Snuggle up, love bugs, let’s talk about our favorite topic: sex.
As the temperatures plummet, it’s a good time to get cozy with the one you love — or get busy finding someone to make some body heat with — and look back at our year in lust.
San Francisco has a complicated reputation when it comes to love. Known for our kink culture (RIP Kink.com (opens in new tab)) and energetic gay scene, when it comes to hetero couples finding partners to marry, the city is often on the receiving end of major complaints. Not enough women! Men who only want to talk about their startup valuations! No one knows how to make eye contact! It’s too cold to find a lover!
And yet, as our coverage on the culture team showed this year, the Bay Area knows how to get down. And knows how to settle down, too. From polycules to orgies to dating coaches to erotic dinner parties that spice up long-term marriages, the Bay Area is alive with love.
So, instead of reading another year-end list of bad things that happened in 2025, sit back and enjoy a look at this year in love. You’re welcome, loves.
‘This is not a fairy tale. This is an orgy’
San Francisco is teeming with sex, if you know where to find it. In this NSFW dispatch, Mr. Midnight takes you inside the scene.
Love and basketball: Meet the couples who spent Valentine’s Day with the NBA
The most romantic day of the year? Sure, why not spend it at All-Star events.
For sex-party DJs, business is banging
Bay Area orgies are alive with the sound of music. These are the people who keep the party humping.
What do you eat at a San Francisco orgy? Caterers describe the spread
In the city’s bustling orgy scene, snacks are serious business.
Valkyries games have become a queer lovefest. How the team embraced the ‘lez-aissance’
At Golden State games, queer fans are falling hard. For women’s basketball, yes. But also for one another.
Killing it at work but losing at love? Try this bootcamp
At Hot Feelings, successful people looking for love learn to stop swiping and get “touchy-feely.”
And just like that, the Carrie Bradshaw of San Francisco got a boyfriend
After becoming famous for being single, what happens to Danielle Walter now?
First she voted for him. Then she fell for him
Cynthia Wu found her match with Supervisor Bilal Mahmood after a minor political flex and an almost-missed Hinge date.
When a gang bang becomes a love story
She was a fluffer who became a mother. In this NSFW chat, Romy Holland talks about the 42-person Bay Area sex party that led to romance, pregnancy — and monogamy.
At the inaugural SlutCon, ‘flirt girls’ teach tech guys how to woo women
A visit to a three-day conference in the East Bay, where men paid thousands to learn how to not give women the ick.
SF’s favorite erotic dinner party is still banging after all these years
Guests at the city’s longest-standing erotic supper club come for the food and stay for the spanking.
‘The sluttiest mile on the West Coast’
Creator Violet Witchel has dubbed this San Francisco path “the Bridgerton promenade in real life.”
Singles night at San Francisco’s hot new club. (It’s a Costco)
The gonzo event turned out to be marketing for a dating app, but the mingling in the grocery aisles was real.
