CHASTITY BONO is the dghter of Sonny Bono and Cher. In 1990 Star Magaze "outed" her as a lbian. Sce then she has bee an outspoken advote for lbian and gay rights. She was former spokperson for the Human Rights Campaign, a natnal lbian and gay polil anizatn. She is now Entertament Media Director for the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES THRU THE END OF THE
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In the 1980s, Palm Sprgs gay history began to add new chapters even though the cy was still known for agg movie stars and sprg break shenanigans. * was sonny bono gay *
Liberace spent his last days cuddlg his dogs and watchg rens of The Goln Girls, acrdg to thor David Wallace, whose book, A Cy Com Out, tails the gay and lbian history of Palm Sprgs and s nnectns to Hollywood. But on the outskirts of town, gay life was thrivg.
“Establishments tried to outdo each other wh special events, ” rells Jim Suguan, former owner and edor of The Bottom Le, a ee newspaper that vered the lol gay nightlife scene.
“The gay muny was not anized and didn’t realize s potential yet. Yet jt a few blocks away, hotel owner Fred Hardt created a lol stir that ma natnal news when he announced he was nvertg his clothg-optnal P Wt Rort to a hospice for gay men afflicted wh HIV.
Chasty Bono, gay-rights activist and child of performer Cher and the late entertaer and polician Sonny Bono, is the early stag of transng om a female to a male and will be known as Chaz, his spokman said Thursday. * was sonny bono gay *
Mayor Frank Bogert, whose wboy persona chafed agast the creasgly vol gay muny, feared the publicy would hurt the town’s image, claimg “The whole world has got the ia that this is the place to e get AIDS, ” acrdg to a UPI report.
Throughout the natn “culture wars” were heatg up, wh hard-le fundamentalist Christians pted agast gays and lbians termed to live more hont and open liv. Bono’s electn hered an acceptance but not outright openns of the cy’s unniable gay populatn. He was, after all, a Hollywood guy, a hippie (or at least he played one on TV), and the ex-hband of a gay in.
He rells stg the ont row at a cy uncil meetg when Mary Bono sat down next to him and privately whispered, “Sonny won’t adm , but if there is gog to be a renaissance Palm Sprgs, will be bee of the gays. New learship Palm Sprgs fally allowed gay and lbian bars to operate openly (spurred on by the succs of the Whe Party and Dah weekends). Barbara Boxer, Cal Willis, and Greg Pettis (Founr of Dert Bs Associatn, now cy uncilman and Mayor Pro Tem of Cathedral Cy) at the GLAAD Humanarian Awards Dner Green, whose Cathedral Cy supper club “His & Hers” had been a h among the sert’s mi-mon, opened the first gay bar on Arenas Road 1991.
Chasty Bono, the child of Cher and Sonny Bono, has started the procs of beg a transgenr dividual. A rep for the gay rights advote and wrer... * was sonny bono gay *
Other clubs would follow (Hunters, Spurle, The Rabow Cact) to create an all-gay cy block. Gays and lbians began buyg and fixg up abandoned properti, formg muny associatns, and breathg new life to neglected neighborhoods. In his book, Wallace wr, “The cy’s gayns ed a near tectonic shift the cy’s polics.
” Havg vted Palm Sprgs, the gay muny began to get more volved ernment, electg the natn’s first “out” Ain-Amerin mayor, Ron On, 2003. Numero gay and lbian officials have sce served openly on the Cy Council and the mayor’s office (cludg current Mayor Rob Moon).
Ron On beme Palm Sprgs’ first gay Ain-Amerin mayor 2003. Liberace did not live to see the town he loved bee this gay mec.