Reflection
During my stay in San Francisco I found myself roaming the streets of the Mission and Castro districts. For those who have never been, the Castro district is beautiful as the area is drenched with LGBTQ history and picturesque sights. While the Mission District is more run-off, sketchier, and not as well maintained. The two districts had completely different energies. The Castro district was very upbeat, fun, and inspiring. While the Mission District was more like an inner city, there was lots of yelling and garbage all around. For this trip, we watched movies in three different theaters. The Castro theater, located in the Castro on Castro street, The Victoria and The Roxie, both located in the Mission District. The walk from Castro theater to either the Victoria or the Roxie is not a long, only about a half a mile or less. During that short walk, there is a distinct street that marks the shift from the Castro district and the Mission district. Once you pass that street, there is more litter, graffiti, and homeless people. There are also more people of color.
Before San Francisco, I assumed the Castro would be extremely diverse. Don’t get me wrong, it is. It diverse in so many ways, from the LGBTQIA spectrum, gender, race, and religion, it’s very diverse. But there were still so many white folks. The area felt like a homage to gay, white men. The amount of gay, white men and lesbian, white women were phenomenal. Shops promoted their stories with logos like “GAYEST STORE EVER,” or “GAY STUFF” Many stores were purely for men. Selling neon bright swim shorts, suits, dildo’s, butt plugs, shirts, shorts, shoes, etc. They didn’t market to a larger gender audience but only to gay men. I had higher expectations of the level of diversity that the Castro district had. Though the Mission district met all my expectations.
The Mission district has a large Latinx and African American Community. There were street shops, side-walk framers’ markets, graffiti murals, run-down apartments. This felt like a LGBTQIA+ city. One night, during one of the many films in the Victoria that I had, I observed the people attending the film while in-line. They were mostly old, white, men and women and they stuck out like a sore thumb. Before going to the Mission district, it was repeated not to walk home alone at night. Even before nightfall, some members still felt uncomfortable being alone in the Mission district. The Castro district, unlike the Mission district, has gone through large gentrification. With raising standard of living cost, people that helped revolutionize the Castro aren’t able to live there anymore allowing for people with higher incomes to shape the community. Castro street has become more of a tourist destination thus allowing for prices of common goods to be raised. After I had realized this, the systems of privilege that made up the Castro became so apparent.
This had a large impact on my trip and the way that I viewed films, locations, and conversations that I had. After my sudden realization, I felt more drawn to the Mission. It allowed me to connect on a more person level with San Francisco and its people as well as its culture. It also changed the way that I viewed Castro. The Castro is a beacon to LGBTQIA+ people. It pulls people in like a bug trap. We swarm from all over the world trying to find and experience a small fraction of acceptance, love, and freedom. But, it’s almost impossible to stay no matter how hard one tries.
