The Black Cat Tavern was a gay bar at 3909 W Sunset Boulevard Los Angel (which, acrdg to my Google maps, is now a rtrant lled Black Cat so that's awome). It had been around for about five mut before got raid by the LAPD. I mean, was tablished November of 1966…
Contents:
- WHY IS THE MONUMENT OF A HISTORIC LA GAY BAR COVERED SHAKE SHACK SIGNS?
- 5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
- A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
- GAY HISTORY – JANUARY 1, 1967: THE BLACK CAT TAVERN LOS ANGEL RAID
- BEFORE STONEWALL: LA POLICE RAID BLACK CAT, GAY BAR
WHY IS THE MONUMENT OF A HISTORIC LA GAY BAR COVERED SHAKE SHACK SIGNS?
* the black cat gay bar *
”A few weeks later on Febary 11, a group of advot anized a gatherg of nearly 600 dividuals outsi of the gay bar, ced by the Cultural Herage Commissn of the Cy of Los Angel as the first documented anized LGBTQ prott the natn.
The Black Cat Tavern eventually closed later that year, but the space ntued to host a strg of gay bars cludg Bhwhacker and Le Barco until 2008, when the entire duplex beme a Los Angel Historic-Cultural Monument for s role the LGBTQ civil rights movement as well as a California Historic Landmark earlier this 2012, a gastropub lled The Black Cat opened on one si of the Silver Lake duplex that ed to hoe the origal gay bar. “Shake Shack is openg this historic LGBTQ buildg while enablg a ndidate that has and will ntue to harm gay and trans people, ” he L. “There would be a huge outrage if somethg like this happened at Stonewall, ” she said to me, llg the move a “secratn of somethg that the gay muny should hold sacred.
Dpe Los Angel’ extensive gay history and large queer populatn of over 500, 000 people, only six of the cy’s 1, 266 Cultural-Historic Monuments specifilly pay tribute to historic LGBTQ Griffis“The LGBTQ history of Los Angel is one that is not monly known, but 's really important to regnize the plac that tell their stori, ” Lda Dishman, the CEO and Print of the non-prof The Los Angel Conservancy, which works to prerve historic s and cultural rourc Los Angel County, told Them. S., wh more than 6, 000 member hoeholds and hundreds of the urse of the 20th century, Los Angel played a signifint role the advancement of civil rights for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer intified people, as well as the shapg of a llective yet diverse muny inty.
5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
As you refully pick your venue for this year's Pri celebratns, a mute to remember some foundatnal SF gay bars. * the black cat gay bar *
The bar attracted a largely workg-class clientele and was ntled among a number of bs iendly to gay men and the midnight celebratn on Jan. Some patrons managed to pe the chaos of the raid by nng across the street and blendg to the crowd at New Fac, another gay bar and later the se of Circ of Books.
The 1950s saw the formatn of lol groups such as the Mattache Society, which foced on protectg and improvg the rights of gay men. By the time of the Black Cat raid 1967, Los Angel was also wnsg the rise of the Gay Liberatn Movement, which tersected wh the broar civil rights anizg and youth unterculture of the New Year’s Eve raid of the Black Cat reprented a turng pot for activists.
Two anizatns – Personal Rights Defense and Edutn (PRIDE) and Southern California Council on Relign and the Homophile (SCCRH) – me together to stage the unprecented prott on Feb. Activists lled on LAPD to end entrapment, cease illegal search, and rpect the basic rights and digny of gay, lbian, and bisexual 1967 prott at The Black Cat predated New York’s famed Stonewall Rts by two and a half years.
A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
Beg Asian Amerin and LGBTQ+ n feel lonely, wh stutns such as ethnic church often disavowg non-heterosexual relatnships while tradnal LGBTQ+ spac such as gay bars n be unwelg. * the black cat gay bar *
While volved fewer people and did not figure as promently natnally, reprents one of the first stanc when lbian and gay activists bravely anized and stood up for their events at The Black Cat had signifint legal repercsns, as of the 14 men arrted durg the raid for exchangg New Year’s kiss were nvicted of lewd nduct and were liable unr California Penal Co Sectn 647 to register as sex offenrs for the rt of their liv. History that gay men asserted their equal protectn rights unr the 14th Amendment – a legal argument that urts would only accept s later. The Black Cat Tavern was a gay bar at 3909 W Sunset Boulevard Los Angel (which, acrdg to my Google maps, is now a rtrant lled Black Cat so that’s awome).
Today, peers out om above the kd of gastropub where you n orr a $16 cktail, easily ftg wh this gentrifyg part of Sunset Boulevard, once known as a workg-class Lato neighborhood and gay enclave. Fifty-five years ago, though, photographs ptured a different Black Cat, a gay bar that spired civilians to gather unr those large fele ey and prott the unfair treatment of LGBTQ people. They anchor the gay bar not only as a place that once sndalized society wh the tenrns patrons showed one another, but also as a se of polil stggle.
GAY HISTORY – JANUARY 1, 1967: THE BLACK CAT TAVERN LOS ANGEL RAID
On New Year’s Day 1967, unrver officers arrted 14 patrons of the Black Cat Tavern, one of a number of gay bars that led Sunset Boulevard at the time. * the black cat gay bar *
Police chased two men down the street to New Fac, another popular gay bar, and beat the owner, a woman named Lee Roy. The New Year’s raid on the Black Cat me at a time when every state the untry had anti-sodomy laws and on the heels of anti-gay McCarthyism known as the Lavenr Sre, a wch hunt that had reverberatns the upper echelons of the natn—Print Lyndon B. What happened at the Black Cat now spired a new aln of gay rights anizatns, helmed by Personal Rights Defense and Edutn (PRIDE), and other groups facg harassment by police—hippi, anti-war activists, club owners targeted by curfews—to jo together prott two months later, on Febary 11, 1967.
The gatherg of several hundred people marked a watershed moment for the gay rights movement—one of the first tim LGBTQ people ma such a large public mand for regnn, and a promise to ph back agast police harassment and reprsn. The monstratn reamed the stggle as a fight for the civil rights of gay people and other mory muni who faced police abe.
Although gay activists tentnally left the word “homosexual” off of their signage to appease protters who were not prepared to take an explicly gay rights stance, anizer Jim Kepner gave a rog speech that lled for gay people to stand up as gay people.
BEFORE STONEWALL: LA POLICE RAID BLACK CAT, GAY BAR
But the histori of this civic prott are largely neglected the mastream orig story of gay rights, which ually starts wh the monstratns that rocked New York Cy’s Stonewall Inn 1969, and fets altogether that took moments like the raid at the Black Cat to make Stonewall happen. ” The group stalled a plaque that sums up the progrs wrought: gay people won the right to patronize bars openly, to no longer suffer legal or labor repercsns for their sexualy, and, eventually, to participate the stutn of marriage.
The plaque also remds that Silver Lake was the “gayborhood” before Wt Hollywood’s “Boystown, ” populated by leather and dance bars, and the us of a good, if unfair, fight.