San Diego's Gay Bar History | KPBS Public Media

Contents:

• SAN DIEGO’S GAY BAR HISTORY: REFLECTNS ON COMMUNY HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROCS
• SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY
• KPBS EXPLOR SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY
• SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY
• SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY

SAN DIEGO’S GAY BAR HISTORY: REFLECTNS ON COMMUNY HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROCS

There’s a shirtls, mtached blond on roller skat ont of a 1965 red Plymouth Barracuda; the posn of the Giant Dipper roller aster and street signage the background tablish the photo was taken the vicy of the Apartment, a women’s gay bar that opened Missn Beach 1974. A third snapshot: a ftive lp of Halloween-stumed nttants—a drag versn of Tippi Hedren (a stuffed crow entangled her stylish platum updo), a garish clown, and a butch female wboy—all vyg for priz award long ago an unintified San Diego gay bar. From 2017 to mid-2018, I sorted through a multu of photographs, gay perdils, and ephemera the procs of producg San Diego’s Gay Bar History, a documentary that was ially broadst June 2018 on KPBS, San Diego’s public televisn statn, and had s premiere at FilmOut 2018, San Diego’s LGBTQ Film Ftival.

San Diego’s LGBTQ history, viewed through the lens of s postwar gay bars and nightclubs (and through the voic of wns who lived through this history) many ways parallels the velopment of the morn LGBTQ muny other large ci throughout North Ameri, and giv the documentary, while regnal s foc, a wir relevance. A ma this of the documentary poss that gay bars have been a foundatnal part of the LGBTQ experience, not only as safe plac for socializg and formg terpersonal relatnships, but also as cultural stutns that have played important rol the formatn of muny over generatns. From the opprsive secrecy of the postwar era to Stonewall; the birth of the morn gay rights movement through the eewheelg 1970s; and om the horrific AIDS crisis the 1980s, which cimated an entire generatn, gay bars have been more than jt social drkg spots.

San Diego, already a major ary port cy even before the war, beme a new home for thoands of gay men and women who were then able to disver others of their own kd. The olst ntuoly operatg gay bar San Diego, the Brass Rail, first opened 1934 as a bar and rtrant si the Orphm Theater on the rner of 6th Avenue and B Street. I chose this lotn as a backdrop bee the bar self acts as a metaphoric character San Diego’s gay bar history, havg served as both a bean and a safe harbor for several generatns of LGBTQ muny members.

SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY

Although the downtown bars provid a modicum of refuge for gays the 1940s and ‘50s, they were still risky plac to ngregate, pecially for ary personnel, who uld be dishonorably discharged jt by beg seen wh them.

In those days, women had to be pecially discreet, bee if they were publicly exposed as gay and were mothers, was almost assured child welfare thori would take their children away, as homosexuals were emed morally unf to be parents. Even after 1974, when homosexualy was no longer listed as a mental disorr by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, some lbians Los Angel still lost ctody of their children on those grounds.

KPBS EXPLOR SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY

The Stonewall Inn uprisg and the rts that began June 28, 1969 New York’s Greenwich Village beme a watershed moment for the muny natnwi, signifyg s refal to be treated as send-class cizens and s termatn to fight back agast btaly and homophobic opprsn. Wh this empowered outlook, the 1970s wnsed a burgeong of celebratory gay bar culture, and San Diego saw the appearance of dance clubs such as the Ball Exprs, the Barbary Coast, the Lombard, Diablo’s, and the Wt Coast Productn Company. Th the bars beme cleargho where people uld engage and build muny before there was an tablished gay center or systems of support servic The Imperial Court system beme a key aspect of bar culture.

SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY

By the mid-1970s, nearly 30 gay bars were spread across San Diego La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Missn Beach, North and South Park, Hillcrt, Downtown, and some extendg eastward to La Ma.

SAN DIEGO'S GAY BAR HISTORY

Wh over sixty hours of footage to ed, we attempted to strike a balance between velopg each segment as fully as possible and reprentg the variety of the gay bars of this high-water mark perd. Clearly, gay bars have held different meangs to people that me of age wh each major epoch, and their lsened importance to young people may be a ntributg factor fluencg the long-term viabily of gay bars.

But as the project neared pletn, my perspective turned to qutns regardg the future of San Diego gay bars, pecially sce younger people are ls reliant on them as spac for socializg and formg muny.

When we strengthen those social bonds, we keep alive the llective memory that origated gay bars and nightspots, the first public plac that fostered the velopment of our muny’s many histori. On KPBS TV / Stream now wh the PBS AppSce WWII, no ls than 135 gay bars have operated San Diego, and provid sanctuary for GLBT people to disver themselv and form muny.