San Francisco Ballet "Mr. Tomasson has accomplished the unprecedented: He has pulled a so-called regional company into the national ranks, and he has done so by honing the dancers into a classical style of astonishing verve and purity. San Francisco Ballet under Helgi Tomasson's leadership is one of the spectacular success stories of the arts in America." In May 1995, San Francisco Ballet hosted 12 ballet companies from around the world for UNited We Dance: An International Festival. The festival commemorated the 50th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter, which took place at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing
LGBT culture in San Francisco gay bar owners in 1962 as a response to continued police harassment and closing of gay bars (including the Tay-Bush Inn raid), and continued until 1995. San Francisco became linked with the LGBT community in the media as a result of a June 1964 "Life" article, "Gay San Francisco," which stated that San Francisco was the "gay capital of America." The Society for Individual Rights (SIR), founded in San Francisco in 1964, published the magazine "Vector" and became within two years the largest homophile organization in the United States. SIR focused on community building, public identity and legal and social