Featured Small Business: Unspeakable Vice - Queer History Walking Tours

This month we're thrilled to introduce you to an organization that brings San Francisco's Queer History to life through guided neighborhood walking tours. 

The sun should finally appear in September and October, making fall the perfect time to take a stroll and learn more about some fascinating and important moments in San Francisco's past. 

Here's our interview with the founder and head guide, Shawn Sprockett. 

What was the initial inspiration for this project?

A break-up, like how all good stories begin. In 2018, I moved out from an ex's Castro place and landed in a shoebox in North Beach. I thought I'd left the gayborhood but soon learned that the Barbary Coast had a ton of queer history and no one was talking about it.

I spent the pandemic doing more research, including visiting the GLBT Archives, and eventually plotted a route and story for all the gay and lesbian spaces that once dotted North Beach. After two years, guests encouraged me to create a sequel tour that would follow the community's move to the Tenderloin and Polk St areas which were in their heyday ahead of the Castro.

What neighborhoods do your tours take place in, and why?  

I run two tours: North Beach (1770-1960) and Tenderloin & Polk (1940-1980). Both predate or overlap with the Castro's rise, and are great opportunities to highlight the contributions of People of Color and women who are often neglected in the Castro narrative.

You could easily create several more about the gay scenes in: Filmore (1930-40s), Haight-Ashbury (1960-80s), Valencia Street (1970-80s), SOMA (1960-today), or Bernal Heights (1970-today).

I'm currently working on a third and final capstone to the trilogy: "Castro on Fire" which will focus on AIDS activism in a neighborhood known more to young people for drinking and partying.

Where did the name "Unspeakable Vice" come from?

While queer people have always existed (see Ancient India and Egypt gods, Ancient Greek and Chinese aristocracy, and Indigenous and African transgender leaders and prophets), modern gay identity really started around the Victorian era. They were too prudish to "say gay" and referred to it as "that unspeakable vice of the Greeks." Having come out in the state of Florida (narrowly avoiding being part of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy) and seeing the "Don't Say Gay" laws trying to be passed there, it seemed like an elegant name for a project documenting both the past and future of the movement.

Who are your tour guides?

Currently it's just me. I'm training two more at the moment but always looking for more volunteers. We offer the tours once a month and guides keep all their tips in addition to the free drink everyone gets at the end of each tour (in the spirit of community building in gay safe spaces). Any money earned from ticket sales goes right back into costs of operation and research. I still keep a day job in graphic design.

Do you find yourself giving tours to mostly locals or tourists?  

Tour guests are almost exclusively local with the exception of a few well-researched visitors looking for a deeper dive. Most tourists want to see the Harvey Milk locations and the rainbow flag, but my stories predate much of that. It tends to be local history buffs who come along most. But part of my Castro tour strategy is to draw in more travelers.

You are available to give talks as well, is that right?

I have a few lecture versions of the tours that I give, usually to corporate or elder community events. The advantages of the walking tour is getting to feel like you're there where history happened. The advantage of the lecture is getting to see more media on screen.

Give us a teaser - what kind of stories can people expect to hear on one of your tours? 

My favorite has to be telling people about Jose Sarria. He was at least as important to San Francisco as Harvey Milk and yet he doesn't have any airport terminal or school or community centers named after him. He was a Latine native San Franciscan and a WWII veteran who was publicly outed after the war and forced to give up his dreams of being a teacher. He wound up in North Beach creating the drag persona of "The Nightingale of Montgomery" where he galvanized the 1950s gay scene and encouraged them to fight for their rights often leading gay men to exit the bar and sing to imprisoned gay men in the jail across the street. He was the first openly-gay man to run for office (a full 16 years ahead of Milk's successful run) and founded the Imperial Court of San Francisco which is the oldest gay philanthropy organization—a lifeline for men during the AIDS crisis and still raising funds for smaller gay rights initiatives in smaller communities around the world sixty years later. His call to action was, "United we stand. Divided they catch us one by one."

What's the best question anyone has ever asked you on a tour?

People ask so many good questions. So much so that I've just started a spin off panel series in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society  where we invite members of the community (business owners, activists, artists, and everyday neighbors) to answer some of them. Some topics we'll address include: why have 50% of America's gay bars disappeared since 2007? How has affordability impacted San Francisco's reputation as a landing spot for queer people rejected by their families? Does gay acceptance in society undercut the need for a gay neighborhood or bar? Will SF's new policy change on bathhouses (undoing an AIDS-era ban) mean they're coming back to the city? Why does drag seem less prevalent in SF compared to other American cities? And lots more!