While guests lined up outside the South of Market nightclub Beatbox for last month's local edition of a promotional event, a handful of activists poured bottles of Stoli vodka onto the South of Market street. Actually, it was water, since they didn't want to buy Stoli just to boycott it.
Inside the nightclub, frivolity and free drinks reigned, and Nicola Bettinger , a cute young gay man with a cuter Parisian-themed strip act that left him in a black corset, was dubbed the San Francisco winner of the Most Original Stoli Guy contest.
While most local bars aren't quite as declarative as Beatbox with their Stoli support, many others have declined to honor the boycott of Stoli products.
So, why a boycott? Yes, some people still don't know. Amid escalating reports of anti-gay violence across Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a law, which bans the "promotion" of homosexuality to minors. Vigilantes have posted videos of themselves kidnapping and assaulting gay men.
Worldwide condemnation of the new law, and its resultant violence, was swift. George Takei, the openly gay "Star Trek" star, called for the Olympics Committee to move the 2014 Sochi Winter Games from Russia to Canada. The sports events are scheduled for February 2014.
Oscar winning-film star Tilda Swinton daringly stood in front of the Kremlin sporting a rainbow flag. Her photo of this action went viral. Even President Barack Obama, a staunch LGBT ally, harshly condemned these laws, yet offered no support of a boycott.
Other celebrities have declared their refusal to visit Russia. Bravo Networks' Andy Cohen bowed out of hosting the Miss Universe pageant, scheduled to broadcast November 9 from Moscow. Despite an online petition with 28,000 signatures supporting a move out of Russia, the pageant organizers, headed by Donald Trump, refused to consider relocating the event.
And gay actor Wentworth Miller came out on August 21, citing his refusal to attend a film festival in St. Petersburg.