Address | San Francisco U.S. |
---|---|
Owner | George Mason Richard Conroy |
Type | Queer bar |
Opened | May 27, 1966 |
Closed | May 31, 2020 |
Years active | 54 years in business |
The Stud was a queer bar [1] located in South of Market, San Francisco, closed in May 2020. It was started by associates George Matson and Alexis Muir on May 27, 1966. [2] [3] According to George Matson, it was a "bar for people, not just pretty bodies". [2] Originally, the Stud was located at 1535 Folsom Street; in 1987, it moved to its current location at Ninth and Harrison Streets. [2] [4] The Stud was known for its themed parties, drag and burlesque shows, and community events. [5] It was also home of the famous Trannyshack, a weekly drag show that featured all different types of drag and drag stars from 1996 until 2008.
The Stud was originally started by George Mason and Richard Conroy in 1966. (Richard Conroy was a transgender woman later known as Alexis Muir; this name may be a reference to John Muir, who was her great-uncle. [3] ) In the early 1970s, George sold his half to Richard. Richard then sold it to Jerry "Trixie" Jones, Heidi Steffan, and Jan Hill. Jerry "Trixie" Jones was also a partial owner of Hamburger Mary's, an iconic gay restaurant, across the street. In 1974, the Stud was bought out by Jim "Edie" Fleckenstein. [2] Edie died in 1994, leaving the Stud to his partner and resident DJ Larry Holloway aka LaRue and his accountant Ben "Fiesta" Guibord. They then partnered up with Michael McElheney. [2] LaRue died in the 1990s due to complications from HIV/AIDS. [2] Ben "Fiesta" Guibord died in 2011, at the age of 63 also due to complications from HIV/AIDS. [7]
In the summer of 2016, the Stud was given a very large rent increase and Michael McElheney decided it was time to retire. When the bar was faced with closure, members of the local community began to organize in hopes of preserving the historic bar. [8] This organizing resulted in the formation of a collective of nightlife professionals, which bought the business from Michael McElheney. [9] Members of the collective include artists, DJs, and performers such as Honey Mahogany, Siobhan Aluvalot, Vivvyanne Forevermore, and Rachel Ryan. [10] The collective took ownership of the Stud on December 30, 2016, making it, according to collective member Nate Allbee, "the very first co-op nightclub in the United States." [8] [9]
In the 1960s, San Francisco's primarily gay areas were Polk Street, the Tenderloin district, and South of Market. [4] South of Market became the hub of the leather subculture in the gay community in 1961 when the gay bar the Tool Box opened its doors as the first leather bar in the neighborhood. [11] [4] When the Stud, along with Febe's, opened up on Folsom Street in 1966, other gay leather bars and establishments catering to this subculture followed creating a foundation for the growing gay leather community. [4] The Stud and the other establishments in this neighborhood created a safe space for gay people to gather, be themselves, and create a community. [12] The Stud was also originally a Hell's Angels hangout; by 1969 it had become a dance bar for hippies on the margins of the leather scene and had a psychedelic black light mural by Chuck Arnett.
One of San Francisco's longest running drag shows, Trannyshack, was started in 1996 by Heklina, a well known San Francisco drag queen. Many famous drag queens and celebrities graced the stage at Trannyshack, including many contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race and RuPaul himself. Due to controversy over the use of the word "tranny", the show's name was called into question, prompting Heklina to end it and rebrand. [13] In 2008, Trannyshack ended its run at the Stud. [13]
Alexis Muir, a cofounder and former owner, was honored in 2017 along with other notables, named on bronze bootprints, as part of San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley. [14] [15]
The Stud is part of the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors established the district with legislation signed into law by the mayor on May 9, 2018. [16] [17] A ribbon cutting was held on June 12 that year outside the Stud. [18] [19] [20] [21] [17]
Leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities that involve leather garments, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, harnesses, or other items. Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Many participants associate leather culture with BDSM practices and its many subcultures. For some, black leather clothing is an erotic fashion that expresses heightened masculinity or the appropriation of sexual power; love of motorcycles, motorcycle clubs and independence; and/or engagement in sexual kink or leather fetishism.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI), is a charitable, protest, and street performance movement that uses drag and religious imagery to satirize issues of sex, gender, and morality and fundraise for charity. In 1979, a small group of gay men in San Francisco began wearing the attire of Catholic nuns in visible situations using camp to promote various social and political causes in the Castro District.
Folsom Street Fair (FSF) is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair, held in September that concludes San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The Folsom Street Fair, sometimes referred to simply as "Folsom", takes place on the last Sunday in September, on Folsom Street between 8th and 13th Streets, in San Francisco's South of Market district.
Trannyshack is a San Francisco drag club started by drag queen Heklina in 1996 as an offshoot of Klubstitute, and was a weekly fixture at The Stud bar in San Francisco for 12 years, drawing large crowds on a regular basis. The Tuesday night performances at The Stud ended on 12 August 2008, with Trannyshack resuming as a monthly event at DNA Lounge in March 2010.
A female queen, diva queen, or hyper queen is a drag queen who is a woman. These performers are generally indistinguishable from the more common male drag queens in artistic style and techniques.
The Compton's Cafeteria riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The riot was a response to the violent and constant police harassment of drag queens and trans people, particularly trans women. The incident was one of the first LGBT-related riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. It marked the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco.
Michael Williams, known professionally as Sister Roma, is an American drag queen activist, gay pornography director, fundraiser, entertainer and event host/emcee. He has been a member of San Francisco's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence since 1987.
Stefan Grygelko, better known by the stage name Heklina, was an American actor, drag queen, and entrepreneur in San Francisco. Grygelko's mother was Icelandic, and having been born in the U.S., he lived in Iceland in the 1980s; he named his drag character after the Icelandic volcano Hekla. Heklina founded the drag club Trannyshack in 1996.
I think that drag queens are still the eunuch clown that's safe to laugh at. It's definitively not shocking anymore. So I don't know if America's really embraced it. The early 90s was when RuPaul [was becoming famous] and it was the first time any drag queen had mainstream exposure. I don't really see a drag queen breaking out like that [again].
Pollo Del Mar or Pollo DelMar born as Paul E. Pratt, and alternately known as The Notorious P.D.M. or The Glamazon is a San Francisco-based American drag queen performer, professional wrestling personality, comic, emcee, journalist, activist, philanthropist and singer. Within the Imperial Council of San Francisco, she is the 53rd Empress of San Francisco.
Charles "Chuck" Arnett was an American artist and dancer. His best-known work is the Tool Box mural (1962).
Honey Mahogany is an American activist, politician, drag performer, and singer. She first came to national attention on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, followed by releasing her debut EP Honey Love. She was instrumental in setting up The Transgender District in San Francisco, where she served as the first director.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in San Francisco is one of the largest and most prominent LGBT communities in the United States, and is one of the most important in the history of American LGBT rights and activism alongside New York City. The city itself has been described as "the original 'gay-friendly city'". LGBT culture is also active within companies that are based in Silicon Valley, which is located within the southern San Francisco Bay Area.
The Lexington Club, often referred to as The Lex, was a dive bar, primarily catered towards queer women, in the Mission District in the American city of San Francisco, California. It was recognized as one of the central landmarks for LGBTQ culture, especially for lesbians and queer women, in San Francisco. The club was founded in 1997 and closed at the end of April 2015.
Esta Noche was the first Latino gay bar in San Francisco and notably contributed to queer Latin culture. It operated from 1979 to 2014, and was located at 3079 16th Street between Valencia Street and Mission Street in San Francisco, California.
The White Horse Inn is a gay bar located at 6551 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland's Bushrod Park neighborhood. It officially opened in 1933 but is rumored to have operated as a gay speakeasy since before the end of Prohibition. It is said to be the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States, along with Cafe Lafitte in New Orleans, Louisiana which has also operated since 1933. The White Horse is situated geographically near the Oakland-Berkeley border and in close proximity to the University of California, Berkeley campus.
The San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley consists of four works of art that honor the history of gay and lesbian leather culture in South of Market, San Francisco. The art is embedded in Ringold Street, an alley between 8th and 9th Street. The installation opened in 2017. The alley is part of the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.
The Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District is a cultural district in San Francisco's South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood commemorating the history and culture of the leather subculture active in the area for approximately half a century. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors established the district with legislation signed into law by the mayor on May 9, 2018. A ribbon cutting was held on June 12 that year outside the Stud on 9th St. for that.
San Francisco Eagle is a gay bar in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, in the U.S. state of California. The bar caters to the bear community and the leather subculture. Lex Montiel is one of the bar's owners, as of 2018.
The Hotel Utah, is a historic mixed-use building known as a saloon bar, live music venue, and residential hotel, built in 1908 and located in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is known for its diverse open mic nights, which have historically attracted some people who have later become famous. It is also known as TheUtah Inn, TheHotel Utah Saloon, and simply The Utah.