EDITORIAL

THE 'GAY' BAR -

Whose Problem is it?

While Sidney Feinberg, Alcoholic Beverage Control administrator for the North Coast area in California, announced a vigorous new campaign against bars catering to homosexuals, State Director Thomas W. Martin denied charges that San Francisco bars provide a haven for homosexuals in an address at the 22nd annual convention of the National Alcoholic Beverage Control Association.

Feinberg stated that a dozen undercover agents are at work gathering evidence to root out homosexual bars in the Bay Area. Lower courts have held that moro patronage of a bar by homosexuals is not sufficient grounds for revocation of a license, he said, and agents will be looking for examples of disorderly operations in bars suspected of catering to homosexuals in an effort to gain a Supreme Court ruling in the ABC's favor.

Meanwhile Martin pointed out that since 1954 the ABC has taken action against 821 violations in the San Francisco division (which includes Marin and San Mateo counties), of which only 14 bars were charged as being haunts of homosexuals – certainly a small percentage of total liquor law violations.

And Feinberg himself pointed out that of San Francisco's 1340 saloons, only 25 or 30 cator willingly to homosexuals.