A survey of 200 matchbooks om a bygone era of L.A.'s gay bar scene at the downtown Central Library.
Contents:
- GAY BARS OF LA: THEN AND NOW
- A HISTORY OF L.A.’S GAY BAR SCENE, TOLD MATCHBOOKS
- EARLY GAY CLUBS LA
- LA’S GAY PAST: THIS IS LGBT HISTORY, TOLD SIX LANDMARKS
- A LOOK BACK AT HOLLYWOOD’S UNRGROUND GAY CLUB CULTURE OF THE 1970S
GAY BARS OF LA: THEN AND NOW
Back the pre-ter days of the early seventi, LA was flh wh gay bars and nightclubs (assiatn ntu to fell LGBT gatherg plac). Queerty took a look at about a dozen vtage... * los angeles gay bars 1980s *
Gay bars and sex clubs, most of them now closed. -based queer artist who was a regular at a number of the spots worked briefly as a barback at Cuffs, a major gay hangout of the recent “was credibly dark and super cisey, ” Jony rells.
A HISTORY OF L.A.’S GAY BAR SCENE, TOLD MATCHBOOKS
* los angeles gay bars 1980s *
“As Silver Lake — and the whole landspe of gay Hollywood and the east si — changed so much I always had this ia my head of turng the place back to Cuffs for one night, ” he says.
EARLY GAY CLUBS LA
Back the mid-1980s, I ed to go wh iends to a happeng gay dis spot LA, a place lled Catch One. I would go wh my then-girliend and… * los angeles gay bars 1980s *
The early ’90s, there were more than a dozen [gay bars] on the east si.
LA’S GAY PAST: THIS IS LGBT HISTORY, TOLD SIX LANDMARKS
One of Los Angel' last historic gay bars, The Other Si was a “bt iend” to a generatn of LGBT bar goers who were left wonrg: Where will we go now? * los angeles gay bars 1980s *
”The closg of many east-si gay bars n be blamed, part, on gentrifitn’s effect on rents. It also n be argued that the ongog expansn of jt what queerns n mean uld have ma a segment of gay bars, which thrived a sort of self-intified exclivy, obsolete.
“I’m not one of them, ” Jony says, “but a lot of gay men my age and a generatn olr like to talk about the days of male-only spac and what that meant to them. ” Jony is pleased that anyone who intifi as male — trans men, for example — are now more wele at gay bars than they were the past. A third factor the shrkg number of gay bars L.
’s gay bar scene was headier, wilr and perhaps more excgly illic. Back the mid-1980s, I ed to go wh iends to a happeng gay dis spot LA, a place lled Catch One. I’m not gay nor were the iends I’d go wh, but Catch One was always such a fun, iendly place.
A LOOK BACK AT HOLLYWOOD’S UNRGROUND GAY CLUB CULTURE OF THE 1970S
Moreover, ’s always been a place where gay men and women of all lors have felt ee to dance and jt be themselv. This was pecially important for black and lato gay people, back the 1970s and 1980s, who didn’t feel as wele at the time Wt Hollywood. Hoe mic started Chigo the late 1970s, offerg gay, black, hispanic men, women, and other mori a place where they uld feel ee and safe and hang loose on the dance floors.