“Before 1981, it was party, party, party,” he says. Founding the Stop AIDS Project in 1990, Ken worked tirelessly to combat the disease that was obliterating the Castro community. Receiving an HIV-positive diagnosis himself in the 1980s, Ken explains that during the AIDS crisis he attended several memorials a night. Top: The Castro Theater, a landmark in the area since 1922 Middle: Twin Peaks Tavern, a popular bar in Castro Bottom: Rock Hard, one of Castro’s adult-only stores. We stop at a wall where Ken remembers that during the ‘80s, this spot was constantly plastered with images of Castro locals who had died from AIDS-a makeshift shrine and death noticeboard in one. RELATED: The Vatican’s untold gay historyįor a visitor, it would be all too easy to take a snap of Harvey Milk’s camera shop then move on, but a tour with Ken dives deeper, revealing hidden histories and poignant threads. Telling my story gave me a dose of energy and new platform from which to speak.” “It’s not easy growing up black in white America. “I definitely overshared, but for the first time in my life, I had no more secrets, shame or self-hatred,” he says.
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Charting the lives of San Francisco’s change-making queer activists, the series pushed Ken to share his story with millions. Williams (aka Omar from The Wire) in the mini-series When We Rise, Ken is kind-of a big deal. Top: The Mission of which The Castro is a part, photographed in 1968 Bottom: The Gay Freedom March through the streets of Castro in 1974. There’s pockets of information that we’re only going to pass on by word-of-mouth.” “Our local media hasn’t always been LGBTQ-friendly over the years. “I don’t want this piece of history to be forgotten,” says Ken. Now, visitors can see the area through the eyes of someone who was a catalyst for changes that rippled across the world.Īfter a friend noted his gift for storytelling, the New Jersey-born war veteran decided to lead walking tours of the Castro via Airbnb Experiences. To drink at the legendary Twin Peaks Tavern, buy sex toys at adult stores with names like ‘Rock Hard’, or to watch retro classics at the Castro Theater, a landmark that’s stood since 1922. People come to The Castro, as it’s also know, for all sorts of reasons. One day, I went through my phonebook-everyone was dead.” Then AIDS came through and cleared the house. “Before 1981, it was party, party, party. The historic Gay Freedom Day Marches of the ‘70s. He’s picketed, protested, organized, agitated, and fund- and hell-raised in the name of equality. Long before multinationals saw dollar signs in co-opting causes, Ken was doing the work.
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Ken Jones at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in the early 1980s.Īs an epicenter of gay culture, the Castro District has seen a lot of good and bad times over the years-and Ken was there for most of them. That’s how I ended up standing on the corner of Castro and 18th, hearing about the wild parties that made me wish time machines existed. I wasn’t looking to join a San Francisco tour, but when a 68-year-old civil rights activist, community organizer, not-for-profit founder and three-tour veteran of the Vietnam War decides to add ‘tour guide’ to his resume, you can bet I’m signing on. To me now that I’m not on your average San Francisco city tour.
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If it wasn’t clear before, it’s very clear We were well-known for our acid punch parties that started on Friday night and ended Monday morning.” “The day always went well when we took LSD or mescaline,” he explains. Standing on a street corner, Ken Jones points out the gas station he crashed his car into one day in the ‘70s after having hallucinogens for breakfast. Editor’s note: This article was published before the coronavirus pandemic, and may not reflect the current situation on the ground.įrom protests and psychedelics to black power and AIDS, Ken Jones-a contender for the world’s most interesting tour guide-reveals the lesser-known history of San Francisco’s Castro District in the ‘70s and ‘80s.