LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District

For over three years, SF Catalyst has provided a social and educational space to the SF bay area kink community. Now, SF Catalyst has taken a leap of faith and signed a lease, expanding Catalyst into the rest of the property located behind the existing play space.

This will allow easy wheelchair access to the main space, expand maximum capacity, create additional event space, and provide a secure outdoor area. Once permitted to reopen, SF Catalyst will be able to provide the community with options to hold two or more events simultaneously and to provide meeting space for more smaller groups than it can currently accommodate. They will also be able to host cigar socials and other outdoor community activities.

As an entirely volunteer-run venue, operating as part of the non-profit SF Bay Area Leather Alliance, Catalyst will need the community’s support to make it happen, and indeed to survive through the difficult times we are now in.

You can help make sure that SF Catalyst is there for us then, by making a monthly donation now, through their Patreon campaign.  For full info and to make your donations, please visit www.patreon.com/sfcatalyst.

For more info about SF Catalyst, visit www.sfcatalyst.org.

We have been asked by the San Francisco Mayor’s office to help our community stay informed about the COVID-19 crisis. Important information has been provided by the Mayor, the Board of Supervisors, and various agencies and civic bodies.  We have also compiled information from the Governor, and various public and private institutions, as well as leaders of our local leather and kink communities.

We urge you to view these materials, and share them with others who may find them relevant.  Thank you:

Please click here for important COVAD-19 resources and information.

Also:
Text COVID19SF to 888-777 for official updates.

We have been advised of a couple of opportunities for artists to receive grants to assist them during the COVID-19 crisis.

The first is an Arts Relief Program that San Francisco Mayor London Breed recently announced.  This will include $1.5 million in grants to individual artists, teaching artists, and small- to mid- budget sized arts and cultural organizations, and $1 million in low-interest loans to small- to mid-budget sized arts and cultural organizations. 

For information, or to apply for a grant, go to:  https://ccigrants.gosmart.org/

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Separately, the SF Arts Commission has created a Relief Fund for Artists, offering grants of up to $250 for artists who have graduated from a Bay Area institution or who have have lived in the Bay Area for two years as a working artist.  More information and instructions on how to apply can be found here:

Leather, queer, and kink communities around the world are responding the the COVID-19 crisis.  Click here for a frequently-updated document about the San Francisco kink community’s response, containing important information and links to other valuable resources.

In particular, numerous funds have been set up to help members of our community who are affected, either physically or economically.  Examples are the SF Queer Nightlife Fund (https://sfqueernightlifefund.org/) and the Bay Area Leather Lifeline (https://ball.leatheralliance.org), as well as Patreon and GoFundMe pages for various businesses and their employees.

Donations of any amount, to any of these funds, are deeply appreciated.  Try to imagine how much you are saving by not going out for dinner and a show, not going to bars and clubs, not using taxis or car services to get home, and not travelling to leather events in other cities.  Please give what you can afford.  Thanks!