It is often noted as being tamer in comparison to other Bay Area bars. The bar features a jukebox and karaoke, pool tables and pinball machines, and a dance floor with a disco-ball, among other things.
The White Horse Inn is listed among the list of places of historic significance to be studied. Betty and Pansy's Severe Queer Review of San Francisco, a comprehensive collection of Bay Area queer knowledge, says that the White Horse should be part of the "basic queer East Bay survival kit." In 2014, the National Park Service announced its initiative to study and commemorate LGBT history. A variety of publications – especially gay and lesbian directories and journals – include and celebrate the White Horse in their listings.
The White Horse Inn is widely renowned as one of most notable and significant gay bars in the country. In August 2018, the crosswalks outside the White Horse were painted rainbow by an unofficial group to support LGBTQ+ rights. Radical activists saw bars like the White Horse as "symbols of oppression, rather than as safe harbors." Resolution to the September protests came when the bar met some of the protestors' concessions including permitting slow dancing, reversing bans on over one hundred GLF members, and allowing distribution of Gay Sunshine. Benton instead hosted "People's Alternative" dance parties as a response to what radical activists saw as the "cynical and apolitical" atmosphere of the White Horse Inn. In September 1970, the bar witnessed a sit-in protest and boycott because the bar refused to distribute Gay Sunshine, a gay liberation-oriented newspaper, and prohibited gay couples from showing physical affection. One patron noted many visitors had "long hair attitude," and held views against the Vietnam War. Though the White Horse Inn was "never a hotbed of political action," "protesters and hippies" frequently met here.
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For example, the Free Speech Movement led marches down Telegraph Avenue and the Berkeley chapter of the Gay Liberation Front were founded during this time.
Oakland and Berkeley became a prominent site for activism by the 1960s and 1970s. Demonstrations like this dominated the climate of Oakland in the middle of the 20th-century. Protestors against the Vietnam War marched from the University of California, Berkeley to downtown Oakland during Stop the Draft Week, October 1967. The White Horse Inn thus served as a sanctuary for gays and lesbians in the area. However, unlike other bars in the region, the White Horse Inn was never raided by police. San Francisco police often arrested men leaving bars, demanded "extortion payments" from bars, and forcefully revoked liquor licenses. In 19, police shut down nearly half of all gay bars in San Francisco, and raids continued into the 1970s. This occurred in the midst of post-war politics and anti-gay attitudes which "associated gay men with poor morals and weak wills," placing homosexual perspectives in opposition to national policies. A variety of laws including "public morals" and sexual perversion ordinances were used to harass bars and their patrons. Police raids began targeting gay and lesbian bars in the San Francisco Bay Area intensely from the 1950s onward. The bar's small distance to the local university meant many students visited the bar a patron who began attending the White Horse Inn in 1948 says the bar had a "reputation for being Cal's gay life." Advertisements from the 1940s state that the restaurant offered "exotic Chinese dinners and distinctive American cuisine." It was likely frequented by factory and port workers from nearby industrial centers as well as soldiers and sailors, especially during the Great Depression and World War II. At its opening in the 1930s, the White Horse was not explicitly a gay bar but rather a "gay-friendly bar no-touching policy" and Chinese restaurant. Karski, founder of the Grand Lake Theater, ordered the construction of the building and founded the bar. Records show that local businessman Abraham C. The White Horse Inn likely served as a place of gathering for gay and lesbian members of the military stationed in Oakland.Įarly history of the White Horse Inn is unclear it officially states that it opened in 1933 following the passage of the 21st Amendment, although it is rumored to have operated as a speakeasy during the Prohibition period. The Naval Supply Depot in Oakland was built in 1941.