Queerness Archives

In Memoriam: A Love Letter to Wig Master Rosalie Jacques of Rosalie’s New Looks

29Jan

By Juanita MORE!No Comments

Essays, Hyperlocal News + Stories, Queerness

In Memoriam: A Love Letter to Wig Master Rosalie Jacques of Rosalie’s New Looks

She was a true quintessential San Francisco character I first met Rosalie in 1993, when I visited her wig and hair salon, Rosalie’s New Look's, in North Beach. After moving to San Francisco from Stockton in 1957, fresh out of beauty school, Rosalie quickly found her place doing hair. She soon opened her own shop, making wigs for the drag queens at Finnocchio’s nightclub and styling the topless dancers of North Beach. When topless entertainment became legal in the early 60s, she recalled the famous stripper Carol Doda visiting her shop and jumping into the window full of wigs and starting to strip. Rosalie also crafted merkins for dancers during that time to comply with legal restrictions. She proudly did hair for Charles Pierce, who preferred to be known as an actor rather than a femal...

Someone’s Organizing a Straight Pride Parade … in San Francisco

12Dec

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know, Queerness

Someone’s Organizing a Straight Pride Parade … in San Francisco

In a world rife with toxic displays of hypermasculinity, what we really need is a parade celebrating the high divorce rates between biological men and women. SF is unquestionably the gay mecca of the world — a metropolitan at the nexus of queer political revolutions, cultural influence, and historical firsts. The City By the Bay has been home to more than one gayborhood, with The Castro now synonymous with queerness (and Harvey Milk). San Francisco, in tandem with New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, hosted the nation's first-ever Gay Liberation Prides in the 1970s; these early iterations of queer resistance would later become modern-day Gay Pride Parades, with San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade routinely the nation’s largest or second-largest. San Francisco Straight Parade A Straig...

The National Guard Is Coming to San Francisco This Week. Here’s What Could Happen.

22Oct

By Juanita MORE!No Comments

Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know, Queerness

The National Guard Is Coming to San Francisco This Week. Here’s What Could Happen.

President Trump's next city on his unsubstantiated hit-list is none other than the one I've called home for decades. UPDATE: The Frump administration has dispatched more than 100 federal agents to Coast Guard bade in Alameda. From what I am hearing among my community, it could actually happen this weekend. There will likely be some show of force — even if it's armed guardspeople driving through the City to get some attention and stir shit up. California Governor Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced yesterday that California will immediately sue the Trump Administration if it illegally sends the National Guard into San Francisco.Mayor Daniel Lurie has stated he'd also put up stopping blocks, announcing that "[San Francisco] will always protect the people and the values that ma...

Manny Yekutiel’s Bid for SF Board of Supervisors Seat Is (Already) Riddled With Red Flags

23Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Editors' Picks, Feature Pieces, Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know, Queerness

Manny Yekutiel’s Bid for SF Board of Supervisors Seat Is (Already) Riddled With Red Flags

Yekutiel’s newly launched crusade to vie for next year's District 8 Supervisor race in San Francisco presents contentious foreshadowings. The past two weeks have seen a whirlwind blow through San Francisco’s political landscape. The ACLU officially sued ICE in San Francisco in an effort to stop courthouse arrests; Governor Newsom hinted at support of a $750 million budget deal that could lessen Muni’s looming $322 million deficit; Mayor Laurie has been seen seemingly everywhere across the city. The successful recall of District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio — a first-ever of its kind, largely fueled by criticism over the Upper Great Highway closing off to private vehicles — sent the most shock through SF politics. Immediately after Engardio’s concession, whispers, rumors, and longings beg...

Beloved, Culturally Significant Queer Nightclub in SF Will Close Next Year

2Aug

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories, Queerness

Beloved, Culturally Significant Queer Nightclub in SF Will Close Next Year

After more than a decade of drag cabaret and queer stage shows, Oasis, SF’s most prominent queer nightclub, is shutting down. San Francisco’s queer nightlife scene has found itself amid death and rebirth. Local lesbian-owned bars and eateries are experiencing a renaissance… while gay watering holes and queer-centered hotels continue falling by the wayside. June saw the last remaining gay bar in Polk Gulch — San Francisco’s original gayborhood — saved by new ownership amid financial woes; during the same month, the Phoenix Hotel, which has hosted famous rock legends and existed as a queer-friendly, queer-forward space for decades, announced its closing (for good). So suffice to say that when the South of Market gay nightclub Oasis announced it would shutter next year, there was ...

Tone-Deaf Headline From Controversial SF Publication Goes Viral, Gets Blasted With Top-Tier Comments

3Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

News to Know, Queerness

Tone-Deaf Headline From Controversial SF Publication Goes Viral, Gets Blasted With Top-Tier Comments

The San Francisco Standard's objectively homophobic piece of pro-police propaganda drew laudable amounts of criticism from the internet, spanning all manner of creativity. ICYMI: Through a matter of serenity, we’ve been on a small side-quest this week to showcase the depravity (and billionaire nature) of The San Francisco Standard. As the universe would have it, a recent headline published by the publication after Pride weekend sparked comment and criticism from basically all corners of the internet. Highlighting the recent shenanigans at a decades-old San Francisco Pride party, The Standard chose to title its report something that serves as perfect Fox News fodder: “Illegal Pride party turns into vandalism orgy of graffiti, damaged homes.” Social media footage procured by The Stand...

The (Belated) Weekend Wrap-Up: Corporate Allyship MIA at San Francisco Pride

2Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, Queerness

The (Belated) Weekend Wrap-Up: Corporate Allyship MIA at San Francisco Pride

Plus: the Dyke March roared through SF's Mission District for the first time in six years. San Francisco’s official 55th Pride Parade looked slightly different this year. The parade route, which began at the Embarcadero and ended at the Civic Center — covering about 1.5 miles — saw a renaissance of resilience and the usual array of colorful allyship. An estimated one million people descended on San Francisco this past weekend to celebrate Pride; as of publishing, SF Pride remains the city’s largest outdoor event and is responsible for millions of dollars generated through local businesses each year during Pride week. But amid the twirling, celebrating, and delicious frivolity, something was blatantly absent this year: corporate sponsorships. San Francisco Pride reported midling corpor...

SF Mayor Booed, ‘Not Welcomed’ at Trans March Amid Budget Cuts Toward Gender-Affirming Care Programs and Removal of Trans Flag at Official Pride Ceremony

28Jun

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, Queerness

SF Mayor Booed, ‘Not Welcomed’ at Trans March Amid Budget Cuts Toward Gender-Affirming Care Programs and Removal of Trans Flag at Official Pride Ceremony

Attendees at the 2025 Trans March in San Francisco had some choice words for the city's current mayor after a slew of criticisms have fallen on home as of late regarding queer San Francisco Mayor Lurie isn’t exactly making friends or allies with the city’s queer communites, particualy withing transgender circles. Recent City budget unveilings show SF is decreasing the amount of money toward programs for gender-affirming care and other resources meant to support queer and trans people. Daniel Lurie dared to show his face at the #TransMarch and I lucked out to a front row seat of him getting booed out of the park. pic.twitter.com/JMNOp132Fr — Dimitry Yakoushkin (@decadimitry) June 28, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js San Francisco, too, has yet to fly the transgender fla...

Another San Francisco Bookstore Has Pulled Books by J.K. Rowling From Its Shelves

26Jun

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

News to Know, Queerness

Another San Francisco Bookstore Has Pulled Books by J.K. Rowling From Its Shelves

Joining the likes of Booksmith — the first reported bookstore in San Francisco to remove texts by the popular author behind the Harry Potter series — Fabulosa Books in the Castro has ceased selling books by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling’s fall from grace doesn’t need to be studied at length; it’s all down to transphobia, simple as that. Rowling championed (and subsequently applauded) the United Kingdom’s supreme court decision earlier this month to define women as only those who were born so at birth. On those coat tails, she then started a political cohort that essentially fights against transgender rights under the guise of feminism. As we summarized earlier this June when Booksmith vowed to stop selling Rowling’s books, Rowling is no ally to queer or trans people: J.K. Rowling...

SF Pulls Trans Flag From Official Pride Flag Raising Ceremony for First Time in Recent History

25Jun

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know, Queerness

SF Pulls Trans Flag From Official Pride Flag Raising Ceremony for First Time in Recent History

A recent San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting included a lively community comment advocating for trans rights and pointing out an omission from this year's Pride Raising Ceremony. San Francisco is largely considered the gay mecca of the world. The seven-by-seven has a lengthy Rolodex of being either “firsts” or pioneers in touchstone moments of LGBTQIA+ history. In 2021, then-Mayor Breed declared the month of August as Transgender History Month in San Francisco, stamping SF as the first major city to do so in America; that same month, the City legally recognized a Transgender District — the first in the entire world. Symbols matter. Supporting the trans community matters. Our mayor and our government has abandoned them. For the first time, the trans flag was excluded from the p...