In 1965, Life magazine declared San Francisco the capital of gay America. And the Castro was its beating heart.
Arguably the single most famous “gayborhood” in the United States, some of the country’s best known queer artists and activists settled there in the 20th century. It was where the first out gay male politician in the US was elected, where the Pride flag was born, and where many gay, trans and nonconforming people estranged from their biological families created new ones of their own.
At the time, the Castro was known as Eureka Valley, or Little Scandinavia. Amid the tumultuous 1960s, which were marked by protests against US involvement in the Vietnam War and the dawn of the hippie movement, young people flocked to San Francisco.