San Francisco

San Francisco has the highest proportion of LGBT population in the United States (~15% in the city, ~6.2% in the metro area, Gallup 2015) — more than any other US metropolis. The scene is split into three poles: Castro (classic, social, day and night), SoMa (leather, circuit, after-hours) and Mission (Latino queer, dyke, alternative).

The total offer has fallen from a peak of 118 gay bars in 1973 to 33 in 2011, with progressive closures in SoMa and Polk. Even so, it is still one of the densest LGBTQI+ ecosystems in the world, with legendary bars (Twin Peaks, 1972; the Stud's successor), leather bars (SF Eagle, 1981) and a calendar of street fairs that fills the year.

SF Pride has been held on the last weekend of June since 1970 and is one of the biggest Prides in the US (historic attendance around a million). The parade goes along Market Street between Steuart and 8th, from 10:30 to 16:00. In 2025 the event went through a crisis of withdrawn corporate sponsors, which called its future financial sustainability into question.

Outside June: Folsom Street Fair (last Sunday of September, the leather community's big street fair, ~400K), Castro Street Fair (October), the Trans March and Dyke March (Friday and Saturday of Pride weekend). The National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park is open all year.

The Castro is one of the first gay neighbourhoods in the United States. Its LGBT identity dates from the late 60s (a side effect of the Summer of Love in Haight-Ashbury, 1967), consolidated in the 70s when Harvey Milk opened Castro Camera in 1973 and launched his political career.

The core: the Castro & 18th junction, the axis of marches and memorials. Landmarks: Harvey Milk Plaza (MUNI station), the GLBT Historical Society Museum (the first stand-alone LGBT museum in the US, 2011), Pink Triangle Park (17th & Market, a monument to the LGBT victims of Nazism), the Castro Theatre (1922), the Rainbow Honor Walk (plaques in the pavement). MUNI Metro Castro station (K/T, L, M lines).

San Francisco was the cradle of the modern US LGBT movement: the Daughters of Bilitis (1955, the first national lesbian organisation), the Tavern Guild (1962, the first gay business association), the Society for Individual Rights (1964, within a few years the country's largest homophile organisation) and Vanguard (1965, LGBT youth in the Tenderloin).

LGBTQI+-friendly health services: the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (the Strut clinic in the Castro — PrEP, rapid testing, sexual health), Lyon-Martin Health Services (specialised in LGBTQI+ people and women), the UCSF Alliance Health Project (LGBT mental health). The GLBT Historical Society (1985) keeps one of the largest LGBT archives in the world. The National AIDS Memorial Grove (Golden Gate Park) is a national memorial.