Love, Castro Street: Reflections of San Francisco

by Katherine V. Forrest (Editor), Jim Van Buskirk (Editor)

Recognized as perhaps the world’s most queer destination, San Francisco has a long, storied history of embracing—and influencing—gay and lesbian culture. Now, Michael Nava, Elana Dykewoman, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Jim Tushinski, Michele Tea, K.M. Soehnlein, and many others offer up essays and stories about why they love Castro Street. Katherine V. Forrest is the Lambda Award-winning author of Curious Wine, Daughters of the Emerald Dusk, and the Kate Delafield mystery series. Jim Van Buskirk , the director of the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Library, co-authored Gay by the Bay.

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT, History, Essays, Anthologies

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

About the author

Katherine V. Forrest is a Canadian-born American writer, best known for her novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. Her books have won and been finalists for Lambda Literary Award twelve times, as well as other awards. She has been referred to by some "a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing."

Reviews

[Matjoeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a (pretty much) life long San Franciscan, I love trying to understand what the city was to people in the past. It's inspiring as I continuously search for my own meaning here. This book tells tales of many bars and bookstores and cafes and theaters that are no longer here, from the 60s to the early 2000s. I found myself doing what I usually do with historical books about SF, looking up addresses, hoping to see that this bygone spot was replaced with something just as magical. Sadly there's often nothing there now, but that just means right now the party is hidden somewhere nearby.

I felt sad reading the several stories in this collection centered on the Castro Theater, knowing now that it still hasn't really come back from the pandemic, and regretting I didn't take more opportunities to go there in the before times and when I lived so close.

I didn't expect to learn the origins of Beach Blanket Babylon, another institution we recently lost, but knowing more about how much it changed from what it started out as made me feel better. The original version had already ended long ago. Nothing that persists for that long can really stay the same.

Some of the pieces in this collection are better written than others, or come to better conclusions. But that's life I guess. All of these stories made me feel more at home.

[Mark Farley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this oral history, if you will. I was lucky enough to visit the city about 10 years ago and really fell in love with the place. Instantly, I was transported back when I started reading. San Francisco is one of those places (not unlike my current home, Brighton) that is in the forefront of subculture, ideas and forward thinking and this comes through within its pages. We hear fascinating accounts from an employee of Alcatraz in the 50s, how a groundbreaking women's feminist bookstore came to be, an ex-colleague of Harvey Milk and many others from all walks of life who all share a love of the same sex and the Castro Street area and what it represents.

[Bett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of essays about San Francisco's Castro Street is a lyrical, thoughtful, nostalgic, and sometimes funny look at what was and is a mecca for not only gays and lesbians, but for a lot of others.