florida the message struck a national

cord in Dade County the repeal of gay

rights won a crushing Victory soon

anti-gay rights measures were appearing

on ballots in Minnesota Kansas Oregon a

full-fledged backlash was underway

and it HD home even in the safe haven of

San Francisco seven blocks from Castro

Street in the height of the Anita Bryant

campaign in Dade County there was a

young gay man murdered on South Van

Street beaten to death by Thugs who

screamed [ __ ] while they killed him

his name was Robert

Hillsboro and his

murder brought thousands and thousands

of people out into the streets and in my

memories of this time it seems to me

that this is when gay people having

found each other also found our strength

and our courage and we went from dancing

on planet candy store to becoming a

serious political force in this city and

the state and around the

[Music]

country they took their queue from the

Civil Rights Movement they gathered and

they

marched

the cter then became this place where

you went when there was a crisis you

could go there and find out what people

were doing and if you didn't know what

people were doing then you just be there

and figure out what you were going to do

you just March somewhere I would uh get

my mograph thing going you know we' put

up Flyers out on the telephone poles and

we had phone treats and we would call I

would call 10 people and I'd have them

call 10 people and each of them would

call 10 people and in a matter of hours

literally we could turn out 10 25 35,000

people angry on Castro Street with

whistles no matter how many activists

came of age in the neighborhood the gay

community there was still shut out of

elected

offices by

1977 its favorite son had been defeated

three times in Citywide elections but

that year the city switched to

district-based

elections all those densely packed

victorians suddenly became more than a

neighborhood they were a voting block

District 5 Harvey Milk could run for

supervisor solely in his own

[Music]

backyard facing 16 Challengers he

mounted a furious

campaign on Election Day the Castro

District made Harvey Milk the first

openly gay elected official in

California and among the first in the

nation

the morning of his swearing in he made a

triumphant March out of the Castro to

City Hall for many it meant that gay

people were finally joining the ranks of

the

[Music]

legitimate the gay Freedom Day Parade of

1978 was the biggest ever

350,000 people crammed Market

[Music]

Street at least on that day the tener of

the times seemed one of Tolerance even

acceptance far beyond the bubble of the

castra 5 months later the bubble

[Music]

burst

as president of the Board of Supervisors

it's my duty to make this

announcement both mayor

mosone and supervisor Harvey

Milk have been shot and killed Jesus

Christ

[Music]

the the

suspect is supervisor Dan

White Dan White a troubled ex policeman

with an anti-gay voting record as a

supervisor confessed to the killings

that

afternoon by that time the Castro was in

[Music]

shock I will never forget that day for

as long as I live I just thought well

it'll all end somebody has killed them

so that our life as we know it is going

to end in San Francisco it did make me

think we're never going to get out of

there we might have a little ghetto that

we can move around in but we're never

going to be able to take our place at

the table they'll just kill us you know

um and but what was amazing then is

there was even at that time sort of the

TomTom

start um and a few hours later we got

the word to go down to Castro Street and

to bring

[Music]

candles people left their homes and

their places of for and their schools

and they came to Castro

Street and that

incredible silent March this River of

candles down Market

[Music]

Street the idea to walk out of the

Castro in such a large group to City

Hall was very

[Music]

empowering

[Music]

then there was that day the verdict came

down and that's when I we found out he

he you know this slap on the wrist and

that was uh and I was so enraged I I

hadn't ever felt such a a focused rage

before in my life Dan White had been

convicted not of murder but of

manslaughter and was sentenced to serve

less than 8

years as they had on the night of the

assassinations gays and lesbians swarmed

out of the Castro to City Hall but this

time they did not carry

candles I was part of the crowd that was

chanting no violence no violence and I

thought wait a

minute the violence has been done by Dan

White getting basically let off for

murdering muscone and milk

and the anger had to be expressed

somehow I really felt it I felt like

things things had to be

[Applause]

[Applause]

destroyed

somebody began to burn the cop cars and

after a little while all the sirens and

all those cars went off they sounded

like they were all crying we heard the

death cries of these police cars just

wailing and wailing and it was just it

was what happened that night it was it

was a night of

wailing just waiting for the

mayor the riot at City Hall lasted 3

hours When the Smoke finally cleared 12

squad cars had been destroyed 61 police

officers and 100 demonstrators have been

hospitalized just after 11:00 the police

force angry and humiliated struck back

and they did it in the

C when the police came into the

Castro people who had been

non-combatants people who had gone out

of their way to avoid the fight fighting

avoiding avoid the demonstration we

outraged what are you doing here this is

our neighborhood get out we do not need

you here we do not want you here you

must

leave and it really felt like War it

really felt like War cuz Dan White had

been a

[Music]

cop a wave of police would come down the

street and then when they passed my

roommate Eric Garber and I would run out

and drag in the people who had been

clubbed we had blood all over our

apartment at 18th in Castro police

officers stormed a bar known as The

Elephant Walk some hid their badges as

they smashed windows and attacked the

patrons the castra was the symbol to

them and to many other people that this

was where we thought we could be safe

and they were going to prove to us that

we weren't going to be safe there at

that moment I saw this is really not

only the place where we have our shops

where we hang out but this is a much

bigger symbol uh that was

[Music]

gay martyrdom you know always has a

tremendous impact mhm there was some

hope that all the queers would go back

the closet but do you know what there's

no that did not

[Music]

happen like the rest of the neighborhood

Thomas and Robert Van etton did not go

back into the closet after the

assassination if anything it brought

them out at work and at

home I wanted to announce to the world

two gay men live in this house well we

did that when we painted it purple well

I mean but but no but I mean in 78 I

mean we just said there's a couple

Queens living here and please notice no

doubt no doubt there's a rainbow flag

here

Pride just plain old Pride I'm who I am

and you know why shouldn't I be proud if

other people have a problem with that

that's their problem I'm not going to

make it my problem anymore I did that

too

long rainbow Flags in the neighborhood

were only the most visible signs of how

entrenched the gay community had become

in the

Castro despite its setbacks the gay

Hometown was now a boomed town real

estate prices were Skyhigh the stores

were

thriving in the bars politicians now

dutifully courted the influential gay

vote and sought the backing of a new

wave of community

leaders it had been less than 10 years

since the first trickle of openly gay

men and women had come to the Valley now

they enjoyed more concentrated wealth

political strength and civil liberties

than gays anywhere in the

nation so as the 1980s began the

neighborhood partied into the night

unaware that a terrible enemy was

already loose in the

[Music]

streets in the early ' 80s Walgreens

Pharmacy was called star Pharmacy and

they had pictures on the window of

people with these spots on their bodies

and they said if you have this this is a

gay

cancer it really kind of freaked you out

you you you went home and you looked at

your body any little Mark you thought

well my goodness you know no one knew

how you got it but it was just but then

John got sick and you know it really

scared us cuz we thought oh uh you know

we don't want to catch

this John Sims who had founded the gay

and lesbian marching band was the van

eton's friend and nextd door

neighbor the strange illness he faced

was cropping up in dozens and then

hundreds of gay men in San

Francisco the Castro was Ground

Zero I first started to hear about

AIDS when I

was must have been 10 or

11 it was in the very early 80s

and people started to die pretty quickly

in my

life most of my dad's lovers died by

this time now in life they have all died

and and that started when I was 11 or 12

um Milton was the first person and he

got sick and died within a couple months

just boom happened and that was one that

hit me really hard too because Milton

was this very vibrant young man and he

was everything that Castro was about

tight jeans and all night parties and

total celebration of his sexuality and

everything that that embodied and then

he just died really quickly and

painfully without support and without

medical attention or

anything didn't feel particularly

threatened I was having relatively safe

sex I thought the odds of my being

uninfected were

good um I guess at some point the odds

just began to mount up you know at some

point 10% of the community was infected

so your odds of getting something for

one and 10 but a few years later 60% was

infected well then the odds are

completely

different in 1985 Walter Park found out

that he had tested positive for the

virus that causes AIDS his daughter

Felicia was 14 years old he didn't tell

her the

news I did think that I was going to die

right away I did think that I was going

to have this horrendous problem with

Felicia I wanted to raise Felicia and it

changed the way I did a whole lot of

things

um I moved into a co-op because I wanted

Felicia to know everybody in the

building and I wanted everybody in the

building to know her so there would be a

support group right there at home when I

got sick and died which I thought would

be tomorrow morning people died so much

faster then you know you'd see somebody

in

April and they were fine and then you'd

see them in June and they say they've

been diagnosed and then you wouldn't see

them again you know it was just uh

really really hard really

scary people forget how long we had had

to operate without any real information

about transmission or

cause so there was a lot of Hysteria and

the people who got sick many of them

were not treated

well John got sick and unfort I'm not I

don't even like to admit this uh but you

know we kind of turned our back on him

and I really didn't want to go over

there he had thresh and it was very

visible on his tongue and um

he had something going on with his brain

so he had periods of dementia it scared

me I didn't want to be around him and I

didn't know if if being near him I would

get sick mhm that this I might catch

this from him how stupid you know but in

those days

that's maybe how a lot of us were

reacting uh just everywhere I looked uh

friends were toppling

um many of them very very talented

people who'd given so much to the

community suddenly you had to realize

they were all going you know I would go

through an address book and realize that

I've had to cross out all kinds of names

and telephone

numbers as the numbers grew and grew it

got to be really rather

terrifying

[Music]

there were times um in the late ' 80s

the early '90s

where I would be standing on a street

corner in the Castro and realized that

there was almost no man there between

the age of 35 and 45 everybody was

younger or older and there was this

whole missing segment of people or else

that they were that I was surrounded by

men in their 30s or 40s who were using

canes and Wheelchairs

and looked like old men long before they

[Music]

should you

couldn't imagine a more depressing

neighborhood to live in um when it

really hit I mean There Was You Know

denial was was going pretty strong uh

for a long long time here but when it

really hit this this was a war zone it

was really really a war zone on Castro

Street many shops closed or changed

hands the political rallies turned into

AIDS vigils by 1990 more than 10,000 San

franciscans had died of the disease

disas most of them familiar faces in the

[Music]

Castro the neighborhood adopted a kind

of ritual grieving when cleave Jones

founded the names project AIDS Memorial

quilt based in a storefront near the

corner of Castro and Market Streets it

became a way for a community and then a

nation to come to grips with the

epidemic more and more of our friends

started getting sick

and and then we began seeing what people

were going through the

estrangement that people dising yeah and

we had kind of done that to John so we

said uh-uh so we started doing um

delivering meals and then it just it

just grew I mean we just got more and

more involved and we continued to be

very involved with it

today Thomas and Robert vanetten began

volunteering at the aid support group in

their Church

the street

right they are parishioners at Most Holy

Redeemer the Bastion of Eureka Valley

now embracing the gay community at once

shunned they've even turned the old

Convent into an AIDS

hospice the disease caused many

transformations in the life of the

neighborhood nightly parties gave way to

benefits and support

groups lesbians long estranged from from

the neighborhood returned in full force

as caregivers running blood drives and

as Leaders running for

office the social and political web spun

in the 70s became a safety net and the

community's response to AIDS was called

a national model it all came at a

terrible price the toll continued to

mount in

1988 a lover of my dads who I had become

really close with I call him my fairy

Godmother and he um took me shopping and

he bought me jewelry and he talked about

boys with me and talked about oh well

you know how old should you be when he

first have sex and like I mean he

was he he was my fair godmother and um

he started to get sick and when he was

in the hospital he didn't want me to

come and visit because he wanted me to

remember him as he

was and then and then he did die in 1988

after my my friend died um sometime

after that Felicia asked me if I had

AIDS and I for the only time in my life

told her a calculated lie I said no I

don't this is when she was in high

school I just didn't want to sort of

bring this Dark Cloud over her life and

also she was a kid I thought she should

should be an unencumbered kid for longer

and I really I wrestled over that for a

long time and maybe I made the wrong

decision but that was my decision then

but when she was in college she seemed

to me to be grown she was away living on

her own and I thought I have to tell her

so I went to St

Paul and I just sat down outside one day

and and said I want to tell you

something I want to tell you that I do

have

HIV and I'm obviously pretty well but

sometimes is going to

unfold it was the most difficult thing

I've ever

done my dad has been the main Foundation

of my life and the immediate feeling and

they always say this in HIV counseling

is that the immediate feeling to people

who are told that they're positive is

that they're going to die the next day

and that's what I felt about my dad like

he's going to die the next day like and

and really

um in a very

painful way like Milton like Martin like

so many people that I had that I had

known and

um and now here it is so many years

later and he's still as healthy as can

be so I just don't I just don't know

what to do about it anymore um I guess

at this point I've really come to terms

with it and we've worked really hard to

to make our

relationship be the best that it can be

in the present and um that's sort of

that whole thing of you

know if somebody that you loved was hit

by a bus an hour ago and what do you

wish that you could have said to them

I've said all those things to my dad now

just in

case uh I feel good about my sex life

when I say fabulous I always feel like

my hair is better which it's not but I

feel good about my hair when I say

fabulous and I like to say it because I

like to talk like a gay guy and uh you

know and I really want to thank the game

we needed a comedy club our community

being hit with AIDS we needed to have

some sustenance you know comedy is uh is

entertainment yeah but it's also very

political and it's people expressing

ideas and a lot of communication going

on like so many cultural institutions in

the Castro Josie's Cabaret and Juice

joint has been hit by AIDS this evening

is a benefit for its ailing founder

Donald

mon anyway Donald encouraged me to play

here he encouraged me to play stray

clubs which at first made me very

nervous you know I remember when I was

outside of the punchline for like one of

the first times and I'm like well

they're going to know I'm a big

Dyke they're probably not going to like

my material maybe I should have written

some straight jokes so I actually wrote

a straight joke I'll do that for you

this

evening so I was talking to my boyfriend

today that's the whole joke there's

no the audiences that cheer at josies

aren't simply those who survived the 70s

in its Darkest Hour the Castro gained a

new voicey there we care why don't they

care 48,000 dead from a where was George

60,000 dead from

[Applause]

a out of the anger and frustration of

the a struggle a young generation of

gays and lesbians came of age in the

1980s like the generation before them

they came to the Castro and though few

of them had grown up there and most

could not afford to live there they

claimed it as their own I got bite the

attitude that I saw with the younger

people toward the Castro is that the

cast flow was theirs and if something

came up that they didn't like uh they

would take the street quite

literally and they were so sure of

themselves and so positive and uh and

articulate it's a generation that from

my perspective has taken for granted all

the stuff that we had done to make that

into a gay neighborhood and I love that

I was so proud of them and so so happy

to see them CU I was afraid they

wouldn't be

[Applause]

[Music]

there for the last 5 years on the eve of

the gay Freedom Day Parade lesbians have

converged onto Castro Street to join in

the Dyke

March as gay men cheer on the sidelines

women take over the neighborhood a

subversive act that is quickly becoming

a tradition of its

own

in some ways I guess at the night of the

Dyke March it becomes a lesbian Enclave

instead of just a gay male Enclave I

think it's

lovely I really

[Applause]

[Music]

do it's not only women who are more

visible in the Castro as the

neighborhood gentrifies families both

traditional and not so traditional have

found themselves attracted by the

virtues Eureka Valley always boasted and

now a special kind of family has found

its way to the Castro where a small

house opened its doors to gay

teens

go okay play LC is kind of a Centerstone

I think and a lot of young queer

people's you know life they help you out

with services tonight is movie and pizza

night it becomes your second home it

becomes a place where you can go and say

damn I've had a bad day you know I don't

want to see my family right now I don't

want to be alone where can I go lyric

after school

program

that's when I was growing up my

sexuality theoretically felt really

clear to me I understood very clearly my

parents sexuality and I understood very

clearly that I was straight and there

was just no questions about that and I

was also very aware though nobody ever

said this to me there was the

possibility that because my parents were

both gay that they would make me gay and

that was bad and wrong ficia did have a

sense which I really wasn't very aware

of at the time it's only since we've

talked about it later that I've really

become aware of it that in some way she

wanted to show the world that a gay man

and a lesbian woman could have a an okay

kid and I think for a long time she took

that to mean a heterosexual kid that

somehow we hadn't tainted her when I was

in my late teens and when I moved away

from home to start college I started

questioning my own sexuality and I did

end up coming out on bisexual

and and um and there are a lot of times

where I get a lot of questions like oh

well are you that way because of your

parents or things like that

and my answer is no I'm this way because

I am this way you know

Felicia wanted to go way to college but

after she was gone a few years she

wanted to come home she wanted to be in

her community for one thing and when she

came back into her community it seemed

that almost immediately she met someone

who was

really her person the right person for

her and I met Rachel very soon after

they met each other and it was it was

real clear right away first that Rachel

was really extraordinary herself

and secondly that they were an

extraordinary couple for them the

neighborhood probably means something

different than it did to me when I was

25 when I was 25 it meant that there

were gay men here in an

island and we really needed each other

in a certain kind of way and now I feel

like they're more in a kind of a more

natural Community they don't desperately

need to be near Castro Street they could

live this life somewhere else the couple

now share a flat just a few blocks from

where Felicia grew up but they chose to

live in the Castro with some serious

reservations there actually are very few

people in this neighborhood who are 26y

old women there are mostly there it's a

very male neighborhood it's a it's a um

it's an older neighborhood and it's a

quite wealthy neighborhood and um

sometimes it doesn't feel like a very

comfortable place there's very few cafes

that I feel comfortable going into as a

woman there's a lot of cafes there's a

lot of restaurants there's places where

people should be able to hang out and

mingle as a young person most of them I

can't afford and um a lot of them as a

woman I don't feel comfortable going

into and if you're under 21 forget it

there's like 30 bars within a few blocks

there's no place really for kids to

enjoy themselves anymore in Castro

besides lyric but yeah there's there's

nothing really to do out here and this

is supposed to be like the gay

neighborhood you know like where we're

supposed to feel welcome and and feel

like this is like our place to be you

know but it's not really our place you

know it's more like a place for like old

white dudes you

know in many ways the Castro

neighborhood is kind of like a mirage it

is on its surface supposed to be one

thing and in reality another thing um

people come here thinking it's the gay

Mecca when you get here you find that

actually it's a commercial strip there's

stores and there's houses and they're

all expensive 25 years ago Harvey Milk

imagined a gay neighborhood with

economic Cloud it has arrived but so has

a rampant commercialism he might not

have predicted his old camera store now

sells skin care products gay memorabilia

is reduced to Decor at the old Elephant

Walk now a trendy Cafe called

Harvey's and though volunteers still

register voters at the corner of 18th in

Castro the neighborhood can sometimes

feel like a gay theme park we won't have

time to go through but by all means come

back to brandex antiques treat yourself

to a visit there's headlines for women

there's an admission fee of $2 show them

your Rainbow ribbon and you can go for

$1 and like you know how many how many

juice bars does a neighborhood really

need how many gyms does a neighborhood

really need the tourists can have them I

think that's who really supports them

when they come in on the weekend and

they want to do the Castro let them go

eat that bad food and greasy omelets and

stare at the muscles on the waiters they

can have it as long as I've lived here

I've always complained about the

neighborhood but I stay here so what

does that you know what does that tell

you it's a LoveHate

relationship there's a lot about the

Castor that that is not perfect and that

I would like to see change there's also

things about it that are really glorious

and that I really love and that I

couldn't find anywhere else Rachel and I

can stand in the Castro and we can hold

hands and we can kiss each other and we

can be loving towards each other and

have other people see that and recognize

it and pay homage to it and be happy for

us about it rather than be scared that

they are going to kill us for it it's

easy to start to take that for granted

and it's so important that it's

[Music]

there it's like a freeing place for me

though cuz I live a freeing place cuz

where I live I can't act the same way

that I act down here like flamy down

here cuz I have to put on that that

brother limp and have to talk all deep

and be like what's up and right here I

could just be like

[Music]

myself you

the day of the ceremony I was complete

Bing idiot I had no idea what I was

doing um I didn't know what to say to

people I was just kind of walking around

trying to you know stay upright that was

about as far as I could

[Music]

get I was kind of a

struck I also began to realize the

magnitude of the commitment that they

were making to each

other um

it's I knew it all along I'd seen I knew

them I listened to them talked to each

other for years I knew what they were

doing and yet when we got to the moment

the ceremony made a

difference and I found that to be daring

and

courageous and so we want to speak our

love today to express it to each

other and to

you our family our friends our

community every single day for almost 4

years I've had something I wanted to

tell you and I've wanted to listen to

the something that you wanted to tell

me every single day that I wake up next

to

you I feel alive and

free so so

lucky and exactly where I want to

be

okay it's not

over it was a very good day for Lilith

and me I think we both experienced the

same thing we're just watching our

daughter come unto

herself we didn't have a wedding we

didn't have this kind of a

ceremony but we made this possible we

made this necessary you know sort of Our

Lives LED straight to

here in some way our role was

to

deconstruct we had to take a very rigid

kind of America and break it all down

and I think we spent about 20 years

trying to do that and it practically

destroyed us help you f and Felicia and

Rachel are at a point where they can do

the

Reconstruction they can say oh

all that was wrong they can live in the

Castro

as

themselves

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over

you know we've both I think come to

realize that family is defined by you

know love and support and

commitment and that's one thing I think

that makes San Francisco so special and

uh the community in which we've become

involved because we have that in

Spades once in a while I take a trip up

there and uh kind of dream a little bit

as The Scene goes you know and think of

all the good times we had up there it's

still a good neighborhood still a good

neighborhood I know that you know places

change but it's always always going to

be the Castro to me and it's always

going to be a place that is literally

and and

symbolically um a Cornerstone of lesbian

and gay Liberation will always be that

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way

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la

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before it was a neighborhood it was a

theater the Castro one in a series of

documentaries introducing you to the

hidden cities of San Francisco brought

to you in part by your neighbors at

Pacific

Bell major funding for this program has

also been provided by James C hormell

The Wallace Alexander gbot Foundation

the dery foundation the Mary a Crocker

trust Michael dorto Richard mcelman and

Robert W Hofer by these

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contributors and by hundreds of

individuals in the Castro

Community a production of KQED San

Francisco