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303:"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."
698:. 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.'"
273:, 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
132:(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
184:, 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.'
239:
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
294:, 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
289:
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
193:. 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
225:. 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
232:
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
298:
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
180:
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
48:, 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.
164:
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
160:. 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
63:
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
229:, 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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257:, 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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944:"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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217:, Streicher opened Amelia's, a more spacious bar and dance club at 647 Valencia Street in San Francisco's
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889:
636:"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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79:
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
329:
241:
133:
418:
The A to Z of the Lesbian Liberation Movement: Still the Rage, Scarecrow Press, August 20, 2009
32:, an organization that promoted equal rights for gays and lesbians. In 1966, she opened and ran
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443:
390:
345:
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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261:, the Elbo Room replaced its sign with Amelia's to honor the bar and its lesbian clientele.
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40:; it stayed open for 23 years, at that time the longest continuously running lesbian-owned
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664:"'San Francisco has changed a lot': The Elbo Room to close after decades in the Mission"
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532:, "A Queer Ladder of Social Mobility," University of California Press, May 23, 2003 -
148:, originally called "Maud's Study", or "The Study", a lesbian bar on Cole St. in the
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295:
274:
84:
480:
470:, "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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444:"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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762:"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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95:, and was photographed in 1945 in a widely published image, sitting in
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969:"Where Did All The Girls Go- The Disappearing Lesbian Bar in the U.S."
153:
75:
Streicher was born in 1922. She served in the military and lived in
710:"San Francisco's Only Lesbian Bar, The Lexington Club, Is Closing"
692:
Morse, Rob (November 12, 1991). "As San Francisco goes, so what?"
204:
91:
roles were very fixed at that time. Streicher then identified as
903:
605:"Artemis Society at 1199 Valencia Street and 23rd Street – 1979"
56:
and served on the board of directors. In 1994, she received the
24:(1922–1994) was an American activist and community leader in
387:
Queering Urbanism: Insurgent Spaces in the Fight for Justice
277:
in 1994, attended by 55,000 people, she received the Dr.
28:. In the 1960s, she had an active leadership role in the
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may have been contributing factors to Maud's closing.
111:
after moving to San Francisco in 1944, then entered
52:, later called Gay Games, she helped to create the
389:. University of California Press. pp. 66–92.
168:women. One notable customer of Maud's was singer
383:"Chapter 3: Lesbian Feminism and Women's Spaces"
358:"Rikki Streicher (left) with friends at the..."
301:
128:Streicher had an active leadership role in the
343:Nan Alamilla Boyd, Horacio N. Roque Ramirez,
8:
431:The A to Z of Homosexuality, Scarecrow Press
107:, wearing a suit and tie. She worked as an
789:"Perspiration condemnation for N.Y. Games"
492:"Janis Joplin" Out Magazine, August, 2005
908:San Francisco Gay Softball League (SFGSL)
319:
317:
942:Gieseking, Jen Jack (October 28, 2014).
815:"Rikki Streicher, 68, Gay Rights Leader"
688:
686:
325:"Rikki Streicher, 68, Gay Rights Leader"
16:LGBTQ activist and owner of lesbian bars
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60:for her contribution to Gay Athletics.
737:"Transitions - Died: Rikki Streicher"
119:San Francisco and national activities
7:
1048:Lesbian history in the United States
745:. Here. October 4, 1994. p. 23.
662:Phillips, Justin (October 2, 2018).
914:from the original on April 23, 2014
14:
1063:American people of German descent
708:Pape, Allie (October 24, 2014).
634:Swan, Rachel (June 25, 2014).
613:San Francisco State University
578:Hough, Allan (June 29, 2008).
213:In 1978, at the height of the
38:San Francisco’s Summer of Love
26:San Francisco's LGBTQ movement
1:
1073:Lesbian bars in San Francisco
1053:American LGBTQ businesspeople
136:organization in the country.
130:Society for Individual Rights
124:Society for Individual Rights
30:Society for Individual Rights
1068:Activists from San Francisco
1058:American lesbian sportswomen
506:"'Last Call at Maud's' (NR)"
760:Robin (November 11, 2014).
580:"When Women Ruled Valencia"
1089:
1038:American women in business
381:Yeros, Stathis G. (2024).
156:movement during the 1967
144:In 1966, Streicher opened
1023:Bay Area Lesbian Archives
553:– via www.imdb.com.
609:Max Kirkeberg Collection
361:FUCK YEAH, QUEER VINTAGE
885:Federation of Gay Games
669:San Francisco Chronicle
67:, was named after her.
54:Federation of Gay Games
888:. 2012. Archived from
695:San Francisco Examiner
510:www.washingtonpost.com
305:
236:San Francisco Examiner
210:
36:, a year prior to the
1043:Lesbian businesswomen
543:"Last Call at Maud's"
208:
113:restaurant management
58:Dr. Tom Waddell Award
904:"SFGSL Hall of Fame"
227:The Women's Building
880:"Tom Waddell Award"
715:Eater San Francisco
190:Last Call at Maud's
948:huffingtonpost.com
819:The New York Times
795:. October 30, 2002
545:. February 5, 1993
429:Brent L. Pickett,
406:– via JSTOR.
333:. August 24, 1994.
330:The New York Times
211:
892:on July 29, 2012.
821:. August 24, 1994
396:978-0-520-39451-3
195:1980s AIDS crisis
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1002:. Retrieved
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767:Autostraddle
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742:The Advocate
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271:Gay Olympics
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265:Gay Olympics
254:The Advocate
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178:Phyllis Lyon
172:. Activists
170:Janis Joplin
143:
127:
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62:
50:Gay Olympics
21:
20:
18:
850:"Unity '94"
721:October 14,
675:October 15,
647:October 14,
619:October 14,
279:Tom Waddell
103:with other
89:Butch-Femme
81:North Beach
77:Los Angeles
42:lesbian bar
1032:Categories
1004:January 7,
998:sfgate.com
978:January 7,
953:January 7,
918:January 7,
864:January 7,
825:January 7,
799:January 7,
793:sfgate.com
773:January 7,
589:January 7,
549:January 7,
515:January 7,
453:January 7,
366:January 7,
308:References
259:Pride Week
174:Del Martin
162:bartenders
71:Early life
972:pride.com
641:SF Weekly
402:April 12,
215:disco era
134:homophile
912:Archived
910:. 2013.
564:Kemply,
448:ebar.com
420:, p. 232
201:Amelia's
166:bisexual
105:lesbians
494:, p. 28
97:Oakland
615:. 2012
393:
347:, p. 7
154:hippie
146:Maud's
140:Maud's
34:Maud's
299:same:
93:butch
1006:2018
980:2018
955:2018
920:2018
866:2018
827:2018
801:2018
775:2018
747:via
723:2019
677:2019
649:2019
621:2019
591:2018
551:2018
517:2018
455:2018
404:2024
391:ISBN
368:2018
176:and
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