Blog

Folsom Street – the organization that produces the Folsom Street Fair and the Up Your Alley Street Fair – is in the process of relocating its operations into a new facility.

The new Folsom Street Community Center will be located at 1286 Folsom Street, adjacent to the Azúcar Lounge, near 9th Street, right in the heart of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District.

The new space is about 2500 square feet, slightly larger than their old digs on 9th Street.  The ground floor features a spacious central area with a handsome new floor, high ceilings, ADA facility, and a roll-up garage entry that can open directly onto the footprint of the Fairs.

Additional upstairs office space will be used by the Austin Law Group and TASHRA (The Alternative Sexualities Health Research Alliance), providing for both the legal and mental health needs of our community.

The new space will be available for meetings, munches, parties, classes, and other events as soon as January, with a grand opening anticipated in mid-February.  Several organizations have already booked events there, including the Young Leathermen’s Discussion Group, the Society of Janus, Boba Munch,  the Yellow and Black Group, and the SF Canine Unit.

Our entire community welcomes this exciting addition to the Cultural District footprint.

The LetSync Study of the UC San Francisco Center for Aids Preventions Studies (CAPS) is a project being done to evaluate a mobile health intervention for couples living with HIV. They are looking for 110 couples throughout the U.S. where:

• At least one person is HIV+ and identifies as a racial/ethnic minority
• Both persons are 18+ y/o, assigned male at birth*,
• Both persons have a smartphone and valid phone #, and a valid U.S. mailing address.

* They are looking for cis men, trans women, and/or non-binary folks

The study goes for 8 months, and study visits are every 2 months over Zoom. Each member of the couple can earn up to $430 in incentives for completing online surveys, doing take-home dried blood spot (DBS) tests and urine dipstick test to measure ARV or PrEP adherence. There is also an Exit Interview when the study is complete.

If you are interested, please click here or scan the QR code above to take 2-min. screener!

After serving the SF Bay Area community since 1986, the Golden Gate Guards “rolled up their banner” and dissolved the club at their 36th Anniversary Party at the SF Eagle on Saturday, November 19th.

The Guards’ board of directors decided that after 36 years of community service, fundraising for charities, and fellowship with the leather/Levi LGBTQIA community, it was best to retire the club and preserve its legacy as one of the longest active leather/Levi clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The event was catered by long-time Guards supporter Don Ramon’s, and guests received pins, t-shirts, mugs and other classic Guards memorabilia.

There were presentations to the now-emeritus members, personal stories of past events, an a solemn reading of the honor roll of Golden Gate Guards who have passed away.

As part of the process of shutting down the guards, all remaining assets will be divided between their 2022 beneficiaries, the San Francisco Leathermen’s Discussion Group and the LGBT Asylum Project, with additional funds going to Tenderloin Tessie Holiday Dinners.

The Guards’ website. is being transformed into a lasting archive of facts and photos from the Guards’ history.

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District is working with the Guards to help them to find suitable permanent archives for their documents, and will take over ownership of the flags, to continue the Guards tradition of providing honor guards for LeatherWalk and other parades and events.

The Cultural District will also be taking on the famous Golden Dildeaux Awards, preserving another important historic (and fun!) community tradition. Please watch for updates about the Awards next Spring.

Special kudos to Oscar Macias at DPH for coordinating these efforts with us. We are also grateful to BayPLS, Mission Wellness Pharmacy, the SF Eagle, AGUILAS, and the volunteers working line control for their participation in this effort, and are pleased and proud to have contributed to the community effort to control MPX.

LGBTQ health-related resources can be found here.