Everlane - Castro Pride Tour

80 years ago, there was no train beneath us, no rainbow flags hanging from the street lamps. This started as an Irish Catholic neighborhood. In the 1930s and 1940s, what was it like to be gay in San Francisco? Gay people were extremely secretive about their sexual orientation at this time. The consequences of being gay could be jail time, as it was considered a crime. It was also classified as a mental illness, you could be sent to a psychiatric ward. There was electroshock therapy and chemical castration all used as tools for “curing the illness”. San Francisco is now considered one of the gay capitals of the world, but it is important to remember that these activities were happening only a few decades ago.