Pride organizers and city leaders announced Monday that, for the first time, visitors will have to go through metal detectors, security gates and bag checks before entering this weekend’s Pride celebration in Civic Center Plaza. Radical changes are already being made, even in a city like San Francisco known for tolerance. QBar doormen Wahid Brown (right) and Cain (left) perform a security check on a patron in the Castro in wake of the Orlando massacre in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.
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But following the killing of 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub on June 12, many business owners are wondering how to keep these places secure in more practical ways, so they can continue to provide sanctuary for future generations.
More than just places to grab a drink and cut loose, gay clubs have functioned as community centers, hookup joints and havens from the pressures of the outside world. It was something I didn’t experience anywhere else.” It wasn’t just that I found a place where gay people could be together, but it was a camaraderie that went across socioeconomic levels, gender and racial lines. “I experienced a new kind of joy,” says the now 60-year-old Sessums.
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Merely a teenager in Jackson, Miss., in the early 1970s, he had used a razor blade to meticulously rearrange the numbers on his driver’s license to gain entry to Mae’s Cabaret.īars and nightclubs have long served as safe spaces for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other marginalized people, and for the former Vanity Fair writer who chronicled his childhood growing up in the South in his memoir “Mississippi Sissy,” no amount of effort to get inside was too much. The first time Kevin Sessums walked into a gay bar, he knew he had found his people. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 9 of9 A clubgoer (ok with photo but didn't want to be identified) smokes on Castro Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 8 of9 Steven Felix and David Acevedo go through a security check before entering QBar in the Castro in wake of the Orlando massacre in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 7 of9 Pride flags in the Castro in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 6 of9 David Acevedo (left) and Steven Felix enjoy themselves at QBar in the Castro in wake of the Orlando massacre in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.
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Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of9 A crowd exits a movie at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of9 Ben Slater of "Mean to Me" plays at Blush Wine Bar in the Castro in wake of the Orlando massacre in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of9 Window display in Cliff's Variety store on Castro Street in wake of the Orlando massacre in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.
Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of9 A shadow is cast on the Orlando Massacre memorial at 18th and Castro in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.
1 of9 Market and Castro Streets in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.