Recognized as perhaps the world’s most queer destination, San Francisco has a long, storied history of embracing—and influencing—gay and lesbian culture. Now, Michael Nava, Elana Dykewoman, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Jim Tushinski, Michele Tea, K.M. Soehnlein, and many others offer up essays and stories about why they love Castro Street.

Katherine V. Forrest is the Lambda Award-winning author of Curious Wine, Daughters of the Emerald Dusk, and the Kate Delafield mystery series.

Jim Van Buskirk, the director of the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Library, co-authored Gay by the Bay.