Author: AdminSFLD

As reported on their Web site, on Hoodline, and in the Bay Area Reporter, Blow Buddies will not be reopening after the pandemic.  The club, which opened on August 8, 1988 and saw its last guests on March 15, 2020, will be much missed by many in our community.  As the Web page says, “The club was created in response to one virus and done in by another.”

It joins Watergarden, the San Jose bathhouse which recently closed after 43 years of operation, a victim of both the cost of being closed, and the uncertainty about when they might return to normal.  A Bay Area Reporter article on that closing can be found here.

The good news, however, is that San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is taking steps to make it easier for a bathhouse to operate in the city.  In legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors in July 2020, and adopted by the Department of Public Health in January 2021, they have removed the mandate for inspections and the ban on locking doors, making traditional gay bathhouses possible.

They have also implemented zoning changes which allow “Adult Sex Venues” (ncluding bathhouses) to operate in broad areas of the city, including key locations in the Castro, Tenderloin and SOMA, where such venues would be most welcome and successful.  You can learn more about the zoning changes here.

The first impact of these changes was the opening of the new Eros SF Sex Club, an SF Legacy Business formerly located on Market Street.  The new facility at 132 Turk Street opened in June, in time for SF Pride.  Read about the move here, and visit the Club’s website here.  

Of course, the Steamworks bathhouse remains open in Berkeley, for those willing to travel across the bay.

With the new zoning, other adult sex venues are likely to open in San Francisco.  If you would like to create one in SOMA, the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District would love to help you.   Write to business@sflcd.org for information.

Garrett Sohnly, a local artist and member of the LCD’s Arts and Culture Committee, has been compiling a slideshow of the murals and street art of our neighborhood.

View our Mural Slideshow here.

We are also developing a “Map ‘o Murals” using Google Map technology.  The map includes photographs of the murals, addresses, the artist’s name (where we know it), and where to learn more.   You can use the small embedded version below, but for best results:

Open the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District Mural Map in Web Browser or Google Maps

You can help us maintain, improve, and expand this map:

If you have better information that the map offers (the mural title, artist’s name,  etc.), please share it with us.  

If you spot a mural in our District – or other example of Leather Culture in the general vicinity of South of Market – send us  a picture, telling us where it is, and anything you know about the artwork or the artist(s) who created it.

The Arts and Culture Committee of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District is very invested in the murals and public art visible throughout our special, South of Market neighborhood.   

To learn more, or to help us to create more public art here, please click here .

A large, wrap-around-the-building mural has now been completed at the corner of 11th Street and Burns Place (between Folsom and Howard).

The mural, called “SHOWTIME“, decorates two sides of The Oasis, San Francisco’s home for Superstar Drag Shows, Fabulous Cabaret Performances and Unforgettable Events. It has been created by some of the city’s best-loved queer artists — Serge Gay Jr., Simön Malvaez, Elliott C Nathan, J Manuel Carmona, and Christopher McCutcheon — as a love letter to San Francisco.

Thanks to those of you who joined us on Thursday, June 2, at Oasis (298 11th Street) for the official unveiling of the mural, with honored guests Mayor London Breed and State Senator Scott Wiener, and for the party celebrating the five artists.

As reported in The Bold Italic, funding for the piece was secured through the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District, in association with the SF Arts Commission, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence‘s “Queer Artists for Queer Spaces” initiative, with support from Soma West CBD,.  Of course, Oasis’ owner and creative director, D’Arcy Drollinger, is the impresario who made it all happen.

Here are a few pictures of the work in progress:

Come celebrate the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District’s fourth birthday at our 

Entertainment, food, demos, and fun!

Free Admission

Saturday, May 7, 2022
5 to 9 pm
Folsom Street Foundry
1425 Folsom Street

 Featuring performances by
House of MORE!
The Rebel Kings

Ambient suspension bondage performances by
Ivy Limieux and Shay Tiziano, with Sabriel Star

Kinky demos by
ONYX Northwest
The 15 Association
and The Society of Janus

DJ Fawks

MC Lance Holman

AND

The first annual
Brazen Runway

Strut Your Smut!

See who’s going, match, and chat before you go.
Check out Audacious Anniversary on the Bloom Community app

This is a smoke-free event.
Be 21+ and bring proof of vaccination.

More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/340200574742340

Hi.  Thanks for your interest in the “LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District”, created by the City of San Francisco to honor, support, and protect the unique and special culture that has flourished in the South of Market area.

We encourage anyone with an interest in the leather or kink community to learn about this project, and participate however they can.

There are lots of ways to get informed and involved:

• Read this brief introduction.
• View our old Brochure, or our current Postcard.
• Visit our About us page.
• Become a Member of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District – or at least get on our mailing list – to be notified of meetings and other events, join a committee, or volunteer your skills.
• Attend one of our semi-annual  Membership Meetings.
• Attend (as a guest) one of our monthly Board Meetings.
• Consider joining one of our important Committees, including the Arts and Culture Committee, the Communications Committee, The Governance Committee, the Land Use Committee, or the Diversity and Membership Committee.   
• Share your opinions about our community’s needs, and our organization’s priorities, either by using our survey, or by chatting with a member of our Board. 
• Read the Resolution as approved by the Board of Supervisors, and signed by the Mayor on May 9, 2018, here.
• Read the Vision and Mission Statements for the Cultural District here.
• Read our full organizational Bylaws, here.
• See a list of our current Board of Directors, here.
• View a map of the Cultural District here.
• Check out our calendar of Cultural District meetings and events, here.
• Like and follow the SF LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District on Facebook.  
• Join our Group on Fetlife.
• Follow @sfleatherdist on Twitter or Instagram.  
• Write to our group’s elected President, Bob Brown, using the email address president@SFLCD.org or more generally to info@SFLCD.org.  

Let’s see what we can do to make this happen, and make it happen right!