Maud’s Study opened in the Haight at 937 Cole Street at Parnassus in 1966. It was owned by Rikki Streicher, a lesbian pioneer. At the time, state law prohibited women working as bartenders, so Streicher and other lesbian bar owners initially had to hire gay men from other bars to work behind the counter. It eventually became San Francisco’s oldest lesbian bar, eventually closing in 1989.

For a time during the Summer of Love, it seemed that hippie gays from the Polk would make the Haight the next new gayborhood. But heavy drug use in the area brought drug-related crimes, and many of the hippie gays turned instead to the Castro, where a number of new gay bars were opening.

Charlotte Coleman, another lesbian bar owner, owned the Golden Cask in the Haight. She eventually purchased the Mint on Market Street in 1968 and owned a number of other gay bars farther down Market Street.

The I-Beam opened in October of 1977 at 1748 Haight Street after an extensive, expensive retrofit to attempt to soundproof the club. It was a massive dance club that deliberately kept the heat high to encourage male guests to dance shirtless. In January of 1988, the bar constructed three go-go platforms and hired male go-go dancers for the first time. Eventually noise complaints with neighbors forced the club out of business, and it closed on July 23, 1994.

Today, Trax (1437 Haight Street), a quiet pub with a pool table, is the only gay bar that remains in the neighborhood, though Underground SF remains in Lower Haight, a neighborhood much closer to Hayes Valley.