The Abbey, the Legendary Wt Hollywood Gay Bar, Is For Sale

Contents:

• THE ABBEY IS FOR SALE; WT HOLLYWOOD GAY CLUB SEEKS NEW OWNER
• THE ABBEY, THE LEGENDARY WT HOLLYWOOD GAY BAR, IS FOR SALE
• WEHO PRI FTIVI KICK OFF TODAY, ONE OF SEVERAL GAY PRI ACTIVI PLANNED L.A. AREA THIS MONTH

THE ABBEY IS FOR SALE; WT HOLLYWOOD GAY CLUB SEEKS NEW OWNER

Andrew Ahn’s father once told him that there were “no gay people Korea. In a culturally nservative muny, where gog to church and buildg a fay were heavily emphasized, Ahn felt his gay inty kept him “om beg able to participate Korean culture.

” Then, he started equentg GAMeBoi, a weekly Asian Amerin gay party at Wt Hollywood’s Rage Nightclub. He learned to embrace beg both Korean and gay, so much so that he directed “Fire Island, ” a groundbreakg queer Asian Amerin rom- released last year.

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 to people of lor. “Fdg plac like GAMeBoi, where beg queer and Asian do -exist … It’s not like a 1, 000-year-old Korean cultural rual, but I uld create a new rual, ” said Ahn, a recent Friday, hundreds packed QT Nightlife’s monthly K-Pop Night at Micky’s, a Wt Hollywood gay club a block or so east om the old GAMeBoi posed for selfi a pk Barbie box wh dis balls hangg overhead. ” (Michael Owen Baker / For The Tim) Even historilly gay neighborhoods like Wt Hollywood or San Francis’s Castro district, Asian Amerins have long been ignored or fetishized, seen as feme and weak.

THE ABBEY, THE LEGENDARY WT HOLLYWOOD GAY BAR, IS FOR SALE

In 2019, then-Wt Hollywood Mayor John Duran argued that he did not appropriately touch a member of the Gay Men’s Chos of Los Angel bee “he’s a skny Korean kid wh pimpl on his cheek. ” Asian Amerin advocy groups cricized Duran’s remark, wh API Equaly-LA potg to the long history of discrimatn agast Asian men gay muni such as Wt Hollywood, whose clubs “ed to require three forms of photo intifitn om anyone they perceived as Asian. ” said Crisman, a 36-year-old gay Korean Amerin rearcher and artist.

On this night, he had brought some female high school iends who wanted to experience the gay clubbg scene. Jimmy's Backyard, a short-lived speakeasy tucked away on Cosmo Street Hollywood, opened 1929 and was one of LA's first openly gay bars. Durg the Prohibn era, speakeasi beme a popular avenue for gay-d the “Pansy Craze” between the late 1920s and early 1930s, drag shows (before they had that name) were gag unrground populary.

Jimmy’s Backyard, one of Hollywood’s first openly gay bars that opened on New Year’s Eve 1929, along wh B. Listen: When LA's Gays Went Wt. Harassment durg the Deprsn and beyondIt wasn’t jt booze that uld get you arrted durg prohibn — gay spac were also illegal.

WEHO PRI FTIVI KICK OFF TODAY, ONE OF SEVERAL GAY PRI ACTIVI PLANNED L.A. AREA THIS MONTH

The LAPD was jt mercils their raids of gay bars. “The LAPD was jt mercils their raids of gay bars, ” acrdg to Lillian Farman, LGBTQ historian and a -thor of the book “Gay L. Government officials began to view the populary of “impersonator” (drag) revu — and by extensn the visibly gay muny — as part of what plunged the cy to bad enomic tim, acrdg to historil someone was nvicted of “masqueradg” (drsg drag), they uld be charged a fe or required to serve a 10-day jail stt 1930.

“So, I thk that was why Wt Hollywood beme ‘the gay spot’ … was an pe om the real vicns of the LAPD. Lbians and gay men flocked there to fd nnectn, live more openly and be the film the silent film era, one of s hight paid actrs, Alla Nazimova, beme a bisexual in by turng a hotel to a sapphic hub.

As the years went on, so many gay-iendly plac me on the scene that you uld lerally fill a book.