Castro Gay Bars Use Questionable Tech to Check IDs

Castro District gay bars are facing backlash for submitting customers to aggressive background checks under the guise of scanning IDs. Controversial ID validation software Patronscan doesn’t only weed out the fakes. It uses facial recognition technology to run your live image against your ID pic for a (mis)match. Then it feeds your information to a search engine that scans a database of criminals and sex offenders for your name. If you don’t have a warrant out for your arrest, and aren’t a legally certified creep, you pay your cover and move along. The bar will collect and retain your information for thirty days, provided you don’t act a fool or steal anything. 

Amid citywide approval, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors prohibited city agencies, including SFPD, from utilizing facial recognition technology in 2019. That said, private businesses are still allowed. Does that seem fair to you? Even if you have “nothing to hide,” what happens when that logic can no longer justify further invasions of privacy? 

Here's how it works: You’re entering the Mix (4086 18^th St), Toad Hall (4146 18^th St), or Badlands (4121 18^th St). Before you can get in, the bouncer stands you in front of a camera mounted on a podium. It snaps your picture while a machine connected to it scans your government-issued ID. The images must align sufficiently, so if your weight fluctuates or Botox settles in weird, prepare to be turned away. Meanwhile, Patronscan will check your arrest warrant status, because you’re totally down to wait around for SFPD to show up. 

And if you’re a convicted creep, you aren’t wanted anywhere. 

It stands out that Badlands and Toad Hall share the same owner, Les Natali. Ross Crum, Virginia Crum-Ross and Linda Holl currently own the Mix, having cut ties with former co-owner Lawrence ‘Larry’ Metzger. Although the Mix is unaffiliated with Badlands or Toad Hall, that the neighboring businesses don’t know one another feels unlikely. In any case, it seems both establishments are celebrating Pride 2026 by creating a hackable dossier of largely queer clientele. 

What could possibly go wrong?

Patronscan claims their technology is in-use at bars in hundreds of cities around the world. San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Orlando, Portland OR, Chicago, New York City, and that’s just the United States. Its job: to “verify guests, spot fake IDs, and enforce venue policies.” A bouncer employed at the Mix told the San Francisco Gazetteer about their experience with Patronscan in practice. Once Patronscan gathers your personal and biometric data, it stores your information for thirty days, then it gets “automatically deleted.” Allegedly.

On the other hand, if you swipe something valuable, harass anybody, get into a fight, etc., they’re keeping your info. Permanently. The venue might circulate your information with establishments nearby too, effectively 86ing you from the whole damn neighborhood. Patronscan also says that its devices have the potential to reduce “incidents” at bars and nightclubs by 97%. It’s a dangling statistic (no referent, no metric, no control) spun into a selling point for a surveillance apparatus. Apparently, whoever invented this didn’t go out enough to learn that bars already have a system, albeit imperfect, in place. It’s the Wall of Shame, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! 

This bizarre, invasive technology, which some are saying constitutes a breach of privacy, seems nefarious as hell, operatively speaking. In fact, Patronscan has navigated legal disputes over its technology and the uses thereof. In 2020, they received a cease-and-desist letter from Canada's privacy commissioner. Patronscan was using unauthorized Canadian government seals, lending the public an erroneous impression that its services are approved by government officials. Then, three years later, Illinois residents filed a class action lawsuit against Patronscan for harvesting biometric data from people attending public events. 

Here in San Francisco, Patronscan devices are polarizing public opinion, resulting in their mixed reception. Social media commentators have expressed concern about the level of transparency venues will exercise regarding sensitive personal information. Where and how should one draw the line in terms of acceptable versus unacceptable behavior? Karaoke host and singer for San Francisco post punk band Half Rotten Goddess Lauren Mae shared on Facebook, "I hope I never work at a bar that uses these. Obviously if it catches on I’ll have to accept it eventually. Maybe I’m being insensitive, but isn’t it the job of security guards to stay on top of this stuff? If a person is the type to get 86ed from multiple bars, they’ll show their true colors soon enough.”

“Also by this logic, why wouldn’t all retail and grocery stores do the same to track theft? Why is this ethical for bars to be doing but not other public establishments?”

In a discussion with the Gazetteer, one Mix patron remarks that he has “posted worse things on Instagram than whatever [pictures the cameras] take.” Nonetheless, another customer remarks, “[In today's political climate], it's really not great to have lists of gay people.”