Racism and Reaction in the Castro: A Brief, Incomplete History

Racism and Reaction in the Castro—A Brief, Incomplete History Written in 2004 for IsBadlandsBad.Com (later And Castro For All) By Don Romesburg, Ph.D. candidate in U.S. History, UC Berkeley The most recent troubles surrounding the Badlands are just the latest incarnation of a long-standing struggle in the Castro’s LGBT community regarding racial discrimination and exclusion. This brief history suggests three conclusions: • • • Racism has always been a problem in the Castro, despite periodic efforts to curb it. Periods of activism have provoked tangible changes to specific businesses and practices. Businesses and the community in general have been slow to respond to calls for reform, doing so only when pressured by community action, bad public relations and loss of revenue. Isn’t it time for a real change? Formal and informal campaigns against racially discriminatory practices at gay bars have been ongoing since the 1960s around the United States. In San Francisco, in September 1975, over 120 people from Bay Area Gay Liberation picketed the Mine Shaft, calling for a boycott of the bar due to “racial and sexual discrimination, an arbitrary dress code and goon tactics,” including a selectively enforced requirement of up to three forms of valid ID for admittance. The group and the bar’s owner reached a compromise agreement two weeks later when the three-ID policy and the “weird clothing” ban were abolished.1 In 1982, the San Francisco chapter of Black and White Men Together (BWMT) formed the Employment Discrimination Project to survey gay bars on their hiring and work practices regarding race. They met with the Tavern Guild (a consortium of bar owners, managers, and employees) and the Golden Gate Business Association (gay and lesbian business owners) to discuss their concerns. In 1983, following the release of survey findings quantifying widespread job discrimination against gay people of color, BWMT assembled a Task Force on Racism in the Lesbian/Gay Community to combat racial employment discrimination in gay-owned businesses. Over 50 representatives from lesbian and gay organizations attended its first meeting. One concern discussed was the issue of discriminatory “carding” practices for bar patrons. In November, the Task Force secured hearings before the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC). The spokesman for the Tavern Guild said it had a nondiscrimination clause in its code of ethics, and acknowledged discrimination existed, but didn’t see how the organization could organize proactively around the issue of race. Longtime lesbian activist and HRC commissioner Phyllis Lyon replied, “If it is possible 1 Coming Up! (26 Sep 1975) and (9 Oct 1975). 1 for the organization to move as a whole in a direction around orange juice [at it did in the campaign against Anita Bryant in 1977] and beer [as it did with Coors], then it can also move in a direction around hiring people of color!” No immediate action occurred.2 In 1984, both African American and Asian American groups fought discriminatory door policies at bars across the city. Henry Chappell reported a double-carding incident at the Watering Hole on Folsom. Wearing a dress, heels, and a shawl, Chappell, an AfricanAmerican self-identified transvestite, was asked for two forms of picture IDs as a means of excluding him from attendance. BWMT hoped that San Francisco would adopt a regulatory model for admittance based on Atlanta’s carding ordinance, which mandated that no bar could demand more than one valid ID per person.3 In part due to pressure from such actions, the City eventually passed a similar ordinance. Around the same time, the Asian Lesbian and Gay Alliance (ALGA) conducted an informal study of various S.F. gay bars. One of the organizers later recalled, “White guys could sail through with no restrictions, but once color was added to the mix, the barriers went up.” The Midnight Sun and Castro Station were Castro bars particularly notable for their anti-Asian discriminatory practices. When confronted, the owners rationalized their multiple ID policies by claiming that it was difficult to visually discern Asian men’s age. ALGA picketed the Midnight Sun, attracting media coverage with placards such as “Discrimination in the Gay Community Demeans Us All.” During a KPFA radio debate, one participant recalled a bar owner claiming, “Your people don’t drink,” and “It’s a cruise bar; we would lose other clientele because they don’t want to cruise your type.”4 In 1990, BWMT joined the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, GLAAD-SF, ACT-UP, and other groups and individuals to picket against alleged 2 “Charges Fly”; “Human Rights Commission Hearings Concluded,” BWMT/SFBA Newsletter (Dec 1983). In June 1985, following sustained pressure from BWMT and the findings of the SF HRC, the Tavern Guild issued a press release stating it had began an investigation to “identify and resolve persistent discrimination employment practices,” adding that it encouraged “member businesses to voluntarily increase the presence of ethnic minorities in their businesses.” See “EDP Forges Ahead,” BWMT/SFBA Newsletter (October 1984); BAR (20 Sept 1984); “BWMT-SF to Leaflet Bars,” Coming Up (Sept 1984); “Tavern Guild Admits Discrimination,” BWMT/SFBA Newsletter (July 1985). 3 Henry Michael Judge Chappell, “Not Welcome Here,” BAR (9 August 1984); “Carding Practices Challenged,” BWMT/SFBA Newsletter (Sept 1984). Bars for men were not, unfortunately, the only ones engaged in discriminatory practices. In November 1982 at Ollie’s, a popular Oakland lesbian bar, an argument broke out between a black lesbian patron and a white bouncer over a contested ID. The bouncer called the police. One of the African American women recalled, “We decided there was no point in talking anymore and left. The cops were shining their headlights at us as we left. It was frightening.” Soon after, a delegation of black lesbians met with the owner, demanding the bouncer’s termination, a public apology, hiring more African Americans and putting more black artists on the jukebox. Although the owner capitulated under threat of boycott, she withdrew her agreement soon after. In October 1983, Asian American lesbians protested an “Oriental Night” that the bar sponsored. See Trinity A. Ordona, “Coming Out Together: An Ethnohistory of the Asian and Pacific Islander Queer Women’s and Transgendered People’s Movement of San Francisco,” Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Cruz, 2000, 187-188, 203; Maxine Morris, “Incident at Ollie’s,” Coming Up! (Dec 1982), 9; Letters to the Editor, Coming Up! (Feb 1983), 6; BWMT/SFBA Newsletter (May 1983). 4 Dino Duazo, “Look Back in Homage!” Lavender Godzilla (Apr 1999), 1,5; Quotes from Ordona, “Coming Out Together,” 182-183. 2 racist policies at the Midnight Sun. One demonstration leader said, “When I first moved here [the Castro] eleven years ago I didn’t see any women or people of color, and now eleven years later I still do not see any people like me.” In a letter to other bar owners, the Midnight Sun owners made things to go from bad to worse, saying, “We were raped [by the demonstrations] and the police stood by and watched,” and alleging that “these people were not customers or people you normally would see in the Castro.”5 Now, over a decade later, we are reigniting a movement to bring about changes that will make the Castro as inclusive and diverse as a symbolic heartland of the worldwide GLBT community should be. Considering the past, we expect that there will be some who will attempt to deny a problem exists, or who will insist upon engaging in practices that make some members of our community feel lesser and left out. We are confident, though, that many will join with us. Don’t you want to be on the right side of tomorrow’s history? 5 Jonathan Aronowitz, “Confronting Racism and Sexism,” The BWMT Bridge (July/Aug 1990). This protest had followed a similar action in January 1990, when BWMT joined with GLAAD’s San Francisco chapter, the local ACT-UP, and the Harvey Milk Democratic Club to successfully wage a “Racism is AntiGay” picket of the card shop Does Your Mother Know. The store manager insisted the “humorous” racist greeting cards and other materials, such as “pickaninny” magnets and “sambo” salt and pepper shakers, that he had purchased were top sellers, and refused to remove them. It took only one weekend demonstration of 200 people to prompt the owner’s response—an agreement to never again sell such items and the termination of the manager responsible. See “Victory in the Castro,” The BWMT Bridge (Feb 1990); “Racism Is Anti-Gay” flier, African-American Ephemera, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Historical Society. 3