To many within the Gay Liberation movement, gay bars not only symbolized the “Gay Establishment,” but also actively discrimated against and policed more radical individuals and groups. Many gay bars in San Fransisco required multiple forms of ID for Black people, barred women from entering without a man, and prohibited touching. 

The stud in San Francisco — “our” bar, the freak bar, where even many gay liberation people, despite our loathing for the bar scene, will go if we’re desperate for a little dancing and socializing. The “liberated” bar if you can manage to ignore the SS-Hells Angel studs pornography on the wall (intrusions from its past life as a “leather” bar?), the hip bouncers who break up couples forgetting where they are who kiss or slow dance together (“What do you think this is — the Strand balcony?”), and the not accidental absence of women. It was an incident involving women which was the immediate reason for our visit to the Stud, a bar many of us have been hating (and been drawn to simultaneously) for a long time. Two women had been hassled by a bouncer and ejected with force. When a gay brother objected, he too was told to stay away. When this incident, and the Stud’s . long standing practice of rigorously scrutinizing the I.D.’s of women while letting underage male gays in with no hassle, were brought up at a Berkeley GLF meeting, people decided to take action against the bar. SF GLF people concurred and about 30 of us left from their meeting on Sunday night. Gay women were told and discussed it at their meeting in San Francisco, but decided not to come, probably waiting to see whether male gays could challenge on our own the sexism in ourselves and in our culture. So we descended on the bar. Onebrother was stopped for I.D. at the door but with our sheer force in numbers we pushed him though. One small initial victory. We leafletted, circle danced, touched freely, invited people to join. Some did. Most preferred to watch from the sidelines. We snake danced through the bar, picking up a few more people. Got handed a beer. Rapped with people when we weren’t dancing. Encountered the most overt hostility from a group of 2 or 3 black gays, who seemed to be regulars at the bar. To them, we had invaded their turf. Whatever their idea of turf was, they certainly didn’t seem to feel the bar impinged on it. One of them said to his friend, “they don’t even buy drinks.” They started chants, “yea. Stud.” The apathy we encountered was somehow even more dispiriting — the bar already has “good karma” we were told, what were we complaining about, anyway? Some gays were considerably more receptive. A group of four blacks said that we were into a real heavy thing and that we shouldn’t get discouraged by people who didn’t understand or agree with us now — “They’ll come around.” One brother was asked if he ever went there to “make” a friend. He admitted that he didn’t, that the bar wasn’t the kind of place for that. We don’t have any gay space of our own yet anywhere, no gay community centers or “liberated zones” (although we’re working on it), but we saw our circle dancing and togetherness as a hopefully, seductive alternative to the patterns of behavior gay people get channeled into — sometimes even in spite of ourselves, eis has happened with us — the minute we step into the bar — cruising, standing around in ones or pairs, being distant from one another, not touching one another, not communicating with each other for fear of seeming too eager, too lonely, too willing, too unmanly, yet waiting, — always waiting — for the hot beauty of our dreams, to walk into the room and sweep us off our feet. Fuck all that! By dancing in large groups to both fast and slow songs, by touching each other, by loving one another , tried to liberate a stifling, alienating atmosphere, where loud music and darkness forbid conversation, where frenzy passes for joy. We need to be together everywhere, no matter what our ages, races, sex or appearance. Fuck the future we had to “look forward to” before gay liberation — a life of fewer and fewer lovers and friends, as our hair fell our and our stomachs sagged and the wrinkles settled in. The Stud — all bars — perpetuate this objectification and accompanying self-hatred and frustration when we don’t measure up to the straight, agist, racist standards of beauty. Almost none of us do. The bars can’t be liberated, they must be destroyed. They rip off our money, keep us in off ghettoes playing the same old weary games thinking that we are satisfied, and maintain all the divisions in Amerika — women and men, gay women and gay men, black and white, young and old. The Stud! mentality in our heads has to be rooted out and killed too. The Stud is living on borrowed time, although it’s far from dead vet. But increasing gays’ dissatisfaction with the Stud — showing them that what seems like such a hip place is actually an escape from communication, from being open and friendly toward each other, from being gay; by displaying the new way of life being build out of the death culture of the homosexual world, we may have helped to hasten the process along.

“Stud Rips Off Gays” Berkeley Tribe, Volume 4, issue 85, March 5-12, 1971 Page 18.

An article from The Berkeley Tribe in March 1971 summarizes the complaints against gay bars in the Bay Area. First, is there violent exclusion of women, the Stud would both kick women out of the bars and not let them in. The Stud, along with other gay bars, also discriminately ID’d women.

Boycott Leonardo’s. The gay women’s liberation group in San Francisco is getting it together and meetings are being held. So, to advertise, a sister volunteered to put up a notice in the city’s gay bars. At Leonardo’s 16 Leland and Desmond Sts., this sister was told our notice could not be posted on the premises. When she asked the reason why she was told by owner, a gay woman, that she didn’t want any of “that stuff” in her place. A further explanation was denied. My involvement began when I discovered this at our meeting and the next week I returned to Leonardo’s with the same request. Not only was no explanation offered (I do not consider that “she had her own reasons and that ought to stand for itself” to be adequate) but the owner who was present refused to even discuss it. It made me very angry. Until a future change, I feel that a gay bar supported by the gay community, ought to be responsive to the needs of that community. Other notices can be posted on the bulletin there and other gay bars put up our notices. Why is this gay sister-owner disseminating against some of her customers and fellow sisters? Why is she refusing to explain? A logical explanation seems to be due, she was given the opportunity and rejected it. Sisters and Brothers, when will it be your group’s turn to be singled out? I question the policy that takes our money but ignores our identity. Perhaps the time has come for the gay community to exert their solidarity in the face of this unfair treatment. I am therefore suggesting and appealing to all Sisters and Brothers patronizing Leonardo’s to boycott that establishment until the management offers a reply suitable to the gay community We are anxious for the owner to reply to our questions; we invite a meeting with her to discuss the politics behind her decision at her convenience at any time. The “Time has come today” for gay people to stand up come out of the closets and assert their rights as citizens and human beings. We must begin to question the system that takes the gay money and funnels it into the pockets of a few individuals and police. We need this bread for our own people, our own defense, our own struggle. Any organizations that take from the gay community and offer nothing in return ought to be scrutinized carefully and maybe they should be concerned. We are coming into our own and we will thousands and we will be heard. Help yourselves. Gay power is there to tap and the time has come today! Sincerely in struggle, Ann Lisa.

Anna Lisa, “Boycott Leonardo’s,” Gay Sunshine, October 1970.

There were multiple altercations with gay bars in the San Francisco Bay Area in the fall of 1970. The first was with Leonarda’s a gay bar, in San Francisco, whose owner, a gay woman, prohibited a member of the Gay Women’s Liberation from posting flyers for GWL meetings. The Gay Women’s Liberation group responded with a call to boycott Leonarda’s, demanding changes to the way gay bars operated. 

We must begin to question the system that takes the gay money and funnels it into the pockets of a few individuals and police. We need this bread for our own people, our own defense, our own struggle. Any organizations that take from the gay community and offer nothing in return ought to be scrutinized carefully and maybe they should be concerned.  (1)

Another claim against gay bars was their practice of prohibiting touching inside of the bar, a form of self-policing by bar owners to protect themselves from police raids. An article from Gay Sunshine, recounts a protest by the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front, called a “touch-in” at a gay bar called “The Farm”. On September 8, 1970, members of the L.A. GLF held hands inside of the bar, and were subsequently thrown out by the owners. The owner had threatened the protesters with arrest, making false claims that touching was a misdemeanor and calling the police.

Farm Animals. By Mike Merry. “We understand that members of the Gay Liberation Front are planning to hold a “touch-in” at our bar tonight without our prior knowledge or consent. We must inform you that it is a misdemeanor to touch and a felony to CONSPIRE to encourage others to touch.” It was “The Farm,” a popular hip gay bar in L.A. fifteen minutes before G.L.F.’s “touch-in” — members of its Radical Caucus holding hands and encouraging the regular customers to do so. Soon after this announcement came over the P.A. system, Jim Gross, the manager, told Lee Helfin of the Radical caucus, “I am a homosexual, and I find it personally repulsive for two men to touch each other,” He must have been referring to public places but this is debatable. He told Morris Kight of Christopher Street West the Wednesday before that he was straight. Tuesday, September 8, at 11:00 P.M. the scheduled “touch-in” time, and announcement similar to the first was made but this time interrupted with cries of “GAY LIBERATION NOW!” “OFF LAW; OFF PIGS!”, and interjected applause. When various Gay Lib members started to hold hands, they were immediately evicted. Others were not touching but merely suspected of being radicals were asked to go to the front. When asked, “Are you with the Liberation Front?”, they would proudly shout YES and be kicked out. Soon after all members had left the bar, five pig cars arrived and sent six “tac squad” members into the bar. There was no violence, but various bar staff’s mind were blown. The next day five members tried to negotiate with the bar’ owner, Hal Glickman. He told them he knew touching did not really constitute lewd conduct and therefore was not a misdemeanor, but it was against bar policy because if allowed, he thought, it would lead to groping. He went on to confess pig attitudes by saying he had a $200,000 investment that he “…will not sacrifice for the principle of homosexual freedom.” Thus, according to the owner, the announced threats were lied (It is not against the law to touch, but against bar policy). The following Saturday and Sunday G.L.F. passed out leaflets at several gay bars in L.A. including one which had given them all the free publicity over its P.A. system, explaining what happened Tuesday night and what they were trying to do. More action was planned for Saturday September 19: Pickets carrying signs reading, “THE FARM’ TREATS US LIKE ANIMALS,” “FOOTBALL PLAYERS GRAB ASS, WHY CAN’T WE?” And “IN ‘THE FARM,’ IT’S TOUCH AND GO;’ people encouraging customers to hold hands as they enter the bar, guerrilla theatre. More such action may be necessary the night of September 26. In case these actions do not produce results, Herbert E. Selwyn, a well-known lawyer in L.A., will file a civil rights suit for GLF against “The Farm” charging the bar discriminates against homosexuals since we can’t hold hands in the bar while straight couples can. Christopher Street West has informed Gay Lib that they have the support of the entire gay community in the Los Angeles area, and if this suit succeeds, not only will all gay bars with similar policies be threatened, but public places in general! Gay Liberation will have won a victory for its people.

Mike Merry, “Farm Animals,” Gay Sunshine, October 1970.

The next day five members tried to negotiate with the bar’ owner, Hal Glickman. He told them he knew touching did not really constitute lewd conduct and therefore was not a misdemeanor, but it was against bar policy because if allowed, he thought, it would lead to groping. He went on to confess pig attitudes by saying he had a $200,000 investment that he “…will not sacrifice for the principle of homosexual freedom.” Thus, according to the owner, the announced threats were lied (It is not against the law to touch, but against bar policy). (2)

In addition to policing touching within the bars, Gay Liberation critiqued gay bars for cooperating with the police and not defending the gay community. “The Stud,” a gay bar in the SOMA district, came under repeat attention in 1970 for harassing the gay community and was the site of a police shooting of a gay man on Saturday December 12, 1970. Charles Christman was shot by police outside of the Stud as it was closing, after they open fired into the crowd, leading many in the Gay Liberation to believe that the police were waiting for the bar to close so they could harass the people leaving. Christman recovered, but he was charged with assault after a police car rammed his car. 

Pigs Shoot Gay Brother. A town meeting of Bay Area gays has been called for tomorrow (Saturday) at 3:00 p.m. at the Stud, 1535 Folsom Street, the hip gay bar that was the scene of a shooting by police only last Saturday morning. The meeting has been called by the Berkeley Gay Liberation Front to plan a response from gays to what eye-witnesses reported as an apparently pre-meditated harrasment of the Stud clientele gathered in front of the bar at the 2 a.m. closing time. It resulted in open gunfire and the wounding of a brother who tried to leave the scene in his car. Charles Christman, 27, was last reported in fair condition at San Francisco General Hospital after being hit at least once by police gunfire. Christman was driving his car from the scene when he either bumped or came close to bumping an officer who was in the street to disperse the crowd. His car was then rammed by a police car just arriving, and police then opened fire at the car. Christman left the car, ran down the street, and was hit by a bullet at least once, in the ankle, as police chasing him fired a number of times. Police charged, and the straight press reported, that Christman deliberately tried to run down the officers including the officer that other eye-witnesses say “may or may not have been bumped or brushed by Christman’s Toyota.” Thus, in addition to being shot, he was charged with five counts of assault on police officers with a deadly weapon. Eye-witnesses, on the other hand, indicated that it looked more like Christman was merely trying to drive his Toyota through the congested area, and was having difficulty since a police car which had arrived was parked at an angle in the street. “It was the first known case of police gunfire at a gay bar in 25 years in this country,” reported Rev. Michael Itkin of Gay Lib. The eyewitness reports, collected by the Gay Switchboard the day following the incident, confilicted all the way down the line with the police report as it was carried in the straight press. “The best we can put together from the reports that were given us from among the fifty or so people who were out in front of the bar,” said Jim Rankin of the Switchboard,“was that the crowd, if anything, was samller than the usual weekend closing-time crowd.” The straight press ran the police account which said that a patrol car with two officers arrived when it was noticed that a large crowd of around 125 young men had gathered in front of the Stud, and was pouring out into the street, blocking three lanes of traffic. One eye-witness report (of the eight generally concurring reports taken by the Switchboard) indicated that a police car was parked at the scene with its spotlight directed at the Stud as the closing hour crowd began to develop when 2 a.m. rolled around. “Many in the movement are highly suspicious,” Rankin said, “That it was a case of premeditated police harassment. We want to know why they suddenly come down on what was just a usual, if not smaller than usual, closing-hour gathering and why it happened at the Stud, only one of over sixty gay bars in the city. We suspect that they chose the Stud because, as one brother says, ‘It's the gay hip bar where the vibes are good and the beautiful strong sounds transform themselves into a free feeling of energy release — this was too much for the pigs to leave such a beautiful scene alone.’ ” The Stud has broken the traditional oppressive gay bar patterns. There have already been two riots resulting from police harrasment of gay bars in New York City, the first being the historic Christopher Street riot in June of 1969 which lasted for three days, drew out the entire New York tac squad and has been called the beginning of the gay lib movement. However, whereas reports were that police were verbally harrasing the Stud crowd, and swinging on them with clubs, the crowd responded with only a few jeers . . . even as it witnessed the sudden shooting. / Rankin was informed of the incident at the Switchboard only hours after it occurred, and the -Switchboard compiled eye-witness reports Saturday, and distributed leaflets in the south-of-Market gay bars Saturday night warning of the implications of what had happened. At the Berkeley Gay Lib meeting Monday night a committee was formed to arrange and publicize the Saturday meeting, and a Gay Legal Defense Fund was begun by Daniel Histo, with an initial offering taken at the meeting, to provide legal aid for Christman and two other brothers who were arrested — William Spencook of Berkeley and Dennis Brown of SF, charged with interfering with police officers and failure to disperse.

“Pigs Shoot Gay Brother,” Berkeley Tribe, Volume 2, issue 76, December 18-25, 1970, 7.

The gay community began organizing to collect witnesses, using the Gay Switchboard in Berkeley to funnel information in defense of Christman. After members of the Gay Switchboard learned what happened, they created leaflets with information to pass out to the gay community, particularly in the gay bars in the South of Market district. That Monday, Berkeley Gay Liberation organized the “Gay Legal Defense Fund,” to help with legal defense for Christman, as well as other individuals that were arrested that night at the Stud. On Saturday December 19, the Berkeley and San Francisco Gay Liberation groups came together at the Stud to organize witness statements.

Gay bars symbolized the Gay Liberationist’s formulations of the “Gay Ghettos,” a concept reworked by the Gay liberationists to theorize the spaces, ideas, and politics that chacterized the “Gay Establishment,” comprised of homophile groups like SIR, The Daughters of Bilitis, and the Tavern Guild. The police’s main tactic for suppressing gay political action was harassing gay bars and the indivdiuals coming in and out. However, the Gay Liberationists viewed the bar owners as collaborating with the police to harass gay patrons. They also exploited the hyper-policing to enforce their own anti-touching rules, making gay bars unsafe. Gay Liberationists used an anti-capitalist framework to critique the bars, as they took money from the gay community, but didn’t give any radical support back, an exploitative model of business. Additionally, they saw the gay bars as re-enforcing racism and sexism by discriminating against Black people and People of Color, lesbians, Trans folks, and sex workers. 

 The Stud — all bars — perpetuate this objectification and accompanying self-hatred and frustration when we don’t measure up to the straight, ageist, racist standards of beauty. Almost none of us do. The bars can’t be liberated, they must be destroyed. They rip off our money, keep us in off ghettoes playing the same old weary games thinking that we are satisfied, and maintain all the divisions in Amerika — women and men, gay women and gay men, black and white, young and old. The Stud! mentality in our heads has to be rooted out and killed too. (3) 

This critique of gay bars was met with pushback by members of the gay community. To some, protesting and critiquing the one public space for gay people was counterproductive. 

Nick Benton has made slanderous generalizations in his attack on gay bar patrons. I occasionally visit gay bars and I go not because I am alienated, straight or hung-up. I go because I am alone and seek companionship. (4)

Particularly for many middle-class, white gay men, the bars didn’t feel exclusive, so they felt no need to change them. However, a growing intersectional mentality in the Gay liberation movement meant that even the most privledged within the movement deeply understood the exclusional problems of the gay bars. 

Ruthie & Joe. The Picket Line—50 people walking, dancing in circles, Lavender Cowboy riding the White Horse up the middle, Gene on accordion, others shouting cheers, giving out leaflets to passing cars whose passengers raise their fists in solidarity. Joe Johanson, White Horse owner-pig (he has a badge to prove it), standing at the door of the bar at 66th and Telegraph. In Oakland, saying “Keep it up, we’ll get you yet.” He raps with plainclothes policemen standing with him at the door and throws out insults to passing picketers. He shouts at a man who has just come to the door. “If you’re going to argue. I’m going to have you arrested.” He had two people arrested the first weekend of the picket line, but police let them go, since they had nothing to charge them with. Joe and co-owner, hostess, wife Ruth had 86’d (thrown out for good) everyone who might be connected with Gay Liberation. They are operating the bar like their private club, not a public place of business. As girls and boys we were taught to hate the love we felt. As women and men beyond the lie we are ghettoized, cavernized in alcoholic Gay bars hidden away, separated from children. We are lined up against the walls and hustled for drinks. “Reach out in the darkness, “Reach out and touch, "Ain’t no mountain high enough to keep me from getting to you.” The bar owners don’t hear their own juke boxes, Diana Ross singing GAY IS GOOD. The owner-warden hears only the threats of the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and the cash register — the pigs and the payoffs. “Don’t you want Gay bars?,” Ruthie asks when we break the rules against touching, touch in a different way, move away from the wall. The first night we sold Gay Sunshines she smiled. “Yes, we all want to help homosexuals, but I can’t sell papers from behind the bar. It might offend some my Straight customers.” How about buying an ad? Put some Gay money back into the Gay community. “Well, I’ll have to read it first,” she smiled. After she read the paper her line was different. “We’ve received some complaints. Don’t sell the newspapers inside the bar.” When I did sell several to customers who asked for it, she called her husband. Joe grabbed me off the dance floor, dragged me to a back room and shook me. I screamed so the whole bar could hear that he no right to assault or falsely imprison me. “Don’t I? I’ll show you what right I have.” He opened his wallet to a badge but closed it too quickly for me to see the number or the force. Then he threw me out of the bar. “Don’t ever bring those papers back in here again.” Alice and Carol, who had witnessed the shakeup, organized a Gay Sunshine read-in around the bar fireplace that Friday night—eight women and several men. We came back as vendors the following Friday. Ruthie and Joe threatened to call the police on us if we sold a paper inside. Then Joe 86’d me and five friends standing with me. Berkeley Gay Liberation Front’s first fall meeting voted to pick the bar. A White Horse Action Committee came to the bar to present Gay Liberation demands to the bar owners. Joe 86’d the whole committee before he would hear the demands and had some friends at the bar help push us out. Friday September 11, the Purple Hand appeared on the white wall beside the White Horse family entrance. Friday night Ruthie and Joe closed the bar at midnight, assuring their customers to come back the next night when none of this would be there. We were back Saturday night and again stronger Friday September 18 serving donuts and apples on the line and coffee in the People’s Alternative Coffeehouse across the street. (Nick Benton’s apartment, opened 11p.m. to 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Percy was inside the bar with his friends. He came out to talk with picketers. He went back to tell Joe he was wrong. Joe told him he could not come back and would be arrested if he did. Said one of Percy’s friends now sitting on the steps to the People’s Alternative Coffeehouse. “I was undecided before, but Joe is running his own buisness. He’s mad now, and there’s no one left in his bar but a few fascists.”

“Ruthie and Joe,” Gay Sunshine October 1970.

All of these ideas exploded in the East Bay over the White Horse, a gay bar on the border of Berkeley and Oakland. The protests began over the owners of the White Horse kicking out Konstantin Berlandt, a leader of the Berkeley Gay Liberation Front, for trying to sell the first issue of Gay Sunshine inside of the bar. In response, a group of women in Berkeley Gay Liberation organized a Gay Sunshine read-in at the White Horse, and they were also kicked out by the bar owners. At the Berkeley Gay Liberation Meeting the following Monday, the group voted to picket the bar, starting that Friday night. On Friday September 11, 1970, the Berkeley Gay Liberation began their protest by marking the White Horse with the symbol of Gay Liberation from October 1969. 

People’s alternative. The People’s Alternative Free Coffeehouse, across Telegraph Ave. from the White Horse is open Friday and Saturday nights from 11 pm to 3 am. The house, in Nick Benton’s apartment at 6356A Telegraph opened las weekend in conjunction with the picketing at the White Horse. Set up as an alternative to the Gay bar syndrome, the People’s Alternative is a “liberated zone” where gays are free to dance, rap and relate as they choose. There were real good vibrations last weekend, with continued support, the possibility of pulling off a genuine alternative to the Gay ghetto will be realized.

People’s Alternative, Gay Sunshine, October 1970.

The following Friday September 18, the protesters gathered outside of the White Horse, picketing the bar and celebrating in an alternative space across the street from the bar, called People’s Alternative Coffeehouse. Berkeley Gay Liberation’s Demands were as follows,

The white horse be run for the Gay community Free bodily contact—kissing, hugging, and slow-dancing No Harassment physical, verbal, or mental Right to sell or distribute Gay Sunshine + other publications inside the bar Free Dress Separate, no drinking section for minors Price of drinks lowered minimum 10% No more 86’ing retroactive amnesty

Gay Sunshine, October 1970.

The white horse be run for the Gay community 

Free bodily contact—kissing, hugging, and slow-dancing

No Harassment physical, verbal, or mental

Right to sell or distribute Gay Sunshine + other publications inside the bar

Free Dress

Separate, no drinking section for minors

Price of drinks lowered minimum 10%

No more 86’ing retroactive amnesty (5)

The protests ended a week later, when the owners of the White Horse agreed to some of the demands put forth by the Gay Liberation Front. However, the Gay Liberation movement went on to continue protests of other gay bars in the Bay Area throughout the late 1970 and early 1971.

(1) Anna Lisa, “Boycott Leonardo’s,” Gay Sunshine, October 1970.

(2) Mike Merry, “Farm Animals,” Gay Sunshine, October 1970.

(3) “Stud Rips Off Gays” Berkeley Tribe, March 5-12, 1971, 18.

(4) James T. Harris, “‘Slanders Bars’,” The Berkeley Barb, Oct. 22-28, 1971, 11. 

(5) “We Demand,”  Gay Sunshine, October 1970.