Interactive: Chi Montebello, California GayBarMaps CA

Contents:

• LOVG AND PARTYG AT CHI: 'THE BT LATO GAY BAR' MONTEBELLO
• LOVG AND PARTYG AT CHI: 'THE BT LATO GAY BAR' MONTEBELLO
•  CALIFORNIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

LOVG AND PARTYG AT CHI: 'THE BT LATO GAY BAR' MONTEBELLO

D’s Cocktail Lounge, a most bar largely off the gay-dar, loted a Montebello mi-mall. The bar drew a lol Mexin-Amerin clientele, a smatterg of self-intifyg gay men and women, trans women and drag queens, and heterosexuals havg a flg wh someone not their signifint other. Sokol, a TV producer, was enmhed the gay/art/mp/rock band scene of Echo Park and Silver Lake, as was I.

LOVG AND PARTYG AT CHI: 'THE BT LATO GAY BAR' MONTEBELLO

Owned by the proprietor of the gay vaquero dance club, Tempo, the Sre had a long, queer past. It was once a gay bar lled The Keyhole, the ont door surround by a large, woon keyhole shape (that remaed when was the Sre and beyond) day, Sokol lled and told me that he and Licón had bought the bar but didn’t know what to ll . I thought about Montebello, about queerns and reprentatn, and how sire uld be ptured while avoidg the clichés of so much homoerotic imagery.

I wanted imag for Chi that were aimed at a predomantly gay Lato male dience, athetilly rmed by neighborhoods like Montebello, largely workg and middle class. In the neighborhoods, mascule male erotic sire (both homo and heterosexual) is generally embodied wh an array of archetyp, cludg the homeboy/gangster, the jock and the chal, a term mon Mexi for a mascule young man who might have sex wh other men, but who don’t bear mon queer tras or terts.

Historilly (and still), male homosocial sexual enunters vertly take place the recs of public parks, like Whtier Narrows and Elysian Park. I suted and found men workg fast food rtrants and to body shops, gay and straight bars, cisg parks and on the street. In France, a Paris rint, an olr gay man origally om East Los Angel, me to the openg.

 CALIFORNIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

Granted, Chi is a mostly sized space, but a loyal clientele tablished quickly, one that was predomantly Lato, gay and male. It soon beme a gay, brown “Cheers”-type bar, wh a workg class and distctly homie athetic. Licón had already worked gay bars for years, and he unrstood well the realy of havg a bar a rintial neighborhood.

For some, pecially those not “out” (to their fai, their lleagu, or some s, to their homi), Chi was too close to home, and not worth the risk that someone might see them a gay bar. Joey Terrill, a queer Chino Los Angel artist, grew up Highland Park and speaks about this “Gay L. ” I agree wh Melody, as I told her, and yet, I risted that I didn’t want to nveniently portray Chi as “the ltle gay bar that uld.

Jt the other night, I joed a gay male iend and his lbian lleague at Hooters. (The documentary film, “Small Town Gay Bar” is a mt see.