The Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Guerilla Theater organized a protest of the Beaux Arts Ball the same day as the San Fransisco Examiner protests, on October 31, 1969. At this time, gender non-conformity and drag continued to be criminalized and policed, especially in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, home to many Transgender people and sex workers. However, drag was allowed, and even protected by the police on New Years and Halloween, as evidenced by the Tavern Guild’s Beaux Arts Ball. Leo E. Laurence and other Gay Liberationists believed SIR and the Tavern Guild’s conformity with gender norms epitomized their assimiationist and conservative politics.

The Gay Liberationists were also against the Tavern Guild, who they said enforced anti-gay laws in their bars.

“Gay Bars Are Walk-In Closets” read one picket sign. “The Tavern Guild is doing as much to delay (homosexual) freedom as a thousand repressive laws on the statute books,” said a protest leaflet. (1)

Gay Liberationists were angry that tickets for the event cost twelve dollars and required formal dress, prohibitive to the Street Queens that were regularly harassed by police. Hundreds of people gathered outside of the event, trying to force their way in.

WEAR YOUR GOWN ALL YEAR ROUND by Leo E. Laurence The Pigs were protecting the Drags from the Guerrillas. The Drags were more scared of the Guerrillas than the Pigs. The Guerrillas wanted to liberate the Drags from the Pigs. Confused? So were the hundred spectators last Saturday night watching the Seventh Annual Beaux Arts Ball at the Merchandise Mart in San Francisco. Halloween and New Year’s have historically been the only times of the year the pigs permit the hundreds of “Drag Queens” in San Francisco to come out of their closets and into the streets without getting busted. Despite the popular stereotypes, drags are a small percentage of the total homo-bi-sexual community. On a “normal” curve of that community, the drags would be at the super-feminine end, the leather bike-boys would be at the opposite masculine end, and the majority would be in the middle, almost “straight” looking. I don’t dig drag myself (can’t imagine being a bearded lady?), and I’ve been gay since my Navy days in the early 50’s aboard San Francisco’s “own” the USS Coral Sea. But, by God, I do feel the drags should have the right to do their thing; not just twice a year, but every day; not just at a drag ball, but at work, school, church, and on the street “Wear Your Gown All Year Round!” chanted the Gay Guerrilla Theatre freaks during the demonstration by the Gay Liberation Coalition outside the ball opposite Fox Plaza. The protest was focused on the Tavern Guild of San Francisco, sponsor of the dragging event, TGSF is part of the Gay Establishment, and its members operate over 100 Gay Ghetto Bars and restaurants in the Bay Area. “Gay Bars Are Walk-In Closets” read one picket sign. “The Tavern Guild is doing as much to delay (homosexual) freedom as a thousand repressive laws on the statute books,” said a protest leaflet. The pigs were visibly worried. There were several hundred demonstrators and spectators outside the ball. Every drag arriving in big, black, bossy Cadillacs sparked shouts from the demonstrators, and one pig told me: “Christ, how do we handle these queers if a riot starts. I can’t club a woman, even if she is a man.” Trouble didn’t break out. But it was clear that the Gay Establishment needed pigs to prevent the Guerrillas from invading the drag’s balls.

Berkeley Tribe, October 31-November 6, 1969.

 

(1) Leo E. Laurence, “Wear Your Gown All Year Round,” Berkeley Tribe, October 31-November 6, 1969