Catacombs (sex club)

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Catacombs
San Francisco Catacombs.jpg
Catacombs patch (Leather Archives & Museum collection)
SanFranciscoCatacombsII.jpeg
Catacombs (sex club)
General information
Type Sex Club
Location SoMa, San Francisco, California
Opened1975
Relocated1982
Closed1984
OwnerSteve McEachern
Known for Fisting

The Catacombs was a gay and lesbian S/M leather fisting club which operated from 1975 to 1981 in the Mission District/Liberty Hill Historic District and from 1982 to 1984 in the South of Market area of San Francisco. It was the most famous fisting club in the world. [1] The founder and owner was Steve McEachern. The location was semi-secret and admission was by referral only. It was originally a gay men's club, but Cynthia Slater persuaded the management to open up to lesbians. [2] Among the patrons was Patrick Califia, known then as Pat Califia. [3] The Catacombs has been exhaustively described by sexual anthropologist Gayle Rubin, [4] who calls it "exemplary" in its attempts to deal with the AIDS crisis which would eventually lead to its closure. [5] Patrick Moore devotes a chapter to it in his Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality. [6] Sex educator Carol Queen called it "the place to be seen and to play at during the 1980s." [7]

The San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, opened in 2017, honors leather culture and community members including McEachern. [8] [9]

References

  1. ↑ Gayle Rubin, "The Catacombs: A Triumph of the Butthole", in Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice, Alyson Press, 1992, ISBN   1555831877, pp. 119-141; reprinted in Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader, Duke University Press, 2011, ISBN   0822349868, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), retrieved September 30, 2014.
  2. ↑ Call, Lewis. 2013. BDSM in American science fiction and fantasy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p.5
  3. ↑ Pat Califia (who later changed names to Patrick), "The Necessity of Excess Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine ", POZ , October 1998,retrieved September 30, 2014.
  4. ↑ "The Catacombs: A Temple of the Butthole", in Mark Thompson, ed., Leatherfolk — Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice, Boston, Alyson Publications, 1991, ISBN   1555831877, pp. 119-141, reprinted in Deviations. A Gayle Rubin Reader, Duke University Press, 2011, ISBN   0822349868, pp. 224-240, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), retrieved September 30, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Elegy for the Valley of Kings: AIDS and the Leather Community in San Francisco, 1981-1996, in In Changing Times: Gay Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS, ed. John H. Gagnon, Peter M. Nardi, and Martin P. Levine, University of Chicago Press, 1997, ISBN   0226278573, p. 116.
  6. ↑ Beacon Press, 2004, ISBN   0807079561, pp. 27-33.
  7. ↑ "An Interview with Carol, Queen of Sex," Spread, vol. 1, no. 1, spring 2005, pp. 35-38, quote on p. 36.
  8. ↑ Paull, Laura (June 21, 2018). "Honoring gay leather culture with art installation in SoMa alleyway". J. The Jewish News of Northern California . Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Ringold Alley's Leather Memoir". Public Art and Architecture from Around the World. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved June 23, 2018.

37°45′25″N122°25′28″W / 37.7568523°N 122.4244217°W / 37.7568523; -122.4244217

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