By the cash register at AutoErotica in San Francisco’s historic Castro gayborhood, a little sign sticks out from a plastic container of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Have One, it reads, written in pink marker. You’d expect to see the chocolates when visiting your favorite uncle, not in a store packed with so many male bodies on display. The gold foil wrappers gleam against a framed 1970s ad for poppers—a white bottle blasting off through space—and a 1978 poster for a Chicago bathhouse bash. There’s another for the 1988 International Mr. Leather contest. And, of course, there are the dicks. On the walls, slim studs ripped from magazines lean back on couches at full salute. Illustrated Tom of Finland daddies showcase boners spilling out of leather chaps. Framed male nudes flank bins of vintage gay porn magazines with titles like Honcho, Mandate, and Blueboy.Owner Patrick Batt opened this store in 1996, long before the Starbucks and the SoulCycle moved into the neighborhood. Before the current renewed interest in gay historic material (though for some, that spark never died) saw vintage magazines sell for upwards of $100 a pop on eBay. Before the guys wearing ’80s-inspired short shorts and Chuck Taylors on Fire Island were out of diapers, and before popular Instagram accounts began posting old magazine spreads, with photographers sharing their new pastiche pictorials. Blame the Internet for the death of retail stores, but it’s what saved AutoErotica, thanks to the Hail Mary of a GoFundMe drive started by Batt’s friend, photographer… Click below to read the full story from Esquire
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The Last Gay Erotica Store
