There's truth in that message. The stereotype of SF is that it's all gay, it isn't, and confined to a couple neighborhoods out of a couple dozen. And lots of gays have left over the last 20 years. That happened to the black population, went from 16 percent down to 5 percent, and now it's happening to the gays. They're in Seattle, Denver, Austin and other cities, but fewer in SF.
The Tenderloin district used to be all dope addicts and winos with porno theaters, got transformed when asian families moved in. The Mission district used to be latino, and now the techies and Chinese are changing it. I had some business last week with a sandblasting shop in Hunters Point, it used to be an all black area, but I saw lots of Chinese there. The gays have finally left SF and are not a majority by any means.
Plus they're getting beat up in the Mission and SOMA where they used to hang out at bars. Now they're being edged out in their home districts in the Castro and Noe Valley neighborhoods.
I've heard that about the Castro - still have friends in the area although I haven't been back more than twice in 20 years. People who complain about that being a gay district weren't there before that, when the hippie invasion turned to heroin. My friend - a doctor about to retire - says that it's simple economics, and that you can't gentrify (or keep up with the taxes) on a fixed income anymore.
I was there through the 80's and saw the whole AIDS thing turn the place into something out of a plague novel. Lost some damn good people who just couldn't manage the self-control necessary to protect themselves. Some others were aiding and abetting the disease just as hard as they could - I thought then, and still do, that there is a suicidal streak in people attracted to the lifestyle. My Doc friend was working his residency in the ER at San Francisco General and has some blood-curdling stories. Wild times.
Tell me when they leave Sausileto, that was a beautiful town before they took over.
Gays are a group that doesn’t reproduce. They sometimes have kids, but the kids are likely to be straight. It’s hard to claim real estate for the next generation like Chinese or black families can. Gay men have to be honest about that. They don’t beget other gay men.