Hayes Valley comes alive around the holidays. City Hall is lit red and green. The San Francisco Ballet performs “The Nutcracker.” And more than 700 Santa Claus dolls are on display at 488 Hayes St. A lot of things have changed in the neighborhood over the years, but one thing that everyone has been able to count on since 1990 is that these Santas will be here come December. Big and small, traditional and contemporary, mechanical and stuffed, the dolls line the shelves and dangle from the lights. Brass Tacks, the bar at 488 Hayes St., upholds this tradition, but it didn’t start it. That distinction belongs to Marlena, also known as Gary McLain, a drag queen who operated the beloved bar Marlena’s in this space from 1990 to 2013. Six years after handing over the keys to a new set of bar owners, Marlena can still often be found sitting on a stool near the front window — especially when all her Santa Claus dolls are out. These Santas aren’t just Santas. They are the token of one of the neighborhood’s most enduring traditions, a physical representation of the continuity between old and new. Many of San Francisco’s queer… Read full this story
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