Unrstandg Los Angel (and Wt Hollywood) Gay History: Contuy and Disntuy

Contents:

• UNRSTANDG LOS ANGEL (AND WT HOLLYWOOD) GAY HISTORY: CONTUY AND DISNTUY
• THE HISTORY OF THE ABBEY, WT HOLLYWOOD'S WORLD-FAMO GAY BAR
• WT HOLLYWOOD: WALK THIS WAY, A DAY OF GAY

UNRSTANDG LOS ANGEL (AND WT HOLLYWOOD) GAY HISTORY: CONTUY AND DISNTUY

The cy also is seeg s gay populatn (39% of WeHo rints 2013) cle to 33% of rints 2019. Don Kilhefner, a chronicler and creator of gay history, explas how we got to where we are today and fantasiz about where we may move the future. Gay and lbian tablishment and ill-rmed polil rrecte attemptg to falsely rewre or erase nvenient parts of that gay history.

WeHo Pri 2019, on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebelln, the very reason for Pri’s existence, pletely ignored that earth-shakg event, pretendg like had never LA LGBT Center’s attempted 2019 to falsely rewre s early history and rrectly ced 1969 as the date for s 50th anniversary celebratn even though 1971 was the date ed to memorate s 25th Archiv refed to operate an attempt to provi a venue to asss the impact of Stonewall on the velopment of the Los Angel gay vic 1967 LAPD raid on the Black Cat, a Silver Lake gay bar, and s aftermath is skewed today to the pot of misreprentatn, and there are other exampl. Los Angel gay history n be divid to four very distct and vastly different perds. To honor the seven men—Harry Hay, Bob Hull, Chuck Rowland, Rudi Gernreich, Dale Jenngs, Jam Gber, Konrad Stevens—who rpond to Hay’s origal ll for a homosexual anizatn that 1951 beme the Mattache Society, named after the masked mattachi urt jters of medieval Europe thought by Hay to be largely homosexual men.

THE HISTORY OF THE ABBEY, WT HOLLYWOOD'S WORLD-FAMO GAY BAR

Mattache reprented the first succsful attempt at anizg Amerin gay men and lbians and ed their opprsor’s word, “homosexual, ” to scribe themselv. Until the 1969 Stonewall Rebelln, protective super-paranoia based on dividual safety and survival om hetero supremacists’ vlence and physil and psychologil genoci characterized homosexual realy.

History, homosexuals intified themselv as an opprsed mory group, affirmed that there was such a thg as a homosexual culture, implied, but never actualized, llective polil actn, and anized succsful, but secret, discsn groups entirely by word of mouth. In a pneerg and remarkable manner at that time, homosexuals began to dialogue wh each other about their opprsn as they experienced —often cel and adly. The Homophile Perd (1953-1969): Conservativism, Rpectabily and Assiatn.

(a name rived om Thomas Carlyle’s “A mystic bond of brotherhood mak all men one”) replaced Mattache and started g the scriptive term “homophile” (lover of man or same), importantly broang inty om a solely sexual fn to also clu relatnship. Dorr Legg (right), a central figure the Homophile perd, standg at the entrance to ONE’s send floor office at 2256 Venice Blvd. As Mattache had started homosexuals talkg to each other about their opprsn, albe secretly, the Homophile era was important that, through s pneerg publitns, the wrten word also me out of the closet for the first time.

WT HOLLYWOOD: WALK THIS WAY, A DAY OF GAY

Lears durg the Homophile perd, predomantly centered Los Angel, were largely nservative Republins. For them, assiatn meant homosexuals need to adjt to the domance of heterosexual culture, stutns, and social norms, which they believed would lead to social acceptance. Addnal fg characteristics of the Homophile era clud nyg that a homosexual culture existed, law reform was a panacea, advot for social acceptance for homophil should not be homophil themselv but hetero profsnals (misters, attorneys, psychologists and psychiatrists), and, for safety purpos, psdonyms were wily ed to shield real inti.

The bt acunt of the Mattache and Homophile perds is gay historian John D’E’s “Sexual Polics, Sexual Communi: The Makg of a Homosexual Mory the Uned Stat, 1940-1970. D’E, lookg back over the attempted erasure of Mattache and the ascenncy of the Homophile effort, wr, “In sum, acmodatn to social norms replaced the affirmatn of a distctive gay inty, llective effort gave way to dividual actn, and nfince the abily of gay men and lbians to terpret their own experience yield to the wisdom of the experts.

I bow wh great rpect and ep appreciatn the directn of those of both the Mattache and Homophile efforts. The Gay Liberatn Perd (1969-cir 1990): The Radil, Grassroots “Big Bang”.