Harassment of gay bars by police continued through the 1980s. photo: Ted Sahl, SJSU Library Special Collections These battles were part of ongoing conflicts which (in 1998) would overturn a domestic partner's registry and in 2004 would challenge benefits for the partners of city workers. As a result of this defeat, the community banded together and created the Billy DeFrank Community Center. Gay rights lost overwhelmingly with 70.2 percent voting against the ordinance and 29.7 percent voting for it.
The vote (in June, 1980) was placed on the ballot by the efforts of 53 churches and funded in large part by Anita Bryant's Protect America's Children Inc. In 1979 a city ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual preference was challenged by a referendum. The conflict with fundamentalists was just beginning, however. The action caused Johnie Staggs and Sal Accardi to announce their write-in candidacy for City Council, making them the first lesbian and gay man to publicly run for office in San Jose. The San Jose City Council approved and then rescinded a resolution approving a Gay Rights Week under pressure from Christian fundamentalists. In 1978 there was an event which foreshadowed bad times for the LGBT community (and may foreshadow the loss of bars). Renegades, which is still open today, was first included in the Lambda News listing in October, 1977. As of this issue there were eight bars operating in San Jose, including two on South First Street and two on Stockton Avenue listed in the "Where It's Happening" listings for Lambda News. Just prior to closing, 12 police arrived and shut down the bar, saying the music must stop, there could be no dancing after 2 A.M., and that the bar was overcrowded. The August 1976 issue reported on a police raid on Alfonso's Sundown Saloon (349 W. In March 1976, the Lambda News began publication. Crystal Café was open until 1970.Ī drag and leather ballet at the Mr. From 1963 on San Jose had at least three gay bars. In the column "Really Rita" in Lambda News from 1977, the author says the Crystal Café was mixed during the day and gay at night, and that both lesbians and gay men were welcome and became good friends ("family," as the author puts it).ġ963 was also the year that Mac's (then at 349 South First Street), the oldest existing gay bar in San Jose, is first listed in the City Directory for San Jose. The proximity to San Jose State University gave many young students their first experience in a gay bar. In the 1960s the Crystal Café (42 West San Fernando) became a gay bar in about 1963. The record of the case (supplied to me by the ABC) said the bar, "had become a meeting place for homosexuals of both sexes not only a meeting place, but a place of demonstration for this type of deviation from the normal sexual pattern." Likewise, the record reveals dancing between members of the same sex which ranged from that which would have been proper decorum between members of the opposite sex, to acts amounting to a violent sexual demonstration." The bar was closed by the ABC in 1956. It almost immediately attracted the attention of the Alcohol Beverage Control. The Midway Café (448 West Santa Clara) opened in 1955 and was perhaps the closest thing to a modern gay bar in San Jose. Though definitely mixed, it was a comfortable haven." The Sapphire Lounge was open till 1970. In the September 1987 Historical Society Newsletter Marv Shaw says it was, "Completely upholstered in a kind of blue velvet inside" it was known as the Blue Coffin. Tommy's was joined by the Sapphire Lounge (189 South First Street) in 1952.
In an article for the San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Historical Society Newsletter of June 1987, Eric Garber describes it as "a seedy skid row bar" which was a home for winos and down and outers as well as gays." It is listed in the city directory through 1960. The first of these was Tommy's Café, later Tommy's Club at 97 North First Street. There have been bars that catered to gays and lesbians in San Jose since at least 1947. The mystery is how the largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest city in California wound up with so few gay bars. There's a mystery surrounding the city of San Jose and it doesn't involve the Winchester Mystery House or the Rosicrucian Museum.