Gay Bars of LA: Then and Now - Curbed LA

Contents:

• A LOOK BACK AT HOLLYWOOD’S UNRGROUND GAY CLUB CULTURE OF THE 1970S
• ZACHARY BLAIRANTHROPOLOGIST, REARCHER, WRER, AND GUN VLENCE VICTIMS ADVOTEHOMEABOUTCONTACTBLOGMOREUSE TAB TO NAVIGATE THROUGH THE MENU EMS.ALL POSTSCENTRAL FLORIDACHIGOPULSEWTER PARKBOYSTOWNSEARCHZACHARY BLAIRDEC 1, 20171 M READGAY LIFE'S FEATURED BARS OM THE MID-1970S
• GAY BARS OF LA: THEN AND NOW
• THE PAST AND FUTURE OF ONE OF HOTON’S MOST HISTORIC GAY BARS
• IS L.A. LOSG ITS OUTRAGEO PAST? THE BIRTH OF GAY URBANISM 1970S WT HOLLYWOOD
• THIS IS WHAT GAY LIBERATN LOOKED LIKE IN THE '70S

A LOOK BACK AT HOLLYWOOD’S UNRGROUND GAY CLUB CULTURE OF THE 1970S

Wt Hollywood has long been the rabow-draped pal of the gay muny Los Angel, but an article for KCET, cy planner Jam Rojas scrib the diverse and somewhat unr-the-radar gay dis circu of 1970s Hollywood.

The popular dis formed rponse to prejudice wh the gay muny, as one of s founrs told LA Weekly 2015. He scrib the rtrant and popular pickup spot as exemplifyg the, "quiet world of mastream gay whe culture.

ZACHARY BLAIRANTHROPOLOGIST, REARCHER, WRER, AND GUN VLENCE VICTIMS ADVOTEHOMEABOUTCONTACTBLOGMOREUSE TAB TO NAVIGATE THROUGH THE MENU EMS.ALL POSTSCENTRAL FLORIDACHIGOPULSEWTER PARKBOYSTOWNSEARCHZACHARY BLAIRDEC 1, 20171 M READGAY LIFE'S FEATURED BARS OM THE MID-1970S

" In Lillian Farman and Stuart Timmons’s Gay LA, the thors scribe how rtrant staff ed to splash the bathroom floors wh ammonia—the smell enuragg patrons not to lger longer than necsary.

[KCET] Developers Will Save Parts of Historic Circ Dis But Raze Everythg Else [Curbed LA] Mappg Los Angel's Groundbreakg Role LGBT History [Curbed LA] The Past and Future of Three of LA's Historic But Threatened Gay Nightclubs [Curbed LA]. Below are some clippgs om Chigo's Gay Life, chroniclg some of the gay neighborhood's most proment gay bars and around New Town—the neighborhood that would bee known as Boystown.

Halsted (which remas at this lotn today and has long been nsired the first gay bar on the Halsted Strip), Virgo Out at 2546 N. Clark Street (then nsired the center of gay life Chigo), and Augie's at 3729 N. #Boystown #Chigo #gay #gayneighborhood #neighborhood #gayghetto #NewTown #LakeView #gayhistory #gaybars #lbianbar #LGBT #lbian.

GAY BARS OF LA: THEN AND NOW

Amid the flurry of rabow-lan rporate logos, sponsored events and news ems about gay pengus, is difficult to turn on a televisn or set foot public durg June whout the remr that is Pri Month for LGBT and queer people. Gee Dudley, a photographer and artist who also served as the first director of New York Cy’s Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art, documented scen om pri paras New York Cy om the late 1970s through the early ‘90s. The years saw Ana Bryant’s homophobic csa through the “Save Our Children” mpaign 1977, the electn and assassatn of Harvey Milk 1978, and the Whe Night rts the followg summer after the lenient sentencg of Milk’s murrer, Dan Whe.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF ONE OF HOTON’S MOST HISTORIC GAY BARS

And October 1979, the Natnal March on Washgton for Gay and Lbian Rights took place wh roughly 100, 000 participants. “It was, a sense, the year we buted on the larger public stage, ” says Jim Saslow, a profsor of art history at the Cy Universy of New York and an early gay activist.

“We were beg acceptable enough that a gay person uld have a signifint polil reer, but we also beme very aware of how much of a nerve that was touchg for nservative people. Saslow, who was also a iend of Dudley’s, marks this era as a shift the gay liberatn movement. But as the number of out gay people grew, says Saslow, the paras transned om timate gathergs of like-md people to events attend by a broar array of participants.

“The muny started to attract more mastream folks who weren’t necsarily polilly radil or untercultural — they jt happened to be gay. “The guy a drs wh a beard, nng ont of the task force banner, ptur a lot of the atmosphere of the early gay liberatn muny, bee so much of me out of the hippie movement, ” says Saslow.

IS L.A. LOSG ITS OUTRAGEO PAST? THE BIRTH OF GAY URBANISM 1970S WT HOLLYWOOD

Members of the Natnal Gay Task Force march 1981.

Partners Charl Llie and Frz Lohman began to exhib art by gay artists their SoHo loft 1969, the same year the Stonewall uprisg took place. “There weren’t that many people documentg the gay world at that time, so Gee’s photographs have an enormo importance, ” says Saslow.

” Wh the visibily afford to LGBT people today, and particularly to gay men, is easy to fet that embracg on the street was a bold actn to make. Historilly known among lols as the Gayborhood, Montrose ed to be where the weirdos were. The Gulf Coast Archive and Mm of Gay, Lbian, Bisexual and Transgenr History timat that was the se of more than three hundred funeral servic and remas the fal rtg place of an unknown number of people’s 1970 to 2009, this space was part of the legendary Hoton gay bar Mary’s…Naturally!, which fostered such a close muny that some regulars chose to have their funerals there.

THIS IS WHAT GAY LIBERATN LOOKED LIKE IN THE '70S

Mary’s, as wrer Ed Martez put a sprg 1983 issue of Out Texas, was “the mother hoe of all the gay bars Hoton. ” When origal owner Joe Anthony opened Mary’s, was primarily a leather bar where gay bikers would ngregate.