Silver Lake Has Always Been Gay, Rears Say - LA Weekly

Contents:

• SEARCHG FOR SILVER LAKE: THE RADIL NEIGHBORHOOD THAT CHANGED GAY AMERI
• BEYOND OFF SUNSET: A GUI TO GAY SILVER LAKE
• MOVE OVER, WT HOLLYWOOD — SILVER LAKE IS THE TE GAY MEC
• THE BT GAY BARS AND CLUBS LOS ANGEL
• LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS SILVER LAKE, CA
• 50 YEARS AGO THE FIRST MAJOR GAY RIGHTS MONSTRATN HAPPENED SILVER LAKE
• AN O TO L.A.’S GAY RTRANTS, WHERE A MUNY N FD A HOME
• SILVER LAKE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GAY, REARS SAY

SEARCHG FOR SILVER LAKE: THE RADIL NEIGHBORHOOD THAT CHANGED GAY AMERI

We are drivg up an almost vertil hill a hip Los Angel neighborhood, lookg for one of the birthplac of the gay civil rights movement. At the wheel is Roland Palencia, a gay activist who has lived and anized here for Silver Lake Rervoir sh behd , the hills around crowd wh bungalows. ”The plaque qutn memorat the Mattache Society, one of the first US “homophile” groups to openly advote for acceptance.

We were standg on the hill where the Mattache Society was found 1950, and began to advote for homosexuals not as sners or perverts, but as an opprsed mory who served rights. Ls than two away is the Black Cat Tavern, the se of one of the first public gay rights monstratns, 1967, prottg the Los Angel police partment’s btal New Year’s Eve raid.

BEYOND OFF SUNSET: A GUI TO GAY SILVER LAKE

By the 80s, Silver Lake was a center of queer life, pecially queer Lato life, and, Palencia says, nearly every other storeont was a gay or lbian bar, a leather store, a bookstore, or a muny Aids anizatn.

Today, spe the rabow flags flyg along Sunset Boulevard, Silver Lake is beg “-gayed and -Latized” queer history tour began at Silver Lake’s most famo gay landmark: the Black Cat Tavern. The prott outsi the Black Cat took place 1967, two years before New York’s Stonewall rt, which is often scribed as the foundatnal event of the US gay rights movement.

There’s no reference to the s when the Black Cat buildg transformed to a seri of different gay bars, cludg Le Barco, which offered drag performanc Spanish, and Club Fuck! At Basgo’s Dis, which was famo for s art-punk athetic and BDSM performance Sunset Boulevard, there are other holdouts om Silver Lake’s gayer past: Rough Tra, a leather and fetish shop, is a few doors down om the Black Cat. But Circ of Books, once a famo purveyor of gay porn, is now a nnabis store, Palencia noted.

MOVE OVER, WT HOLLYWOOD — SILVER LAKE IS THE TE GAY MEC

Photograph: ONE Archiv at the USC LibrariOff Sunset Boulevard, the neighborhood streets that were once statns for gay cisg now have hardly any traffic, Palencia poted out as we drove through.

“It’s right between East Los Angel, which has tradnally been Lato, and Wt Hollywood, which beme more gay, ” he said.

”Silver Lake, then a largely Lato neighborhood, beme a haven for Palencia and his iends, who -found Gay and Lbian Latos Unidos (GLLU), an advocy group foced on issu and people they felt whe gay anizatns and whe femist anizatns ignored.

THE BT GAY BARS AND CLUBS LOS ANGEL

33 Taps, at the former se of Crt, a meetg place for Gay and Lbian Latos Unidos.

LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS SILVER LAKE, CA

While there were tensns at the time between gay and lbian anizers LA, the gay men who started GLLU reached out to lbian Latas to get them volved as lears the group, as documented Unidad, a new film about the group’s history. Palencia said this was ccial: “Polilly, the lbians were much more evolved terms of their thkg of systems – like patriarchy, enomic systems, sexism, even racism, ” wh an agenda “that went beyond sexual polics” members supported Lato labor anizers and the Uned Farm Workers, and proment labor activists, cludg Dolor Huerta, marched alongsi them a 1983 Pri Wt Hollywood gay scene, ntrast, was sometim explicly racist and misogynistic: Stud One, a proment club, sparked protts for s excln of men of lor and of women, and s obv preference for wealthier whe male Silver Lake uld also be dangero, Palencia said: there were gay-bashg attacks rried out by lol Lato gang members.

50 YEARS AGO THE FIRST MAJOR GAY RIGHTS MONSTRATN HAPPENED SILVER LAKE

Photograph: Male Tolle/The GuardianTo addrs the tensns between gay and Lato rints whout turng to “mass rceratn, ” anizers started a ee lol mic ftival, the Sunset Junctn street fair, 1980, which had activi for kids and bands to appeal to a wi range of cultural terts. “A lot of people, pecially gay men who lived here, they died, ” Palencia said. Photograph: Male Tolle/The GuardianGay anizatns led by whe activists Los Angel often neglected outreach to people of lor, cludg Lato muny members, failg even to offer ccial rmatn Spanish.

Palencia drove a few blocks off Sunset Boulevard to what he lled a “ltle oasis that’s still the same as what ’s been the past s” l Campo, an inic Mexin rtrant a bright pk buildg, has been a refuge for gay patrons sce s foundg 1962, and ’s still owned by the same Hollywood showbiz Del Campo, who started the rtrant, had been a dancer featured films like Wt Si Story, an Amerin Paris, and A Star is Born, and his old iends and lleagu beme his new patrons – cludg, of urse, many gay people. Instead, her son said, the rtrant beme her the early days, closeted gay Hollywood celebri like Rock Hudson, one of the most proment people to die early the Aids crisis, equented the rtrant, which had dark booths wh curtas on the wdows, so that patrons uld de whout scty om outsi. The rtrant’s central room ed to feature crowds of gay men, there to see and be seen, they said.

AN O TO L.A.’S GAY RTRANTS, WHERE A MUNY N FD A HOME

One of Robert and Ga’s sons me out to them as gay while stg one of the booths once popular wh closeted rtrant host when we vised was 18-year-old Logan Wynn, who has lived the neighborhood his whole life, and who chatted amiably wh about the rtrant’s gay history and his memori of eatg here as a kid. LGBTQ nightlife Los Angel n be a b tached, but each separate “gayborhood” has s own vibe and appeal. 's bt-known gayborhood, and the burgeong one of Downtown L.

Then there's the important and well-tablished gayborhoods Long Beach and the valley. Then there is perhaps the most historic gayborhood: Silver Lake. Weekly put together a gui on how to have a great gay Friday or Saturday night out Silver Lake.

Back the 60s, like most gay bars across the untry, the police were nstantly raidg Silver Lake's bt known LGBTQ hangout, the Black Cat Tavern. Predatg Stonewall, the Black Cat raid and prott were signifint steps forward the gay rights movement and laid the groundwork for the events at Stonewall two years later. …Two months after this moment, havg that many gay and lbian and alli e together to prott police btaly was major, ” he tells L.

SILVER LAKE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GAY, REARS SAY

While many nsir Stonewall to be the birth of the gay rights movement, Black Cat laid the groundwork for to occur, so one uld argue that the te birth of the natnal gay rights movement began right here Silver Lake.

Though ran as Le Barco for several years terg to a gay Lato clientele (and hostg legendary queer fetish night Club Fuck), new owners who took over 2012 returned the Black Cat Tavern to s origal name.

It's mostly straight a hipster hub but is gay-iendly, and 's worth visg to see photos of the 1967 events displayed si. Keepg the historic signifince of Silver Lake to the LGBTQ muny md, the first stop on our gay night out the neighborhood is for some dner at 33 Taps. It isn't officially a “gay” tablishment, but sce the neighborhood is very LGBTQ, so is the rtrant.