Lovg and Partyg at Chi: 'The Bt Lato Gay Bar' Montebello | Artbound | Arts & Culture | KCET

Contents:

• LOVG AND PARTYG AT CHI: 'THE BT LATO GAY BAR' MONTEBELLO
• LOVG AND PARTYG AT CHI: 'THE BT LATO GAY BAR' MONTEBELLO
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• MOSW GAY MAP
• CHIGO GAY BATHHO

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. Owned by the proprietor of the gay vaquero dance club, Tempo, the Sre had a long, queer past.

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

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.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

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.

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.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

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. Fans wept when Roosterfish, the Wtsi’s olst gay bar, closed 2016.

Micky’s WeHo has long been a staple on Wt Hollywood’s strip of gay nightclubs and bars on Santa Moni Boulevard, known for s open-walled two-story buildg where passersby n see the party ragg om the street. The venue is the only Latx gay bar LA that explicly ters to a gay and Mexin dience every night, not jt as a theme once a week. But ’s the perfect space to grab a workday bnch wh a lleague or for -workg ssns -hosted on Tudays wh Gay Asstrology.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

The origal Downtown gay bar, Jalis is a dive bar that ters to the Latx and Mexin LGBTQ muny. Though Sweetwater isn’t officially known as a lbian bar, the humble tablishment has long been the go-to spot for queer women the lol gayborhood, which featur nearly half a dozen gay bars that le Broadway Long Beach.

MOSW GAY MAP

One of Long Beach’s few, if not only, three-level gay bars, Executive Sue boasts a karaoke bar, vio gam, pool tabl for rent, and regular drag shows. Dubbed by KCET as Montebello’s bt Lato gay bar, Chi is the sister to Club Cobra, servg as a groundg se for the queer Latx muny the suburbs of East LA.

It’s the perfect place for gay men to meet on the Eastsi. Good lotn: cy centre, another gay club (911) the nearby area and a gay iendly hostel next to stay (Inga Hotels).

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.

CHIGO GAY BATHHO

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. 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.