Boot Camp (San Francisco Gay Leather Bar/70's and 80's)

Boot Camp — San Francisco Vintage Gay Leather Bar Tee

Opened in 1971 at 1010 Bryant Street, Boot Camp was part of the first great wave of gay leather bars that transformed San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood into one of the centers of leather culture in America. The bar remained there until 1984. SF Gay History

And the name told you exactly what kind of place it was. Boot Camp leaned heavily into uniforms, boots, leather, denim, and the hypermasculine look that defined so much of gay male culture in the 1970s. Even its anniversary souvenirs played with military imagery, including Boot Camp pins that survive today. Bolerium Books

This was the era when SoMa was filled with places like Fe-Be’s, The Ambush, The Stables, The Brig, The Arena, and eventually the Eagle. Together, bars like these created an entire gay neighborhood built around leather, motorcycles, uniforms, cruising, and a version of masculinity gay men were defining for themselves. The city now recognizes 1010 Bryant as one of the historic sites of San Francisco’s Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District. City and County of San Francisco

Boot Camp was also there before the Folsom Street Fair, before leather culture became something San Francisco openly promoted to visitors, and before SoMa’s queer history was commemorated with plaques and cultural districts. In 1971, simply opening a gay leather bar was a considerably more defiant proposition.