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

Contents:

• CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARD ADOPTS SOCIAL STUDI TEXTBOOKS THAT CLU GAY RIGHTS AFTER WARNGS OM ERNOR
• SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAY & LBIAN CLUB (AND FRIENDS)
• ‘THE ARE OUR HOM’: LA GAY BARS FIGHT TO STAY AFLOAT AFTER YEAR OF SHUTDOWN
• THE BEST LOS ANGEL GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS LOS ANGEL
• THE RISE AND FALL OF LAGUNA BEACH, A GAY CALIFORNIA HOTSPOT
• THE BEST ORANGE COUNTY GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS ORANGE COUNTY
• THE 5 BEST ONTAR GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS ONTAR
• SANTA MONI AND VENICE BEACH GAY GUI

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARD ADOPTS SOCIAL STUDI TEXTBOOKS THAT CLU GAY RIGHTS AFTER WARNGS OM ERNOR

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. 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.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAY & LBIAN CLUB (AND FRIENDS)

” 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.

A Southern California school board on Friday adopted a social studi curriculum that clus gay rights that was approved by parents and teachers after ially rejectg . “Unr the headg ‘Protts, ’ one paragraph discs gay rights California and unr the headg ‘Court Cas, ’ there are two paragraphs that discs the urt s that allowed gay marriage California. She said a supplemental rource lists Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and polician who was assassated 1978, along wh San Francis Mayor Gee Mosne.

— A Southern California school board has bee the latt proxy for culture wars brewg across the untry after a nservative bloc voted to formally reject state-endorsed curriculum that would have mentned gay rights figure Harvey Milk. Proponents of the ban say Milk was a sexual predator, referrg to a disputed claim that the gay rights in had an appropriate relatnship wh a mor.

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

Gav Newsom over lson plans that mentned the state's first openly gay elected public Temecula Valley Unified School District had prevly voted to reject the curriculum part bee some board members were ncerned the curriculum's supplementary material mentned Harvey Milk, the former San Francis supervisor and gay rights advote who was assassated 1978. Those textbooks do not ply wh a 2011 state law that requir schools to teach stunts about the historil ntributns of gay, bisexual and transgenr Amerins. They also stcted the district's terim supertennt to review a portn of the curriculum that clus a discsn of gay rights and how same-sex marriage me to be legal California.

The Temecula Valley Unified School District had prevly voted to reject the curriculum part bee some board members were ncerned the curriculum’s supplementary material mentned Harvey Milk, the former San Francis supervisor and gay rights advote who was assassated 1978.

They also stcted the district’s terim supertennt to review a portn of the curriculum that clus a discsn of gay rights and how same-sex marriage me to be legal California.

THE BEST LOS ANGEL GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS LOS ANGEL

Four inic Los Angel gay bars, toutg a bed history of 130 years, have permanently closed durg the panmic and many more have warned that they are on the brk of as nightlife gradually returns, some of the remag queer bars across southern California have rorted to crowdfundg a last-dch effort to stay afloat, warng that Covid-19 may brg about the end of historic stutns that have weathered the Aids crisis and multiple enomic panmic has permanently closed more than 100, 000 bars and rtrants across the Uned Stat but LA, which has been unr some form of lockdown rtrictns sce last March, the impact on nightclubs has been particularly LGBTQ+ bars shuttered Wt Hollywood last year, cludg Rage, a legendary nightclub that closed after 37 years, and Gold Coast, a 39-year-old dive bar down the street on Santa Moni boulevard. Then January, as LA bee one of the worst Covid hotspots the natn, Oil Can Harry’s, a beloved gay untry bar Stud Cy, said was closg for good after half a century of hostg queer le dancg. ”Before Covid, gay bars were already disappearg LA and other US ci due to risg rents and gentrifitn, and as onle queer datg and hookup apps grew populary.

The venu most at risk of closg are often penntly owned and ter to more unrreprented groups, cludg Black and Lato muni, trans and genr-nonnformg crowds and workg-class neighborhoods, rearch has of the LA bars that are stgglg are loted outsi of the Wt Hollywood scene, which is known for terg to whe gay male crowds and is more touristy, wh owners turng to GoFundMe to make through the crisis.

THE RISE AND FALL OF LAGUNA BEACH, A GAY CALIFORNIA HOTSPOT

”Precct has long had an unpretent vibe that ma more fortable than many gay bars, Meatball said: “It’s dgy, smells like old alhol when you walk , and there’s somethg so fortg about this dark, seedy place – gay people love that stuff.

”New Jalis, also downtown, is one of the longt-nng Lato gay bars the regn, n by an immigrant uple who transformed to an LGBTQ+ venue the 1990s. ”Some of the Akbar owners’ younger iends and longtime patrons eventually nvced them to try crowdfundg before sellg their property and closg down, said Peter Alexanr, -owner: “It’s much more important than my own personal fancial wellbeg – all the plac are more than jt gay bars. The succs of the mpaign energized other queer bars to try to seek aid om supporters, though some say their bts are still signifintly greater than the donatns they’ve Alpuche, owner of Redle, a downtown gay bar, timated that the panmic has left him wh nearly $400, 000 of bt, part bee he has had to ntue payg for licens and perms.

This moment, he add, remd him of the Aids crisis when gay clubs beme a ghost town until they eventually bounced back the 90s: “This jt ret everythg … I know we’ll e back. July 19 (UPI) -- A Southern California school district that failed to adopt a state-endorsed social studi curriculum over mentn of gay rights lear Harvey Milk has been fed $1. The nservative block of board members, cludg Print Joseph Komrosky, object to the textbook over s cln of supplemental material about gay rights advote Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay man elected to office the state and was assassated 1978.

THE BEST ORANGE COUNTY GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS ORANGE COUNTY

I was 18, I was terrified, and I wanted to go to my first gay club, the Boom Boom Room Laguna Beach, California, a seasi town that, before s rise to promence via an MTV realy seri and Bravo’s gural Real Hoewiv seri, was known as a queer-iendly enclave Orange County. I knew that, only two years before, a football player at a nearby high school had nearly beaten a gay man to ath on this beach, one of several lol hate crim aimed at gay men. From the late 1990s to the 2010s, through a batn of AIDS-related aths, ’80s-era nservatism, and skyrocketg home pric, the rabow-hued cy lost s gay she.

Queer enclav New York Cy, like Park Slope (formerly a lbian hub) or the Wt Village (now more associated wh celebri, fance bros, and others who n afford s risg real tate pric), or Silver Lake Los Angel, aren’t as gay as they were the ’80s and ’90s.

San Francis neighborhoods like SoMa or streets like Polk, oime gay lchps a cy synonymo wh sexualy, are more geared toward the flux of tech dollars. Now an effort by longtime queer rints and one forward-thkg cy official is attemptg to brg Laguna Beach’s gay past back to life. After the cy resigned the area along Ma Beach to turn to a public promena, the gay tablishments—and crowd—moved south to a two-block stretch along PCH between Callpe and Crs streets.

THE 5 BEST ONTAR GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS ONTAR

Gay-owned and gay-iendly jots like Flr Lys (now lled Ma Street Bar and Cabaret), the Boom Boom Room (a multiered nightclub wh saltwater fishtanks and go-go boys), and the Ltle Shrimp (a piano bar-slash-rtrant wh a lounge sger) opened. There’s also Wt Beach, a beach along the ast popular wh primarily gay male beachgoers soakg up UV rays and t-llg the ocsnal Adonis passerby. Durg the height of s populary among the LGBTQ crowd, the cy elected one of the untry’s first openly gay elected officials, Bob Gentry, a former associate an of stunts at Universy of California at Irve, who served as mayor and uncilman om 1982 to 1996.

SANTA MONI AND VENICE BEACH GAY GUI

He also bore wns to the height of the AIDS/HIV crisis, which h Laguna Beach at a per pa rate parable to San Francis or Manhattan and wiped out much of the gay male populatn—cludg Gentry’s longtime partner, Gary Burdick, 1989. In a move that upset both nservativ and some of the more fearful sectns of the gay muny, Gentry, never one to mce words or hi om the tth, went public wh his partner’s ath. In addn to a nservative visors bure and cy uncil tryg to quash the cy’s gay reputatn, sert ci like Palm Sprgs and Cathedral Cy did somethg Laguna Beach wouldn’t do: They openly urted LGBTQ rints.

“At one Southern California gay pri para the mid-’80s, my r was directly behd a r om Cathedral Cy, which was filled wh heterosexual male and female cy uncil people, ” Gentry rells.

And they told me, ‘We see the future of our cy embracg the gay muny, and we see that Laguna Beach won’t hold onto .

While olr gay rints were headg east to snap up one of many midcentury abos, gay bs Laguna Beach, like the Ltle Shrimp, and tellectually cled bs, such as Fahrenhe 451 Books, closed. “I thk Laguna Beach changed bee got too expensive for the gay scene and the art scene, ” says Craig Sannum, who moved to Laguna Beach 1993. But not everyone agre that, even though Laguna Beach’s median home price is now $2, 141, 100, acrdg to Zillow timat, enomy played a major factor the gay flight.