The Besties give us an opportunity to visit some longtime favorite watering holes, to visit some of the newer venues in town and unfortunately to note the passing of one venue.

From drag shows to dancing bears, game nights and beer busts, cubcakes, mangos and other treats, your choices for Best Nightlife Events truly represents a diverse menu of options.

Divas, the Polk district bar and nightclub that had long been a safe haven for the transgender community, will be closing its doors on March 30. The bar will celebrate its many years of service to the community with a closing night party.

Divas nightclub, one of the last vestiges from the days when Polk Street was a major gay and transgender hangout, will close its doors at the end of March.

Ann and Maxine Weldon from Bakersfield, performed in clubs beginning in the 1950s, and developed relationships with their gay audiences that came to benefit both the audience and the performers.

Boy Division, the monthly New Wave, goth, queer pop night, included groovy retro sounds, plus drag queens and puppets! The diverse crowd enjoyed a Dark Room drag show, and grooving to The Cure, Depeche Mode and other faves with DJ Xander at the Cat Club.

Lenny Mollet was a Grand Duke of the Ducal Court, the president of the Tavern Guild, and one of a generation of gay men who fought for a place of their own in the city. He owned a gay bar in San Francisco a decade and a half before the Stonewall riots.

History sometimes seems ruled by events with unintended consequences. That certainly is the case with the Mardi Gras Ball at California Hall, which happened on January 1, 1965. It's an event that's been called 'San Francisco's Stonewall.'

Jolene's, the new queer bar in SoMa, opened last weekend to much local appreciation. A soft opening on Dec. 15 included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the return of Uhaul, now each Friday, marked the first week of events.

Palm Springs has been associated with the gay community for a very long time. But it wasn't always friendly. Streetbar became a pioneering business by breaking new gay ground in 1991.

Candidates in Supervisor, local and state offices celebrated their victories (including Matt Haney and Gordon Mar), the Democratic House majority flip, as well as 100s of progressive victories nationwide, at Oasis and Calle 11.

Mention Halloween violence in the LGBT community, and most people think of events of the last decade, which ended the closing of Castro Street for the holiday. But history does repeat itself, as the '60s and'70s Halloween celebrations prove.

When we think of entertainment in our bars, the chances are that we think of drag performances or DJs more often than live music. But from the 1960s to the 1980s at the Stud (then at 1535 Folsom Street), live performances often ruled the night.

Serving up burgers and drag shows, the recently opened Hamburger Mary's has become a popular Castro district restaurant for locals and tourists alike.