The Red Star Saloon (San Francisco, 1970s–1980s) was one of the city’s most infamous gay sex clubs, remembered for its unapologetic embrace of liberation-era freedom. Tucked into the SoMa district, it offered a mix of barroom atmosphere and uninhibited backroom action — a place where patrons could drink, cruise, and explore without pretense. Part of the constellation of leather bars and sex spaces that defined San Francisco nightlife at the time, Red Star embodied a raw, unapologetic vision of queer community before the AIDS crisis reshaped the landscape.
