Members of San Francisco's LGBTQ community gathered in the South of Market neighborhood on Sunday to celebrate the city's new Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.

The Leather Hub on Folsom Street was filled with people celebrating the city's rich history of kink, BDSM, furries and leather.

Bob Brown identifies as a leatherman and has been coming to the South of Market neighborhood since the 1980s, when there used to be 47 gay and leather bars, according to the San Francisco Leather Alliance. Today, the group says there are only seven.

Brown has had two partners, and he met both of them in the neighborhood. He met his first husband at the famous gay bar, The Stud, and he met his current husband at a leather boots business called Stompers. And he proposed to him in the very same spot.

"So I have a lot of history in this area," he said.

Brown says he sees the newly formed cultural district as a way to maintain and create more affordable spaces for residents and businesses who are part of the LGBTQ and leather community.

“I hate to see it go away or disappear as it seems to be doing, but I think this is a good effort to help people understand why preserving things in this area [is] important,” he said.

While the cultural district can’t protect housing or save businesses from closing, it does encourage developers to work with the community.

It's a community that Ryan Taylor considers family. He’s a member of San Francisco K9 Unit and was participating in a puppy mosh booth where people act like puppies and play together.

"Everyone here, no matter what walk of life you are, whether the whipping category or pups or any of the other ones here, you are still welcomed and treated like family," Taylor said.