There's a mystery surrounding the city of San Jose and it doesn't involve the Winchester Mystery House or the Rosicrucian Museum. The mystery is how the largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest city in California wound up with so few gay bars.
There have been bars that catered to gays and lesbians in San Jose since at least 1947. The first of these was Tommy's Café, later Tommy's Club at 97 North First Street. In an article for the San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Historical Society Newsletter of June 1987, Eric Garber describes it as "a seedy skid row bar" which was a home for winos and down and outers as well as gays." It is listed in the city directory through 1960.
Tommy's was joined by the Sapphire Lounge (189 South First Street) in 1952. In the September 1987 Historical Society Newsletter Marv Shaw says it was, "Completely upholstered in a kind of blue velvet inside" it was known as the Blue Coffin. Though definitely mixed, it was a comfortable haven." The Sapphire Lounge was open till 1970.
The Midway Café (448 West Santa Clara) opened in 1955 and was perhaps the closest thing to a modern gay bar in San Jose. It almost immediately attracted the attention of the Alcohol Beverage Control. The record of the case (supplied to me by the ABC) said the bar, "had become a meeting place for homosexuals of both sexes; not only a meeting place, but a place of demonstration for this type of deviation from the normal sexual pattern." Likewise, the record reveals dancing between members of the same sex which ranged from that which would have been proper decorum between members of the opposite sex, to acts amounting to a violent sexual demonstration." The bar was closed by the ABC in 1956.
In the 1960s the Crystal Café (42 West San Fernando) became a gay bar in about 1963. The proximity to San Jose State University gave many young students their first experience in a gay bar.
In the column "Really Rita" in Lambda News from 1977, the author says the Crystal Café was mixed during the day and gay at night, and that both lesbians and gay men were welcome and became good friends ("family," as the author puts it).
1963 was also the year that Mac's (then at 349 South First Street), the oldest existing gay bar in San Jose, is first listed in the City Directory for San Jose. From 1963 on San Jose had at least three gay bars. Crystal Café was open until 1970.
photo: Ted Sahl, SJSU Library Special Collections
From the 1970s onward, it becomes much easier to track San Jose LGBT history because of the advent of gay newsletters and newspapers. The first newsletter to have advertisements for bars was the MCC newsletter, called The Scarab in 1971 and renamed The Apostle in 1972.
Bars advertised included the Savoy (20469 Silverado, Cupertino), A Tinker's Dam (46 Saratoga, Santa Clara), The Galley (163 W. Alma, San Jose) and Magnolia's Closet (1384 Lincoln Ave, San Jose). The newsletter also contained an ad for the Bachelor Quarters baths in East Palo Alto.
Aside from the bars, the newsletter provides a startling picture of how advanced gay life was early on. In the Sept. 19, 1971 edition, there is an announcement of the first gay marriage at the MCC (not recognized by the state, of course) between Jeff and David (no last names were given).
In March 1976, the Lambda News began publication. The August 1976 issue reported on a police raid on Alfonso's Sundown Saloon (349 W. San Carlos). Just prior to closing, 12 police arrived and shut down the bar, saying the music must stop, there could be no dancing after 2 A.M., and that the bar was overcrowded. As of this issue there were eight bars operating in San Jose, including two on South First Street and two on Stockton Avenue listed in the "Where It's Happening" listings for Lambda News. Renegades, which is still open today, was first included in the Lambda News listing in October, 1977.
In 1978 there was an event which foreshadowed bad times for the LGBT community (and may foreshadow the loss of bars). The San Jose City Council approved and then rescinded a resolution approving a Gay Rights Week under pressure from Christian fundamentalists. The action caused Johnie Staggs and Sal Accardi to announce their write-in candidacy for City Council, making them the first lesbian and gay man to publicly run for office in San Jose.
The conflict with fundamentalists was just beginning, however. In 1979 a city ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual preference was challenged by a referendum. The vote (in June, 1980) was placed on the ballot by the efforts of 53 churches and funded in large part by Anita Bryant's Protect America's Children Inc. Gay rights lost overwhelmingly with 70.2 percent voting against the ordinance and 29.7 percent voting for it. As a result of this defeat, the community banded together and created the Billy DeFrank Community Center. These battles were part of ongoing conflicts which (in 1998) would overturn a domestic partner's registry and in 2004 would challenge benefits for the partners of city workers.
Harassment of gay bars by police continued through the 1980s. An article in the May 15, 1985 Lambda News reported that three bars (the Boot Rack, Toyon and Interlude) experienced unexpected visits from police and incidents of multiple police vehicles parking outside of the bars for prolonged periods.
From 1981 to 1985, a Vice detail targeted three downtown adult bookstores and arrested at least 300, and possibly up to 1000 men (estimates vary because many men did not contest charges). The community rallied once again and formed a defense committee which challenged the arrests. Despite these efforts, all of the bookstores were closed by 1985.
Despite these challenges, bars continued to open. By 1983 there were four bars (641 Club, Renegades, Boot Rack and Main Street) within three blocks of one another on Stockton Street, giving birth to the "Stockton Strip" neighborhood. At the peak of the gay village (in 1987) San Jose had 14 gay bars.
So what led to the demise of the "gayborhood"?
In a 2002 SJSU Master's Thesis, Gay Bars of Silicon Valley: A Study in the Decline of a Social Institution, William M. Coker suggests that AIDS, the internet and migration are all factors [The thesis is fascinating and available online at http://bit.ly/2jq5jHB
By the time of the thesis the city only had three bars.
All of Coker's suggestions seem reasonable. The rise of drunk-driving prosecution may have been a factor. When the Boot Rack closed (in 1985), in an article in Our Paper, the owner specifically sited fears of prosecution against his patrons.
For a city as large as San Jose (149 square miles), issues associated with automobile transportation are very important. As for why LGBT people might migrate, the negative political climate could have been a factor.
It is, however, also possible that San Jose has evolved a different type of LGBT community, which is more centered on home life. In a 2005 article in the Mercury News about the Pride parade (now more than 40 years old), the author refers to it as "family-friendly" and "G-rated."
It's worth remembering that the city has had an LGBT center longer than San Francisco and that their bath houses survived when San Francisco's were put out of business. Although its nightlife may not be nearly as diverse as San Francisco's, it's obvious that San Jose has a resilient LGBT population.
The author would like to thank the staff of the SJSU Library Special Collections and the California Room at San Jose Public Library.