For Women, Hillcrt Isn't the Only Gayborhood | Voice of San Diego

SAN DIEGO GAY DISTRICT: HILLCRT

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It might be the prow of a ship — a purple, flh-pk, and terratta ship, wh s name spelled out black letters on a bright yellow sign — sailg northeast, rryg s hold the seeds and history of Hillcrt’s life as San Diego’s gay district. The Brass Rail provid the ocsn for my own disvery of the gay muny Hillcrt, four years ago. A iendly guy who gave me directns stck me a probably beg gay, but nothg else tipped me off.

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I had jt rented a one-bedroom apartment wh another man — an olr, more mcular man — two blocks om the epicenter of San Diego’s gay district.

We didn’t live Hillcrt long after we married — we found a seclud gut hoe Missn Hills that was more to our likg – but I often wonred how Hillcrt was chosen, if was chosen at all, as the center of gay life San Diego.

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The Augt 31, 1973, issue of the Pacific Coast Tim, a now funct lolly based magaze for gays and lbians, featur an terview wh “Ed om the Brass Rail. Though he’s not gay, he has been owner or part-owner of numero gay bars and nsirs himself a iend to the gay muny. She tells me that “like most of San Diego, (the gay muny) is a product of World War II and the slightly pre-World War II aircraft dtry.

HILLCRT: GAYBORHOOD OR GHETTO?

San Francis had had s gay muny for years, had s Barbary Coast nce that had always gone on there, but this town, the gay muny was built by the ary. World War II was the largt nscriptn of forc the history of the untry, and those days, the ncept of tellg them you were gay to get out of the service was a ltle ls popular.

Whatever the ary’s effect, by the time Lou bought the Brass Rail 1957, was a gay bar, equented by lol, nonary gays. By the ‘40s, had been renamed Bradley’s and was a rtrant by day and a gay lounge by night. “When I me out, ” remembers Bridget, “the only plac you uld go and be gay were bars.

He adms that thgs may have been different at Bradley’s, sce “was a ltle b rougher, due to the fact that on top of terg to gays, was also ary, and you know how the young guys are, pecially the ary.

THE VIEW OM HILLCRT, SAN DIEGO’S GAYBORHOOD

“Here ( San Diego), ” begs Rex, “a gay owner uld not keep a bar gog for a long time bee of the police partment. There was a time the early ‘50s when the length of a gay bar’s life this town was about 30 to 50 days.

That set the stage for what Lou nsirs the foundg of Hillcrt as San Diego’s gay district – the northward relotn of the Brass Rail. They wanted to rent to gays, bee they pay their rent on time, they take re of the property, they’re clean, they’re quiet.

GAY FRIENDLY! - HILLCRT

As for Omar’s ment about rentg to gays, everyone I terview for this story offers somethg along those l.

Rex par what happened Hillcrt to what happened San Francis’s Castro district, where gays bought ndown Victorians and rehabilated them. “It’s ually gay dividuals gog to an area where they n fd a barga, or an area that’s more permissive, and they will rent or buy bee they feel safe. ” In San Francis, the police pta the Castro district was very sympathetic to homosexuals, and so whenever there was anythg like a beatg, he would put four or five ps on , get stopped right then.

If there were no big problems, then the chickensh gays would e and also put bars around that. Lou opened the Brass Rail quietly, not advertisg as a gay bar, but the gay clientele followed him. Asi om the Rail, ntu Omar, “there was no reason for the gays to e to this area other than was a nice quiet ltle neighborhood.