LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District

SOMA Second Saturday — Summer Edition!

August 13, 2022, 1:00 to 5:00 pm
12th Street (between Folsom and Harrison), in San Francisco
Hosted by LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District, Folsom Street,
and Soma West CBD

Come shop with local queer and kinky artists, artisans, and craftspeople from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. Join in the Rough Trade Leather & Gear Swap!  (Sign up here! ). Visit our bootblack boy zander. Get drawn by ES Kavana. Get ear acupuncture with Dr. Marcos from Needle Play Acupuncture. Receive insight from Tarot by Alexandria. Visit Trans Village with ByrdBeaks and Fire Dragon Photography. Vendors include A.B.O. Comix, Downtown Armor, Gooch Photography, House of Haven Crafts, It’s Simple, Just Angel, Laughing Cat Forge, Major Sketch, Nikki Violanti, Pansies, and The Spooky Haus

Volunteers Needed! Contact manager@sflcd.org. Come early and enjoy the Soma West Farmers Market at Eagle Plaza from 9:00 to 12:30. Enjoy a Saturday Beer Bust at the SF Eagle, from 3 to 7 pm! Dine nearby at local restaurants like Willows and Manora, or the food trucks at District 6. Free! Donations welcome. This is a smoke-free event. Applicable COVID-19 precautions enforced.

Find out who else is going and join the chat with Bloom!

Do you have kinky arts or queer crafts you would like to show and sell?
Click here for more info!

Sunday Streets SOMA returns on August 21, 2022, removing all traffic along Folsom Street from 9th to Spear, from 11:00am to 4:00pm, to give neighbors and visitors over 1.5 miles of fun for the whole family.

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District and Folsom Street are partnering to host the block of Folsom Street between 8th and 9th Streets as the Kinky and Queer Block of Sunday Streets.

Come by to visit our vendors, enjoy entertainment and demos on our stage, and view the work of local artists.

• • Vendors will include:
    • Rocky Angel
    • ByrdBeaks,
    • Mauskaveli,
    • House of Haven Crafts,
    • JesseJae, and
    • Needle Play Acupuncture.
  • Artists will include:
    • Austin Boe and
    • Nikki Violanti.

The block will have a section suggested for 18+ only.

Volunteers are also needed. Sign up to help with Sunday Streets events here , and mention “LEATHER” as your organization affiliation., or contact  manager@sflcd.org for information and other options.  

This event is only one of six Sunday Streets in 2022, each offering beautiful mile-plus-long routes in historic neighborhoods of San Francisco between April and September, made possible by the nonprofit Livable City organization.

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District is proud to continue the tradition of the popular community event LeatherWalk, on September 18, 2022.

LeatherWalk 2022 will once again start at San Francisco City Hall and will visit some of our favorite places and watering holes along the way. The event will culminate in a celebration at the annual Leather Pride Fest at Eagle Plaza, presented by the SF Eagle.

The event is free, but accepts donations to benefit the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District, a unique San Francisco institution dedicated to keeping our South of Market neighborhood queer and kinky.

Plan now to join us on the steps of City Hall at 11 am, and step off at 11:30.  Full schedule and other details are here, or follow us on Facebook or FetLife, to be kept informed.

Please educate yourself about Monkeypox. Start at sf.gov/monkeypox. Additional links are on our Resource page, here.

The Second Bearrison Street Fair will be held on Harrison Street at 11th Street, on Saturday, October 15, 2022.

Bearrison — a collaboration between the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc., (SPI) and the Bears of San Francisco (BOSF) — is an inclusive event for all members of the adult LGBTI+ community, which promotes body positivity for all and builds a more supportive, welcoming, and inclusive bear scene by representing a diverse arena of cultures.

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District was proud to have been a Presenting Sponsor of last year’s Fair; pictures from that event are up on their web site.  We will be a Sponsor again this year.

This would be a great time to sign up to volunteer.  (Early volunteers get best choice of shifts!)

There is still time to sign up to be a vendor, here.  And if your organization would like to be a Beverage Partner, apply here.  

When it comes to corporate sponsorships, the sooner the better.  Start by dropping them a quick note here.

Only a limited number of spots are open in the Barbells, Bears, and Butts Deadlift Competition, a new feature of the Fair this year, sponsored by Fitness SF and MetalBob Training.  Learn more and sign up now at https://www.bearrison.org/deadlift.

Admission to the event is free, but VIP tickets are cheaper this year, and the perks of being a VIP will be better than ever., so be sure to order yours as soon as they become available.

Because the  Bearrison Street Fair is, above all, a good time!

Thanks to some useful input we have received, we have been able to update our Leather & LGBTQ Resource Guide with new links to health-related resources, including new info on Monkeypox, and about recommendations for Meningococcal Disease vaccination.

See the new links at https://sfleatherdistrict.org/leather-and-lgbtq-resources/#health.

A new outlet for creative kinksters is emerging, in the form of the SFEagle Players.  Andrew Calabrese has been inviting writers, actors, designers, and anyone with a love of theater, to come together to create some magic at the SF Eagle.

To get things moving, they are holding a series of six events on Wednesday evenings, called “Improv Dojo: The Zen Approach to Improvisational Theatre”, led by Ovan Chan.

If interested, just show up at the SF Eagle at 6:30 pm on Wednesdays, starting July 6, 2022.

You could also join their Facebook Group or sign up on the SF Eagle Web site.

The monthly SOMA Second Saturday event on July 9 (from 1 to 5 pm, in and around Eagle Plaza) will once again feature our fun new “Rough Trade” Gear Swap!

The Gear Swap is your chance to clear out the closet, and earn some money for your used leather boots, fetish attire, kinky toys, bondage gear and…  who knows what else!

You can let us sell your items for your stated price, OR hang out at the Gear Swap booth, so you can negotiate and haggle with potential buyers.

If you have a Venmo account, you can send us the account name or QR Code to make payment easy.

You’ll be reducing clutter, raising cash, and getting gear into the hands of folks who might not otherwise afford it.

Best of all, you can choose to keep 100% of the cash receipts, or donate some or all of them to Folsom Street!

So, if you have some items that no longer fit your lifestyle (or your body), sign up here, or read full details here.

Other reasons to join us for SOMA Second Saturdays can be found here.

On May 16 and 19, 2022, Cary Escovedo provided Narcan training for staff at the SF Eagle, Cat Club, Powerhouse, and DNA Lounge.

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District is pleased to  be working with Cary, and the California Department of Public Health, to help these harm reduction efforts, and to keep SOMA a safe and healthy environment for all.  

Hi.  Thanks for your interest in the “LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District”, created by the City of San Francisco to honor, support, and protect the unique and special culture that has flourished in the South of Market area.

We encourage anyone with an interest in the leather or kink community to learn about this project, and participate however they can.

There are lots of ways to get informed and involved:

• Read this brief introduction.
• View our brochure.
• Visit our “About us” page.
• Become a Member of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District – or at least get on our mailing list – to be notified of meetings and other events, join a committee, or volunteer your skills.
• Attend one of our semi-annual  Membership Meetings.
• Attend (as a guest) one of our monthly Board Meetings.
• Consider joining one of our important Committees, including the Arts and Culture Committee, the Communications Committee, The Governance Committee, the Land Use Committee, or the Diversity and Membership Committee.   
• Share your opinions about our community’s needs, and our organization’s priorities, either by using our survey, or by chatting with a member of our Board. 
• Read the Resolution as approved by the Board of Supervisors, and signed by the Mayor on May 9, 2018, here.
• Read the Vision and Mission Statements for the Cultural District here.
• Read our full organizational Bylaws, here.
• See a list of our current Board of Directors, here.
• View a map of the Cultural District here.
• Check out our calendar of Cultural District meetings and events, here.
• Like and follow the SF LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District on Facebook.  
• Join our Group on Fetlife.
• Follow @sfleatherdist on Twitter or Instagram.  
• Write to our group’s elected President, Bob Brown, using the email address president@SFLCD.org or more generally to info@SFLCD.org.  

Let’s see what we can do to make this happen, and make it happen right!

On May 13, 2022, Mayor London Breed signed an ordinance, introduced by District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and adopted by the city’s Board of Supervisors, to clear up zoning issues and allow the reopening of traditional gay bathhouses and other adult businesses in designated areas of San Francisco.

The new ordinance will allow these “adult sex venues” to operate 24/7 in the Castro and on upper Market Street between Octavia Boulevard and Castro Street, and in key locations in SOMA and the Tenderloin.  “Conditional use” permits would be possible in several other  places.  Supervisor Mandelman posted the following message on Facebook:

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District’s leadership is deeply pained by the racist violence which continues in this country.

We stand in solidarity with Black and Brown people and their allies worldwide who are peacefully expressing their outrage at racism, injustice, and abuse of police power.

We stand in solidarity with the protesters engaged in powerful actions to demand justice, accountability, and systemic change.

Only by standing together will it be possible to put an end to the senseless brutality we have witnessed for too long.

The Leather and LGBTQ communities have a long history of collective strength in times of crisis and now we invoke that strength to call for freedom and fairness for all oppressed communities.

We call on the entire community to work together to dismantle ingrained systems of inequality wherever they are found.  It will be a long journey to the end of institutionalized racism, but our community will act with strength, purpose, and solidarity until we see that day.

Black Lives Matter.

Community members have encouraged contributions to some of the organizations listed below.  Although the Cultural District has not reviewed these suggestions, and cannot specifically endorse them, we do urge our community to support the hard work of achieving safety, freedom, and fairness for all oppressed communities.

• • National Bail Fund Network
  • Bay Area Anti- Repression Committee Bail Fund
  • San Francisco’s Transgender District
  • Anti Police-Terror Project
  • The Bail Project™ National Revolving Bail Fund 
  • Protest & COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund for Community Bail & Bond Funds 
  • Minnesota Freedom Fund 
  • Reclaim The Block
  • Black Visions Collective
  • Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project
  • Center for Black Equity

Other Lists of Resources:

• • SF Queer Nightlife Fund: Antiracism Resources
  • Northstar Health Collective
  • Tools For Fighting Racism In The Leather Community
  • Website Planet: List of Black-Owned Businesses

Transform1060 is a leather/kink/fetish community space at 1060 Folsom Street, formerly the social and educational space called SFCatalyst. It will be outfitted as you remember with upgrades in the works.

The space’s new operation team has finalized a new lease on the space, a crucial step the transition from its previous management by the San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance,.  The team is actively recruiting folks to host events there, as well as donations to their Capital Campaign. 

You can read more about the space — its history, the ongoing transition, the new management team, and the values that will guide its operations — at their new Web site, transform1060.org, or their Facebook page. A Press Release is also available, with with important details and quotes from team members Christopher Wood and Leigh Ann Hildebrand,.

The Transform1060 team is asking for active community involvement, urging folks to commit to attending an event, volunteering at an event, or hosting an event in the first 60 days of 2022.

They are also seeking donations to help retire the substantial back-rent debt, to begin making space and accessibility improvements, and to weather COVID-19 surges or other emergencies.  Learn more or make a donation at transform1060.org/home/donate/.

This fundraising campaign replaces the SFCatalyst Patreon campaign, which will no longer go towards operation of the 1060 Folsom space.

The survival of this space ensures that kinky folks from all of our communities will continue to have a safe space in SF to gather, play, teach, and learn.  The new team is committed to providing event facilities to a broad spectrum of the San Francisco Bay area’s fetish and kink communities, with an intentional focus on increasing services to and participation of historically excluded and under-represented people.