Op-Ed Thks WeHo’s Boystown Is Gog Mastream, And Losg Its Gay Character - Eater LA

Contents:

• LOS ANGEL GAY DISTRICT: WT HOLLYWOOD (WEHO)
• JT HOW GAY IS WT HOLLYWOOD?
• OP-ED THKS WEHO’S BOYSTOWN IS GOG MASTREAM, AND LOSG ITS GAY CHARACTER
• 100+ GAYBORHOODS, GAY VILLAG, AND GAYTN DTATNS THE USA
• QUARTIER GAY LOS ANGEL : WT HOLLYWOOD (WEHO)
• GAYT PLAC IN WT VIRGIA FOR 2020
• 45 PRETTY GAY PICTUR OF LA PRI WT HOLLYWOOD
• GAYT PLAC IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2020

LOS ANGEL GAY DISTRICT: WT HOLLYWOOD (WEHO)

The year is 1981, and if you were a homosexual man (mostly whe) lookg for some fun the unrporated part of Los Angel County unofficially known as Wt Hollywood, then you had plenty to choose om a long list of nightlife gay bars, diss, rtrants, bathho and gay-owned bs terg to the gay-gay-gay! The image you see above, shared by WeHo history buff Mark Donnell, shows a double spread ad taken om a Data Boy Magaze 1981, which was one of the gay rags that uld be found lol WeHo bs stacked next to an issue of Frontiers Magaze.

Mother Lo was upgrad and looks very different than s origal 80s versn, but for the most part has managed to stay Mother were the gay-owned clothg stor, rtrants and retail spac:The Sports Locker was suated at 8853 Santa Moni Boulevard.

That retail space is the current home to Block Party WeHo, known for phg overly priced slut gear and tacky rabow gay apparel unr the guise that is the biggt gay store the world. It was a gay entertament magaze lnched 1968 by Data-Boy Instant Prs, an early puterized prtg service owned by Sl “Fat Shirley” Suon.

JT HOW GAY IS WT HOLLYWOOD?

Not only that, they’ve each veloped their own inty the Angel is a vast and varied cy, so ’s only to be expected that offers more than jt one gayborhood. It attracts a slightly more alternative scene, and is on the rise wh new rtrants, gay bars, and gay clubs ntug to pop up.

Redle and Prect are also two excellent gay bars Downtown that serve great cktails and put on some pretty entertag shows! Jimmy's Backyard, a short-lived speakeasy tucked away on Cosmo Street Hollywood, opened 1929 and was one of LA's first openly gay bars. Durg the Prohibn era, speakeasi beme a popular avenue for gay-d the “Pansy Craze” between the late 1920s and early 1930s, drag shows (before they had that name) were gag unrground populary.

OP-ED THKS WEHO’S BOYSTOWN IS GOG MASTREAM, AND LOSG ITS GAY CHARACTER

Harassment durg the Deprsn and beyondIt wasn’t jt booze that uld get you arrted durg prohibn — gay spac were also illegal. “The LAPD was jt mercils their raids of gay bars, ” acrdg to Lillian Farman, LGBTQ historian and a -thor of the book “Gay L. Government officials began to view the populary of “impersonator” (drag) revu — and by extensn the visibly gay muny — as part of what plunged the cy to bad enomic tim, acrdg to historil someone was nvicted of “masqueradg” (drsg drag), they uld be charged a fe or required to serve a 10-day jail stt 1930.

Lbians and gay men flocked there to fd nnectn, live more openly and be the film the silent film era, one of s hight paid actrs, Alla Nazimova, beme a bisexual in by turng a hotel to a sapphic hub. His younger years and owned several gay bars, created yearly addrs books (now known as gay guis) to talog them all — cludg Wt Hollywood.

Known then as Gay Pri Para, marchers on June 28 walked solidary wh simultaneo march other ci to mark the Stonewall Uprisg of 1969. The LAPD chief didn’t hate to remd people that beg gay was still illegal, and the police missn piled on extra perm sts to the pot where the para almost didn’t missn thought the march would bee vlent, so they ially required bonds totalg $1.

100+ GAYBORHOODS, GAY VILLAG, AND GAYTN DTATNS THE USA

The upsle clothg spot, which opened around the early 1960s, largely fed popular gay men’s fashn, wh see-through mh outfs and tight shirts. Forb agreed to stop the discrimatory practic but backtracked wh gay bars didn’t have the problems, but many plac were staed by classism, racism and sexism.

QUARTIER GAY LOS ANGEL : WT HOLLYWOOD (WEHO)

As a Black woman, she purposefully opened a gay Black dis club Arlgton Heights — away om Wt Hollywood bee of discrimatn.

Much like the Castro to San Francis or Boystown to Chigo, this statn, clared an official cy 1984 wh a populatn of jt over 36, 000 as of 2020, is historilly known as one of the untry's most proment and still thrivg "gayborhoods, " wh many inic and endurg LGBTQ nightlife spots along wh recent addns.

Instantly regnizable thanks to artist Chris Burn's Instagram-ready outdoor "Urban Light" streetlamp stallatn, The Los Angel County Mm of Art (LACMA) is the wt ast's largt art mm and bis s ep permanent llectn featur cuttg edge, novative, and multimedia tourg exhibns: openly gay Black artist Keh Wiley's inic portra of Barack Obama and Amy Sherald's Michelle Obama will be on display om November 5, 2021 until January 2, 2022. A WeHo landmark, Circ of Books closed 2019—a Netflix documentary chronicl s storied and very LGBTQ past—but drag queen and gay porn film director Chi Chi LaRue revived the space as Chi Chi LaRue's Circ 2020 as a lorful, upmarket store that clus adult goods, accsori, and well-curated selectns of ffee-table tom and lol art. Hollywood skre gu to the stars sce the 1970s (clients have clud Barbra Streisand, Ellen DeGener, Cher, Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Elton John, David Bowie, and Kylie Mogue), the Denmark-born, openly gay Ole Henriksen opened a namake WeHo Spa off Sunset Boulevard 1998, and remas a favore, discreet, zy oasis for sk and body pamperg treatments wh his excellent le of products today.

GAYT PLAC IN WT VIRGIA FOR 2020

For dancg, visors n look forward to a brand new Santa Moni Boulevard gay megaclub, reportedly, the USA's largt, to open the space formerly occupied by 37-year-old dance club Rage, which closed permanently September 2020. Owner Lance Bass, the former N'Sync member, is also behd the gay sports bar and rtrant Roc's WeHo, which opened 2019 and boasts an illtrated and artifact-filled wall pictg the timele of LGBTQ history on the Wt Coast (a llaboratn wh USC Librari' ONE Archiv Foundatn). A few highlights clu openly gay executive chef St Jon' Mederranean-fluenced vegan rtrant Crossroads Kchen, the stunng rooftop seafood venue Catch L.

Wt Hollywood had more unmarried gay male upl by far than Santa Moni (which had over 150 of them), Beverly Hills (ls than 50), and Culver Cy (ls than 50). Based on the rough timat, only Palm Sprgs, San Francis’s the Castro, and part of San Diego had more married gay upl than Wt Hollywood and the adjacent areas.

I’ve piled a list of the well-known and not-so-well-known US gayborhoods, US gay villag, and *extra* queer-iendly US towns and ci that are ALL worth visg.

45 PRETTY GAY PICTUR OF LA PRI WT HOLLYWOOD

As harmful anti-LGBTQIA legislatn ntually pass the US, ’s important now more than ever to protect and support gayborhoods, LGBTQ-owned bs, and statns that go above and beyond for LGBTQ+ travelers and lols.

GAYT PLAC IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2020

Around 3 years ago, while teachg South Korea, I me out to myself  my journal, a seri of ltle not I wrote over and over “I thk I’m gay. After Egypt, I started tentnally explorg more gayborhoods and gay-iendly statns like Madrid and Barcelona, Spa and Lisbon, Portugal.

I realized I was not fact the only gay on the earth that craved beg surround by gays and rabows and th my missn and this blog post was born. ? USA Gayborhoods, Gay Villag, and *extra* Queer-Friendly Towns and Ci I recently read a book om the early 2000s about the “ath of gayborhoods.