San Francisco is known as a gay mecca, but Pride hasn’t always been mainstream. In the ’60s, gender non-conforming and visibly gay people were often targets of police harassment and discrimination. LGBTQ culture thrived in the night—when queer people could express themselves among peers without judgment.
As we celebrate the Bay Area LGBTQ community this Pride month, KQED recently unearthed a rare video of a 1968 gay costume ball, with footage of fabulous drag queens and socialites dancing the night away on Columbus Avenue in San Francisco, likely at The Village Club.
Watch the video above and read about today’s drag scene in The Changing Face of Drag, which celebrates the queer community’s creativity, diversity and continuing resilience.
