Hal Fischer

If Castro was the village, the intersection of Castro and Market Streets was the town square. Events - both positive and negative - were the catalyst for demonstrations and marches originating at this intersection. Gays and lesbians would gather there on short notice to celebrate, protest, or mourn. This was all the more remarkable because the landline - in absence of cell phones, Internet, or social media - was the only form of non-face-to-face communication.

The Castro embodied all that was fun about the 1970s. The election of Harvey Milk gave the community a tremendous sense of empowerment. The sexual revolution lived on, and social diseases, which were rampant, didn’t require much more than a trip to the city clinic and a course of antibiotics. While the Castro clone was a predominant stereotype, the neighbourhood mix also included drag queens and members and followers of the Angels of Light, a polysexual theatre group formed after the breakup of the Cockettes, as well as those who sartorially carried on the legacy of the Summer of Love. The Castro Street Fair, which Harvey milk created in 1974 as a protest to the discriminatory policies of some of the local merchants, grew into a giant annual celebration with vendors and a stage at Castro and Market. Here one might be fortunate enough, as I was, to experience a performance by the legendary Sylvester. It was great to be gay, and the Castro was the epicentre of the gay universe.

- At the Center of the Gay Universe in Hal Fischer: The Gay Seventies, 2019