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314:"Women would call Maud's and say, "I've got a friend who's been abused, can you help?" And everyone would put their heads together to solve the problem. People were very protective of people. That doesn't exist anymore. Rikki Streicher, the owner of Maud's and Amelia's on Valencia, created that environment for 20 years. She was always conscious of being there for the community. Every few months, a new crop would come in and try to figure out how to be, and it felt like we were bringing them up."
709:. pg. 3. "It's a victim of the lesbian community becoming more diverse...the 30-and-over lesbian crowd just isn't going out to bars as much anymore. The ones who do tend to go to mainstream bars and clubs. There is an absence of a lesbian community in the presence of a million lesbians...Today it's 'I, me, mine,'...Well, tempus fugit. On Saturday night there will be a goodbye party called 'Last Call at Amelia's.'"
284:, later named Gay Games, which started in San Francisco. She helped to create the Federation of Gay Games and served on the board of directors. "Sports are the great social equalizer," she said. "It is perhaps the only time that it does not matter who you are but how you play the game." At the fourth annual Gay Games in
143:(SIR), an organization of gay men and lesbians created in San Francisco in 1964 that promoted equal rights for homosexuals, political empowerment, and community building through fundraisers, dances, and classes. By 1966, SIR had established the first public gay community center in the United States, and become the largest
195:, Nan Amilla Boyd describes Maud's as a " lesbian bar, clubhouse and community center". She highlights the fight of bar owners like Streicher during the 1950s and 1960s to "secure public space for queer people and says many lesbians 'depended on bar life, the central artery of queer life' for their activities.'
250:
wrote about Amelia's, "More lesbians than ever live in San
Francisco, but...the last lesbian bar in The City, Amelia's, will close." "It's a victim of the lesbian community becoming more diverse," Streicher said, "the 30-and-over lesbian crowd just isn't going out to bars as much anymore. The ones
305:, was named after her. Scholars of LGBT history have speculated that the lesbian bars of Streicher's era, which served an important purpose at that time, have closed as the result of gentrification, greater acceptance of lesbians in mainstream society and the popularity of
300:
Streicher died of cancer at age 68 on August 21, 1994, and was survived by her partner, Mary Sager. Upon her death, the mayor of San
Francisco lowered the city flags to half-mast. The Rikki Streicher Field, an athletic field and recreation center in San Francisco's
204:. The film weaves the broader history of lesbian bars in the United States into customers' reminisces about old times. In it, Streicher speculated that increased acceptance of lesbianism in public spaces and a turn towards sobriety brought on by the
236:. The Mission district, and particularly Valencia Street, became a gathering place for lesbians from the 1970s through the early 1990s, and was home to several organizations and businesses that catered to women, including
243:
Amelia's was open until 1991, when
Streicher sold it and it became the Elbo Room bar (the Elbo Room closed in 2018). Its closure signaled a change in how lesbians met and congregated in San Francisco. As Rob Morse of the
309:
and social media. One writer looking back on the era noted that
Streicher and her lesbian bars were instrumental in creating a protective space where lesbian women could come of age and help others do the
191:
were also early patrons of Maud's. Maud's remained opened for twenty-three years, becoming at that time the longest continuously running lesbian-owned lesbian bar in the country. In the book
59:, with both venues serving as makeshift community centers for lesbians who had very few accepting socializing options. In the early 1980s, she was a co-founder of the international
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During Pride Week, the Elbo Room replaced their sign with the sign of Amelia's, the former lesbian dance club on 647 Valencia Street, owned by Rikki
Streicher from 1978 to 1991.
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in San
Francisco until 1971, Streicher had to either tend bar herself or hire male bartenders. The bar quickly became a popular gathering place for San Francisco lesbians and
171:. Maud's, said one historian, served to "bridge the gap between San Francisco's lesbian community and its hippie generation." Because women were not allowed to be employed as
74:
Streicher died of cancer later that year, and was survived by her partner, Mary Sager. The Rikki
Streicher Field, an athletic field and recreation center in San Francisco's
240:, a non-profit organization; Old Wives Tales, a bookstore; Osento, a woman-only bathhouse; and the Artemis Society, a lesbian club which later became the Artemis Cafe.
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Award for her contribution to Gay
Athletics. She is also listed in the hall of fame for the San Francisco Gay Softball League.
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268:, published two months after Streicher's death, erroneously reported that Amelia's was called "Amanda's". Every June during
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who do tend to go to mainstream bars and clubs." There was no lesbian bar again in San
Francisco until the opening of the
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955:"On the Closing of the Last Lesbian Bar in San Francisco: What the Demise of the Lex Tells Us About Gentrification"
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Eric Marcus, Out in All
Directions: A Treasury of Gay and Lesbian America, Grand Central Publishing, Sep 26, 2009
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228:, Streicher opened Amelia's, a more spacious bar and dance club at 647 Valencia Street in San Francisco's
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647:"Pride of Place: As the Nation's Gay Districts Grow More Affluent, Lesbians Are Migrating to the 'Burbs"
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district of San Francisco. The following year, the Haight-Ashbury would become the epicenter of the
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in the 1940s, where she spent time in the gay bars of that city. She also frequented the gay bars of
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The bar and its closing in 1989 were documented in Paris Poirier's internationally distributed film
340:
252:
144:
429:
The A to Z of the Lesbian Liberation Movement: Still the Rage, Scarecrow Press, August 20, 2009
43:, an organization that promoted equal rights for gays and lesbians. In 1966, she opened and ran
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454:
401:
356:
Bodies of Evidence, The Practice of Queer Oral History, Oxford University Press, Feb 26, 2012
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Streicher was a passionate promoter of gay and lesbian softball teams and co-founder of the
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272:, the Elbo Room replaced its sign with Amelia's to honor the bar and its lesbian clientele.
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51:; it stayed open for 23 years, at that time the longest continuously running lesbian-owned
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675:"'San Francisco has changed a lot': The Elbo Room to close after decades in the Mission"
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543:, "A Queer Ladder of Social Mobility," University of California Press, May 23, 2003 -
159:, originally called "Maud's Study", or "The Study", a lesbian bar on Cole St. in the
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306:
285:
95:
491:
481:, "A Queer Ladder of Social Mobility," University of California Press, May 23, 2003
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Jayne Caudwell, Sport, Sexualities and Queer/Theory Routledge, Jan 24, 2007, p. 93
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455:"The Bay Area Reporter Online - For many, shuttered SF lesbian bar Maud's was home"
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Nan Alamilla Boyd, Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965
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Nan Alamilla Boyd, Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965
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773:"The State of the Lesbian Bar: San Francisco Toasts To The End Of An Era"
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in the country. She opened a second bar, Amelia’s, in 1978 in the city’s
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in 1996 ("The Lex" closed in 2015 as a result of the city's increasing
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106:, and was photographed in 1945 in a widely published image, sitting in
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980:"Where Did All The Girls Go- The Disappearing Lesbian Bar in the U.S."
164:
86:
Streicher was born in 1922. She served in the military and lived in
721:"San Francisco's Only Lesbian Bar, The Lexington Club, Is Closing"
703:
Morse, Rob (November 12, 1991). "As San Francisco goes, so what?"
215:
102:
roles were very fixed at that time. Streicher then identified as
914:
616:"Artemis Society at 1199 Valencia Street and 23rd Street – 1979"
67:
and served on the board of directors. In 1994, she received the
35:(1922–1994) was an American activist and community leader in
398:
Queering Urbanism: Insurgent Spaces in the Fight for Justice
288:
in 1994, attended by 55,000 people, she received the Dr.
39:. In the 1960s, she had an active leadership role in the
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may have been contributing factors to Maud's closing.
122:
after moving to San Francisco in 1944, then entered
63:, later called Gay Games, she helped to create the
400:. University of California Press. pp. 66–92.
179:women. One notable customer of Maud's was singer
394:"Chapter 3: Lesbian Feminism and Women's Spaces"
369:"Rikki Streicher (left) with friends at the..."
312:
139:Streicher had an active leadership role in the
354:Nan Alamilla Boyd, Horacio N. Roque Ramirez,
8:
442:The A to Z of Homosexuality, Scarecrow Press
118:, wearing a suit and tie. She worked as an
800:"Perspiration condemnation for N.Y. Games"
503:"Janis Joplin" Out Magazine, August, 2005
919:San Francisco Gay Softball League (SFGSL)
330:
328:
953:Gieseking, Jen Jack (October 28, 2014).
826:"Rikki Streicher, 68, Gay Rights Leader"
699:
697:
336:"Rikki Streicher, 68, Gay Rights Leader"
27:LGBTQ activist and owner of lesbian bars
324:
71:for her contribution to Gay Athletics.
748:"Transitions - Died: Rikki Streicher"
130:San Francisco and national activities
7:
1059:Lesbian history in the United States
756:. Here. October 4, 1994. p. 23.
673:Phillips, Justin (October 2, 2018).
925:from the original on April 23, 2014
25:
1074:American people of German descent
719:Pape, Allie (October 24, 2014).
645:Swan, Rachel (June 25, 2014).
624:San Francisco State University
589:Hough, Allan (June 29, 2008).
224:In 1978, at the height of the
49:San Francisco’s Summer of Love
37:San Francisco's LGBTQ movement
1:
1084:Lesbian bars in San Francisco
1064:American LGBTQ businesspeople
147:organization in the country.
141:Society for Individual Rights
135:Society for Individual Rights
41:Society for Individual Rights
1079:Activists from San Francisco
1069:American lesbian sportswomen
517:"'Last Call at Maud's' (NR)"
771:Robin (November 11, 2014).
591:"When Women Ruled Valencia"
1100:
1049:American women in business
392:Yeros, Stathis G. (2024).
167:movement during the 1967
155:In 1966, Streicher opened
1034:Bay Area Lesbian Archives
564:– via www.imdb.com.
620:Max Kirkeberg Collection
372:FUCK YEAH, QUEER VINTAGE
896:Federation of Gay Games
680:San Francisco Chronicle
78:, was named after her.
65:Federation of Gay Games
899:. 2012. Archived from
706:San Francisco Examiner
521:www.washingtonpost.com
316:
247:San Francisco Examiner
221:
47:, a year prior to the
1054:Lesbian businesswomen
554:"Last Call at Maud's"
219:
124:restaurant management
69:Dr. Tom Waddell Award
915:"SFGSL Hall of Fame"
238:The Women's Building
891:"Tom Waddell Award"
726:Eater San Francisco
201:Last Call at Maud's
959:huffingtonpost.com
830:The New York Times
806:. October 30, 2002
556:. February 5, 1993
440:Brent L. Pickett,
417:– via JSTOR.
344:. August 24, 1994.
341:The New York Times
222:
903:on July 29, 2012.
832:. August 24, 1994
407:978-0-520-39451-3
206:1980s AIDS crisis
16:(Redirected from
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18:Amelia's
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753:The Advocate
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375:. Retrieved
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282:Gay Olympics
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276:Gay Olympics
265:The Advocate
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189:Phyllis Lyon
183:. Activists
181:Janis Joplin
154:
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61:Gay Olympics
32:
31:
29:
861:"Unity '94"
732:October 14,
686:October 15,
658:October 14,
630:October 14,
290:Tom Waddell
114:with other
100:Butch-Femme
92:North Beach
88:Los Angeles
53:lesbian bar
1043:Categories
1015:January 7,
1009:sfgate.com
989:January 7,
964:January 7,
929:January 7,
875:January 7,
836:January 7,
810:January 7,
804:sfgate.com
784:January 7,
600:January 7,
560:January 7,
526:January 7,
464:January 7,
377:January 7,
319:References
270:Pride Week
185:Del Martin
173:bartenders
82:Early life
983:pride.com
652:SF Weekly
413:April 12,
226:disco era
145:homophile
923:Archived
921:. 2013.
575:Kemply,
459:ebar.com
431:, p. 232
212:Amelia's
177:bisexual
116:lesbians
505:, p. 28
108:Oakland
626:. 2012
404:
358:, p. 7
165:hippie
157:Maud's
151:Maud's
45:Maud's
310:same:
104:butch
1017:2018
991:2018
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838:2018
812:2018
786:2018
758:via
734:2019
688:2019
660:2019
632:2019
602:2018
562:2018
528:2018
466:2018
415:2024
402:ISBN
379:2018
187:and
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