10 San Francisco Queer Party Scene Photos, From 1986 to 1994

Fatima and MichaelAngelo at the EndUp (1992)

Phatima and MichaelAngelo at the EndUp (1992)

San Francisco’s queer party scene underwent a profound change from the late 1980s into the mid-1990s. In flamboyant acts of resistance and excess, the nightlife community responded to the devastating AIDS crisis and intense national homophobia by becoming even more visible, colorful, outspoken and outrageous.

Club Uranus at the EndUp was ground zero for gender-provocation and wild fabulousness in San Francisco's early 1990s. Two of the city’s most endearing drag anarchists, Phatima and MichaelAngelo, are pictured here in replendent, Bowie-worshipping glory.

Captions by Marke Bieschke, co-curator of “SoMa Nights: The Queer Club Photography of Melissa Hawkins” at the GLBT Historical Society Museum.

Go-Go Girl at 1015 Folsom (1989)

Wild South of Market clubs and bars such as Uranus, Junk, Pleasuredome, Osmosis, Dekadance, Colossus, the Eagle, the Rawhide, the Stud, DV8 and 1015 Folsom lit up the night (and often the next morning). In the Western Addition, The Box added to the mix with its particular welcome for women and people of color. In the shadow of the epidemic, many clubs acted not just as escapist fantasylands, but also as health clinics, information centers and safe zones for those fleeing the harsh political climate of the rest of the country.

The huge venue at 1015 Folsom often hosted spirited lesbian hip-hop parties and giant circuit parties on the same weekend: This dancer at a party there represented a meeting of both worlds.

Richie Rich and Friend (1990)

Club kid culture was ascendant, vintage shopping and do-it-yourself aesthetics reigned, and neon flashes of a psychedelic sixties revival streaked through a black-and-white fashion palette handed down from goth and punk. Protests by ACT UP, Queer Nation and the Lesbian Avengers flooded the streets, while performances by the Sick & Twisted Players, Klubstitute, Sluts-A-Go-Go, the Thrillpeddlers, Enrique, Fairy Butch, and Elvis Herselvis filled stages with over-the-top camp and drag energy.

The New York club-kid aesthetic of the 1980s and 1990s drew from San Francisco: Here, soon-to-be Manhattan fashion king Richie Rich and a friend demonstrate a little of Madonna's enduring nightlife aesthetic at a San Francisco club in 1990.

Leather Duo at the Eagle (1989).

Queer activism brought many different people together, and that extended to the bar scene. Here, a duo at leather-biker bar the Eagle evidences the often-diverse crowd that packed the patio on weekends.

Chi Chi LaRue and Friend (undated)

San Francisco nightlife had its own superstars — even if they often later fled to Hollywood or New York City. Here, tireless porn director Chi Chi LaRue frolics with a friend.

As the nightlife photographer for the weekly Sentinel newspaper and other LGBTQ publications from 1986 to 1994, Melissa Hawkins captured it all, zipping from party to party on her little orange Honda and developing prints in a darkroom beneath her stairs. Documenting the scene in the days before digital and smartphone cameras—at a moment when ordinary queer people were embracing greater media attention after decades of stigma— she caught many of San Francisco’s legendary nightlife personalities at their strobe-lit, sequin-strewn, fishnets-and-combat-boots finest.

Trio at a Leather Party (1990)

Back when you had to do a little more than order a harness online to attend the leather party — you needed a whole look. Bullet belts and lots of steel chains bring it all together.

These negatives sat under the photographer’s bed until digital scanning technology enabled her to produce high-quality prints. A selection is shown here for the first time, along with a slideshow of dozens more of her images and a display of posters, flyers and other ephemera from the GLBT Historical Society’s collections. “SoMa Nights” recalls a pivotal time in the city’s history: In the depths of crisis, San Francisco proudly let its freak flag fly.

Two Leather Women at the Ms. San Francisco Leather Contest (1991)

Edgy 1980s energy and a 1990s BDSM vibe combine in this fierce couple as they attend a long-running San Francisco winter tradition.

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with Revelers at The Stud (undated)

Some striking DIY fashion statements bracket one of San Francisco’s very own Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Sisteres were ever-present on the nightlife scene during the height of the AIDS epidemic among gay men in San Francisco, rising money and handing our safe-sex survival kits.

The press pass used by Melissa Hawkins during her years as a queer nightlife photographer for The San Francisco Sentinel.

Photo: Courtesy of Melissa Hawkins & the GLBT Historical Society.

GLBT Historical Society Museum

An evening view through the front windows of the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco’s Castro District.

Photo: Dave Earl; courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society.