The monthly SOMA Second Saturday event on June 11 (from 1 to 5 pm, in and around Eagle Plaza) will once again feature our fun new “Rough Trade” Gear Swap!

The Gear Swap is your chance to clear out the closet, and earn some money for your used leather boots, fetish attire, kinky toys, bondage gear and…  who knows what else!

You can let us sell your items for your stated price, OR hang out at the Gear Swap booth, so you can negotiate and haggle with potential buyers.

If you have a Venmo account, you can send us the account name or QR Code to make payment easy.

You’ll be reducing clutter, raising cash, and getting gear into the hands of folks who might not otherwise afford it.

Best of all, you can choose to keep 100% of the cash receipts, or donate some or all of them to Folsom Street!

So, if you have some items that no longer fit your lifestyle (or your body), sign up here, or read full details here.

Other reasons to join us for SOMA Second Saturdays can be found here.

San Francisco LGBTQ+ Pride returns to the streets, with a two-day in-person celebration in Civic Center and the historic Pride Parade down Market Street on Sunday.

The dates are June 25-26, 2022, the theme is “Love Will Keep Us Together”, and of course the LEATHER and LGBTQ Cultural District will be there.

We will march in the parade with the Leather Contingent and host a booth at the Celebration. Please join us!

• Like and follow the Leather Contingent’s Facebook group to be kept informed about parade planning.
• Submit your nomination(s) for the Leather Marshalls who will be featured in the Parade.
• Attend the Leather Contingent Planning Meeting, on Saturday, May 14, from 2 to 3 pm, on the patio of the SF Eagle, and vote for the Leather Marshals for this year.
• Attend the Leather Contingent Beer Bust and Fundraiser immediately following that meeting.
• Join the Cultural District’s volunteer team: carry our banner in the Parade, help staff our information booth, and otherwise participate.

If you want to vote in the
LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District
Board Elections on 8/17/2022,
you need to become a full voting member in the next

Become a Member Today!

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 are now finalizing zoning changes which will allow “Adult Sex Venues” (explicitly including 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 follow the progress of the zoning changes here.

The first impact of these changes is expected to be 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 is hoping to open in June, in time for SF Pride.  Read about it here, and help make the move a reality here.  

Other adult sex venues are likely to follow.  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.