Arts & Entertainment SF to Have First Rose Parade Float in Decades, But It Lacks the City’s Iconic Rainbow Flags SF’s new float will debut on January 1 at the 137th annual Rose Parade in Pasadena for the first time since 1978, but it falls flat in its omission of SF’s signature rainbows, landing as more of a marketing-driven tribute to local tourism than a reflection of the city and its colorful residents.
Arts & Entertainment Queer SoMa Nightclub Oasis Set to Close After 10 Years, Citing Declining Attendance In some very sad news for the queer nightlife scene in San Francisco, Oasis, the nightclub co-founded in 2015 by D'Arcy Drollinger and the late Heklina, is planning to shut its doors after New Year's Eve.
SF News Photos: The Sun Shined Brightly on SF Pride Weekend 2025 Pride Weekend in San Francisco was remarkably friction-free this year as far we saw, apart from that little booing incident with the mayor at the Trans March, and it seems like a good time was had by all.
Arts & Entertainment Field Notes: Amy Tan Watches Birds, a Pop Star Emerges in Marin, and a Lost Gay Film is Found A long-lost queer film is pulled from the trash; Bay Area native Amy Tan’s meditative bird journals; Tiburon's Miist is spreading kindness through pop music; and Senegalese chef Nafy Flatley is redefining downtown dining with Teranga.
Arts & Entertainment Field Notes: Pupusas in the Tenderloin, Trans Quilts, a Band of Librarians, and Award-Winning Beans A prom inside San Quentin, vintage treasure maps, librarians turned rock stars, trans quilts and immersive theater, pupusas in the Tenderloin, and a family recipe cook-off — this week’s Field Notes rounds up joy, art, and memory from San Francisco and beyond.
Arts & Entertainment Last Week, This Week: Litquake, Drag Bingo, Roller Disco, and Circus Bella Last week: SF is searching for a new Drag Laureate, SoMa's getting the “Four Seasons of bathhouses,” and Rikki's, the Castro's first women's sports bar, is open. This week: Roller disco, drag bingo, Circus Bella, and more.
Arts & Entertainment Field Notes: Bold Films, Pride Hikes, Show-Tune Karaoke, and Skateboarding Legends This week’s mix of culture, nature, and flavor includes queer hikes, show-tune karaoke, booza ice cream, an Oakland-based wine company, Lake Temescal swims, Foster City Eichler homes, SF skate history, and bold films at BAMPFA.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink The Castro's First Women's Sports Bar, Rikki's, Opens Wednesday A bar dedicated primarily to celebrating women's professional and collegiate sports, which also doubles as the first lesbian bar to open in the Castro in decades, makes its debut on Wednesday.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Historic Polk Street Gay Bar The Cinch Gets New Owner Who Vows Not to Change Much The second-oldest continually operating queer bar in San Francisco, Polk Street's The Cinch Saloon, is getting a new lease on life following the death of one of its longtime owners two years ago.
Arts & Entertainment Interesting Humans: Arthur Dong, Pioneering Gay, Asian American Filmmaker Highlighting the uplifting stories of Bay Area residents and the communities they support, featuring Arthur Dong, San Francisco native and gay Chinese American filmmaker; Hafeth “Omar” Mansouri and his canine colleague Major of "Corner Stories;" and trans barber Santana Vasquez.
SF News SJSU Women's Volleyball Loses in Mountain West Finals to Colorado State The Spartans, who struggled offensively throughout against Colorado State's potent defense, won only one set out of five.
SF Politics Tensions Over Gender Identity Instruction Hit South Bay School District After Pre-K Students Get Lessons In Pronouns A teacher has been placed on leave following complaints from parents at a school board meeting in Cupertino that their four-year-old children were being taught overly complex ideas about gender identity and expression.
SF News Two Conservative East Bay School Board Members Who Banned the Pride Flag Get Recalled A recall election last week decided the fates of two school board members in the Sunol Glen Unified School District who were elected during the pandemic, and they're out.
Arts & Entertainment A Brief History of Pride Weekend In San Francisco San Francisco plays host every June to one of the biggest LGBTQ gatherings in the world, reminding everyone that this city is still the epicenter of the queer universe — even if that universe has grown much bigger since the early days of "gay liberation."
SF News FBI Issues Unusual Warning About Potential Terrorist Threats to LGBTQ Pride Celebrations ISIS-affiliated terrorists or their supporters could be plotting an attack on a public gathering during Pride Month, and the FBI and Homeland Security have issued a public warning in order to raise awareness of the potentially heightened threat.
SF Politics Honey Mahogany Tapped to Lead SF's Office of Transgender Initiatives Onetime District 6 supervisor candidate and longtime veteran of City Hall, Honey Mahogany, is joining the London Breed administration as the new executive director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives.
Arts & Entertainment Castro Club Beaux to Host GAYPEC Event for LGBTQ Attendees of APEC Castro nightclub Beaux will be hosting a one-of-a-kind event during the APEC leaders summit next week, giving a safe space to attendees of the conference and members of the media who may hail from countries that are hostile to LGTBQ people.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink New Local Icon 'Dollarita Steve' Gets Promo Gig With Applebee's, Visits Fans In the Castro A viral video that came out of that minor earthquake we had ten days ago made a new celebrity out of local dudebro Steve Mazzari, who loves a few Dollaritas at Applebee's. And now Applebee's is paying him for his promotional services.
Arts & Entertainment The Stud, When It Reopens, Plans to Host SF's First School of Drag The Stud Collective wants to teach the children well who are coming up in SF's drag scene, and they just announced that when the bar reopens in new digs this winter (or spring?), it will be hosting The Stud School of Drag.
SF News Protests Planned as Anti-Trans Women's Conference Comes to SF Hilton A group of TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) is having their second annual conference in San Francisco for some reason, and local trans activists are planning to protest at the host hotel.
SF News Tiny East Bay School District Becomes Latest to Wade Into Culture War Over Pride Flag As school districts around the country have become the latest battle grounds for the right wing, with parents being told that Democrats are all trying to make their kids trans, a tiny school district in the East Bay has become the latest to show signs of that false panic.
Arts & Entertainment For the First Time, Outside Lands Is Featuring a Queer Dance Space It's about time, and maybe it's just a sign of the times that the very queer-friendly and fluid younger generation demands such spaces everywhere, but Outside Lands will, for the first time in its history, feature a queer dance space this year hosted by Hard French, Oasis, and FAKE and GAY.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Trans Woman Calls on SF Cheesecake Factory to Better Train Employees After Bizarre TERF Harassment An awkward and insulting situation that unfolded recently at the Cheesecake Factory in San Francisco's Union Square was caught on a TikTok stream, and the trans woman who filmed it hopes it can be an example for restaurants to learn how to respond better in the moment.
SF News New Census Data Finds Over One Million Same-Sex Couple Households In U.S. The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, puts the number of same-sex couple households over one million for the first time. But since the census still doesn't ask the sexual-orientation question, so we still don't have hard numbers on LGBTQ people who aren't coupled.
SF News The Stud’s Former Home Got Thoroughly Tagged On Pride Weekend, and Then Countertagged On Top of That In what may became an annual Pride Weekend tradition, the SoMa building that formerly housed The Stud got slathered in graffiti over the weekend, but then took more graffiti from someone apparently not pleased with the “queer revolt” messaging.
