Making Badlands Good: Still confronting racism in the Castro 

Every Saturday night about a hundred people gather in front of SF Badlands, a popular bar and dance club in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro District. Typically, the line to get into the establishment stretches a block long, but these latest regulars are not waiting to gain entrance. They are demanding human rights.

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission (SF HRC) issued a report on April 27 stating owner Les Natali had discriminated against customers and former employees on the basis of race. He had, for instance, referred to African Americans as “non-Badlands customers” and discouraged them from patronizing the club by requiring them to show multiple forms of identification. Natali has denied the accusations.

For many, the late-evening parade of protestors contradicts the reputation of the Castro as a neighborhood of inclusiveness. These protests form the spearhead of a resurgent antiracist movement within San Francisco’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. They also symbolize a larger national and international issue, that of racism within the gay community.

To address the problem, several organizations have sprung up in recent years. One is And Castro for All (formerly known as IsBadlandsBad?), which aims to make the community more inclusive and had compiled complaints against the policies of Badlands before SF HRC released its report. Other examples include Black Rap, which wants to create a Black voice for people in the LGBT community who suffer from racism, and Out/Rage, a theater group that has performed plays about racism in this community.

Why is this movement forming? And why are so many people from around the world emailing, writing blogs, and making phone calls to encourage protestors here in San Francisco?

CITY OF LOVE
San Francisco is known for its inclusive, accepting, and affirming communities. Queer people openly participate in civic life throughout the city, but the Castro remains the central hub. At the intersection of Castro and 18th Street is a residential neighborhood of bars, restaurants, video stores and other shops, and a grand movie house, catering both to longtime residents, as well as to tourists who want to experience this gay Mecca for themselves. For many, the experience of walking down Castro Street is deeply moving, a first opportunity to walk hand-in-hand with a same-gender lover, where being recognized as gay in public is not threatening, but instead empowering.

But cracks appear in this image.

Last July sixty-five African American lesbians and gay men met to discuss the need for a stronger Black presence in the LGBT community, in terms of business ownership, employment, and leadership. The group spoke with managers of the LGBT Community Center to urge them to hire more African Americans, which it has begun to do. The same year, African American LGBT community members came together to form LGBT Black Rap, which has participated in the protest of SF Badlands from the beginning to ensure voices from the Black community are heard. Cofounder Zwazzi Sowo says that they represent a perspective that is different from multiethnic groups, such as And Castro for All, though they are all supportive of each other.

As a young woman, Zwazzi Sowo marched in Chicago with Dr. Martin Luther King for desegregated housing. White people, she recalls, climbed trees to throw bricks and bottles at the protestors. Now, when protesting in front of SF Badlands, she finds herself once again being heckled, spat at, and yelled at. It has been painful for her to realize that the community she is part of is so full of venom, but she is encouraged that the protest is happening and believes that the LGBT community will eventually be safe and inclusive, a place where racism will have no place. That is why, she explains, she pickets without rest, even though her body should be tired. She learned from Dr. King that marching is food for her soul. She says, “No more racism in our community; we won’t take it any more.”

HOW BAD?
The SF HRC has no power to impose sanctions based on their findings. Paul Mooney, a spokesperson for And Castro for All, says that the organization is hoping that the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control will withdraw the SF Badlands’ liquor license. Until then, protestors will continue to picket outside of the club and encourage people not to patronize it because of its discriminatory actions.

Protestors have had broad support. When Natali tried to placate his critics by placing an advertisement in the Bay Area Reporter, a newspaper focusing on gay and lesbian issues, suggesting that community organizations hold fundraisers at Badlands. Instead, the groups—namely, And Castro for All, BGLT People in Pride, Black Rap, Community United Against Violence, Lesbian and Gays of African American Descent for Democratic Action, Men of All Colors Together, SFLGBT Pride Committee, and the Stop AIDS Project—responded by joining the protest.

Already, their action is having a negative effect on SF Badlands’ business, according to Mooney. Passers-by have shown support to the picketers and have even joined in on occasion. Meanwhile, to bring customers back to the bar, Badlands’ supporters and employees started handing out coupons for half priced drinks. Some hard-core supporters have expressed anger over the charges against the bar. One person exiting raised his fists and shouted “white power,” Sowo recalls, and picketers have been cursed at and spat upon by angry patrons.

The truth is many people have known about Castro racism for a long time, even before Marlon Riggs exposed his invisibility in the movie Tongues Untied. Racism created injuries because it was rarely discussed. Perhaps, the LGBT community wanted too much to believe that it was the most inclusive community in the world. At the same time, some people have given up on the community, thinking that the discrimination is too thick, too painful, to live with; others, though, have been waiting for this moment to stand up and let their voices be heard.

Niels Teunis, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in human sexuality studies at San Francisco State University. His research focuses on racism in the gay male community, and in that context, he has performed in community plays that address this issue.