‘The are our hom’: LA gay bars fight to stay afloat after year of shutdown | Los Angel | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS AND CLUBS LOS ANGEL
• THE ABBEY, THE LEGENDARY WT HOLLYWOOD GAY BAR, IS FOR SALE
• A LOOK BACK AT HOLLYWOOD’S UNRGROUND GAY CLUB CULTURE OF THE 1970S
• WEHO'S INIC GAY BAR AND NIGHTCLUB, THE ABBEY, IS FOR SALE
• HOW GAY BARS ARE BOUNCG BACK L.A. POST-PANMIC RTRICTNS
• JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE NFL ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT
• THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE ONLY GAY BAR PASANA
• ‘THE ARE OUR HOM’: LA GAY BARS FIGHT TO STAY AFLOAT AFTER YEAR OF SHUTDOWN

THE BT GAY BARS AND CLUBS LOS ANGEL

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. The origal Downtown gay bar, Jalis is a dive bar that ters to the Latx and Mexin LGBTQ muny.

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

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.

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.

For more than 35 years, Wt Hollywood has been a Mec for queer-owned bs, hog dozens of gay bars and clubs along Santa Moni Boulevard. Four popular gay bars have permanently closed Wt Hollywood sce March: Flamg Saddl, Gold Coast, Rage and Gym Bar. And after a half- of employg gay men om Wt Hollywood, she is worried about what next.

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

“They uld rent to anybody, don’t have to be a gay bar — uld be whatever they want, which would change the fabric of the muny, ” she says. As he’s watched some of his neighborg bs go unr, Cooley not, “Gay bars and rtrants are not jt plac to eat or have a cktail.

WEHO'S INIC GAY BAR AND NIGHTCLUB, THE ABBEY, IS FOR SALE

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.

HOW GAY BARS ARE BOUNCG BACK L.A. POST-PANMIC RTRICTNS

” 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.

JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE NFL ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

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. The Abbey, a historic gay bar Wt Hollywood, has been put up for nearly 10, 000 square feet venue is listed onle by a mercial real tate group as "a generatnal purchase opportuny to acquire one of the world’s most inic nightclubs and rtrants.

CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT

Eventually, grew to a proment gay bar and rtrant. Wrg for The Advote 2015, Cooley relled that "even 1991, the gay bars of the day were secretive.

They were plac mostly only other gay people socialized. That was a radil ia for a gay bar at that time. "John Duran, who held a seat on the Wt Hollywood Cy Council om 2001 until 2020, told the Los Angel Time, "[Cooley's] visn was plete alignment wh the cy to revigorate historic Boystown and create a world-renowned gay tablishment.

From Your Se ArticlWt Hollywood Gay Bar The Abbey Su Patron After Dggg Claims ›Kamala Harris Learns to Snap a Fan From Shangela at the Abbey Gay Bar ›Is the Abbey Still a Gay Bar? 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.

THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE ONLY GAY BAR PASANA

He scrib the rtrant and popular pickup spot as exemplifyg the, "quiet world of mastream gay whe culture. " 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]. One of Wt Hollywood's most well-known gay nightclubs is on the market.

“There’s no greater reward than dog for the ltle Black gay boy who has someone to look up to now bee we didn’t have those people to look up to, ” says Phipps, reuntg a movg past experience where a preteen boy lled the duo his hero after seeg them perform.

‘THE ARE OUR HOM’: LA GAY BARS FIGHT TO STAY AFLOAT AFTER YEAR OF SHUTDOWN

(Jason Armond / Los Angel Tim) (Jason Armond / Los Angel Tim) Through the Freaky Boiz’s high-energy live performanc and slick raps over stmentals sure to make you dance, they’re rvg their own lane hip-hop and treatg dienc to mic that highlights Black gay joy, datg adventur and wo and empowerg antiexploatn bops tailor-ma for the digal age like “Cash App. ”“They’re tryg to teach kids that beg gay is wrong and that’s phg 50 years backwards om the work of people who started the Pri para like Marsha P. Gav Newsom and sla gay rights lear Harvey the ne-hour Temecula Valley Unified meetg, which ran past midnight, some parents spoke support of the nservative majory on the school board and s buckg of state standards for clive and diverse pated Newsom — who plans to send textbooks that reference Milk to Temecula stunts fiance of the board — as a “tyrant” who “forc his le” upon a district he knows nothg about.