We had premises in San Francisco within an hour of arrival.
The word had spread that we would be coming and “if London doesn’t want us…”
We sit, somewhat stunned, nibbling on tacos and peanuts, listening to the litany of business opportunities and meetings lined up. The sun is setting over the Bay, its rays caressing the waters, and in the remotness of the Presidio, this abrupt bringing us down to earth and to business feels surreal.
We are staying with our friend Amy, an academic and an LGBT activist. A veritable intellectual, she is currently researching HIV in transgender youth and her bookshelves practically give way under the weight of LGBT literature. In the course of our visit, we will make a somewhat inadvequate endeavour to take some of it in, and will leave hungry for more of Amy’s conversations and hugs.
It’s our very first evening and Amy is a perfect hostess as well as a treasure trove of information. The LGBT community has finally been recognised as essential to the city’s character, and, for the first time ever, can lay claim to physical spaces and influence city planners. It just so happens a building or two are available and it just so happens we would be ideal tenants and it just so happens that… Amy puts us to shame with her knowledge of LGBT politics and social issues and knows all the “so and sos”.
Sure enough, our first lunch in San Francisco is with Carol Lee aka Scarlet Harlot, a queer filmmaker and activist. Active on the socio-political circuit for decades, she is commonly considered to have coined the very term “sex worker” and tirelessly campaigns for their rights.
We stroll to Carol’s Folsom Street studio, staffed to the rafters with porn and feather boas and gifts from her Whore Store, which she generously shares with us. Carol is packing her “campaign gear” reading for a trip to yet another corner of the States where it became admissible for the police to use condoms for DNA evidence against the girls (and boys!) and their clients. “This undoes a decade of safe sex”, Carol sighs, as she picks up boards, books and posters, a shock of red hair shaking in disbelief.
Next, we are off to Castro and oh-so-chuffed to see a massive rainbow flag! The wind is nearly ripping off the mast, with a howl of pride, joy, and freedom. We take it in for a while, a lump in our throats.
We catch the glimpse of Wild Card, and are in like a shot, exploring their naughty gifts and cards. Unique as we usually are, it seems somewhat strange, if a little less lonely, to see some of our lines here. We love wooden penis carvings, man-size, oh-so-strokable, earthy and potent.
Down the road fly many more rainbow flags. We make our way down the road, packed with sex stores but also also “regular” LGBT-run businesses. We stop at a gay DIY store to pick up tools for our camper van, and select some reading materials.
It is amusing to witness Alana being openly checked out.
We locate good cake at Sweet Inspiration but sadly struggle for coffee.
Surprisingly, we have no joy finding kinky art. A dash to a promising upstairs establishment reveals an impressive collection of “Instigators”, and vintage “Tom Of Finlands” but no art. “We closed a gallery last year”, one ex-owner informs us, “San-Franciscans are not as sophisticated as they would like. It ain’t San Jose, love”.
The following morning, we meet up the lovely people of Cleis Press, publishers of erotica and our long-standing suppliers. We check out new titles yet to come to the UK and settle in a nearby cafe with Kara. She is entertaining the idea of twin transgender publication, hot on the heels of their “Transgender Child”. She wants one part to focus on FTMs (Female-To-Males), another on MTFs (Male-To-Females), which she invites Alana to write. We have our hands full but those interested should get in touch.
We fall in love with Carol Queen at the very first sight. We catch her lecturing at (4 March), part of UCSF’s celebrations of National Health Awareness Week LGBTI. Picture greyish hair galore, a dress of purple fluff, vivid eyes sparkling with intellect and love, and a great sense of humour on top of all that.
Carol runs Centre for Sex & Culture, and as a well-known speaker and writer is here to suitably embarrass, educate and inspire wannabe doctors and medical school staff. She obviously enjoys their shocked expressions as she divulges just what safe sex issues they can encounter, complete with a rather “advanced” example of menstrual blood fetishists. As she dishes out good solid knowledge, too, and even the two of us learn more about “The Anatomy of Pleasure” and, a little later, that she already knows Coffee, Cake & Kink and us.
Jane Hardy (Greenery Press) suggests a meeting when she comes to town for International Ms Leather, unfortunately we will be down the Grand Canyon at the time. No luck meeting up with Jane Wiseman or Midori, either, something to look forward to next time.
