Catacombs (sex club)

The Catacombs was a gay and lesbian S/M leather fisting club which operated from 1975 to 1981 in the Mission District/Liberty Hill Historic District and from 1982 to 1984 in the South of Market area of San Francisco. It was the most famous fisting club in the world.^[1] The founder and owner was Steve McEachern. The location was semi-secret and admission was by referral only. It was originally a gay men's club, but Cynthia Slater persuaded the management to open up to lesbians.^[2] Among the patrons was Patrick Califia, known then as Pat Califia.^[3] The Catacombs has been exhaustively described by sexual anthropologist Gayle Rubin,^[4] who calls it "exemplary" in its attempts to deal with the AIDS crisis which would eventually lead to its closure.^[5] Patrick Moore devotes a chapter to it in his Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality.^[6] Sex educator Carol Queen called it "the place to be seen and to play at during the 1980s."^[7]

TypeSex Club

LocationSoMa, San Francisco, California

Opened1975

Relocated1982

Quick facts General information, Type ...

Catacombs
Catacombs patch (Leather Archives & Museum collection)

Interactive map of the Catacombs area
General information
Type	Sex Club
Location	SoMa, San Francisco, California
Opened	1975
Relocated	1982
Closed	1984
Owner	Steve McEachern
Design and construction
Known for	Fisting

The San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, opened in 2017, honors leather culture and community members including McEachern.^[8]^[9]

[1]
Gayle Rubin, "The Catacombs: A Triumph of the Butthole", in Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice, Alyson Press, 1992, ISBN 1555831877, pp. 119-141; reprinted in Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader, Duke University Press, 2011, ISBN 0822349868, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), retrieved September 30, 2014.
[2]
Call, Lewis. 2013. BDSM in American science fiction and fantasy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p.5
[3]
Pat Califia (who later changed names to Patrick), "The Necessity of Excess Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine", POZ, October 1998,retrieved September 30, 2014.
[4]
"The Catacombs: A Temple of the Butthole", in Mark Thompson, ed., Leatherfolk — Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice, Boston, Alyson Publications, 1991, ISBN 1555831877, pp. 119-141, reprinted in Deviations. A Gayle Rubin Reader, Duke University Press, 2011, ISBN 0822349868, pp. 224-240, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), retrieved September 30, 2014.
[5]
"Elegy for the Valley of Kings: AIDS and the Leather Community in San Francisco, 1981-1996, in In Changing Times: Gay Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS, ed. John H. Gagnon, Peter M. Nardi, and Martin P. Levine, University of Chicago Press, 1997, ISBN 0226278573, p. 116.
[6]
Beacon Press, 2004, ISBN 0807079561, pp. 27-33.
[7]
"An Interview with Carol, Queen of Sex," Spread, vol. 1, no. 1, spring 2005, pp. 35-38, quote on p. 36.
[8]
Paull, Laura (June 21, 2018). "Honoring gay leather culture with art installation in SoMa alleyway". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
[9]
"Ringold Alley's Leather Memoir". Public Art and Architecture from Around the World. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved June 23, 2018.

37.7568523°N 122.4244217°W / 37.7568523; -122.4244217

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Catacombs (sex club)

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