For 50 years the Bay Area Reporter has chronicled the development of the LGBT movement in San Francisco. From its nascent beginnings as the Gay Liberation Movement through its present iteration with more letters and symbols than I can keep track of, the B.A.R.
has covered it. I have had a front row seat.No discussion of the B.A.R. at 50 can be told without recognizing the significance of Bob Ross.
He was a submarine sailor, cook, opera lover, community organizer, proud Emperor of the Imperial Court of San Francisco, president of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District board, and friend of mayors and other powerful political and appointed figures locally and often nationally.