A post shared by San Francisco Heritage (@sfheritage)San Francisco’s Wild Side West is a much-loved, long-running institution.
It first began to officially welcome LGBTQ patrons – primarily women – way back in 1962.It was opened by out and proud lesbians, Pat Ramseyer and Nancy White.The couple first opened it in Oakland as ‘The Wild Side’ (after the Barbra Stanwyck movie, Walk On The Wild Side).It’s incredible to believe now, but at the time it was illegal for women to be bartenders in California (the law wasn’t changed until 1971).