Move Over, Wt Hollywood - Silver Lake Is the Te Gay Mec - LA Weekly

Contents:

• WHY IS THE MONUMENT OF A HISTORIC LA GAY BAR COVERED SHAKE SHACK SIGNS?
• A LANDMARK GAY RIGHTS PROTT HAPPENED 50 YEARS AGO IN SILVER LAKE
• MOVE OVER, WT HOLLYWOOD — SILVER LAKE IS THE TE GAY MEC
• HOW A SILVER LAKE STAIRSE CAME TO BE A MONUMENT TO LA'S GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• 20 YEARS OF AKBAR, SILVER LAKE'S GAY BAR FOR EVERYONE

WHY IS THE MONUMENT OF A HISTORIC LA GAY BAR COVERED SHAKE SHACK SIGNS?

”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.

”“Gay bars are on the cle, but they’re not gog away, they’re evolvg. “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.

A LANDMARK GAY RIGHTS PROTT HAPPENED 50 YEARS AGO IN SILVER LAKE

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.

A group of revelers—most of them gay men—are gathered at The Black Cat Silver Lake.

"I thk I'm safe sayg that the Black Cat was the first monstratn which hundreds of gay people appeared on the streets to mand that they be treated like Amerin cizens. The actn was one of the first anized monstratns for gay rights to have taken place U. Acrdg to Lillian Farman, who -thored Gay L.

MOVE OVER, WT HOLLYWOOD — SILVER LAKE IS THE TE GAY MEC

: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Polics, and Lipstick Lbians wh the late Stuart Timmons, small-sle ralli for gay rights had taken place before, but the prott outsi the Black Cat was a first of s kd.

"I thk I'm safe sayg that the Black Cat was the first monstratn which hundreds of gay people appeared on the streets to mand that they be treated like Amerin cizens, " Farman said to LAist. "In those days, for a lawyer to reprent gays, people would thk they were gay, and that ightened a lot of lawyers, " Herb Selwyn, a (heterosexual) lawyer who reprented the pair, told the L. That gay men, homosexuals, stated a urt se that they were equal unr the Constutn.

HOW A SILVER LAKE STAIRSE CAME TO BE A MONUMENT TO LA'S GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

’ This is the first time that they actually fend—and lost—but fend, sayg the Constutn of the Uned Stat appli to gay men equally as do to straight men. " [Actually, as Farman tells LAist, the urt se volvg ONE Magaze 1958 was probably the first time the nstutn was ed to argue for the rights of homosexuals. While that se was based on the First Amendment, Talley and Baker's se likely marked the first time that the Fourteenth Amendment (equal protectn) was ed fense of gay men.

Many pot to the fact that the Stonewall Rts, which happened two years later New York Cy, is more popularized as the flashpot for gay rights protts. The History Channel says that the cint is "regard by many as history’s first major prott on behalf of equal rights for homosexuals. The patrons felt that the orr was largely a se, and that gay bars had been unfairly targeted a seri of stgs.

And there are other people walkg by, and there are other people nearby gay bars, and they all e jo.

20 YEARS OF AKBAR, SILVER LAKE'S GAY BAR FOR EVERYONE

Bee the Black Cat monstratn was ls theatril, the Stonewall Rts have e to the foreont the narrative of gay rights Ameri. 's gay muny.

The gay bookstore Circ of Books (formerly New Fac) is gone, and so are the legns of gay bars that had once vered the neighborhood. "The Black Cat certaly needs to be remembered, bee was the first time that that many people stood together public for gay rights.