San Francisco’s South of Market (SOMA) has an official Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, meant to mark about half a century of leather subculture, queer nightlife, and the institutions that made the neighborhood known internationally. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors created the district. The mayor signed it into law on 9 May 2018. The ribbon-cutting was on 12 June 2018, outside the Stud on 9th Street. The Stud itself is a landmark queer bar in the city’s leather memory.
The main area runs roughly from Howard Street on the northwest, 7th Street on the northeast, Interstate 80 on the east, and U.S. 101 on the south. There is also a separate exclave between 5th Street and 6th Street, and between Harrison and Bryant. Inside those legal lines are bars, event spaces, and history markers, and what is left of the walking memory of the Folsom Street leather strip. Redevelopment keeps changing SOMA. The cultural pieces are still there.
The San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, part of the district, opened in 2017. It has installations and bootprints for people in the leather community. The official purpose is to commemorate the people, places, and institutions that gave South of Market its particular culture and pull, and to help protect the shops and spaces that remain, so the people who live, work, and play there can stay.
For kink travelers and for people who live there, the designation means something concrete. Leather is not a costume you put on for the weekend. It is neighborhood history written into city law. The law names the flags, the alley, and the job of keeping living gear-culture spaces. It is adult nightlife and adult leather culture, on the city’s own books.
