SD Confintial: Insi a Lost Gay Past of ‘Fairy Div,’ Raids and a Fallen Admiral | Voice of San Diego

Contents:

• SD CONFINTIAL: INSI A LOST GAY PAST OF ‘FAIRY DIV,’ RAIDS AND A FALLEN ADMIRAL
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
• NAVY PUNISH 13 SAILORS GAY INQUIRY : INVTIGATN: FORTY MORE AT JAPANE BASE, CLUDG OFFICERS, ARE TARGETS OF THE PROBE. A HOMOSEXUAL SUPPORT GROUP LLS THE SE A WCH HUNT.
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• THE SWALLOW, A NEW GAY BAR, OPENS WHE CENTER, AND A BIG-NAME CHEF TO INTERBAY
• HELLO SAILOR!: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY LIFE AT SEA 1ST EDN
• THE BT GAY BARS EUROPE

SD CONFINTIAL: INSI A LOST GAY PAST OF ‘FAIRY DIV,’ RAIDS AND A FALLEN ADMIRAL

In 1952, the thors of an overheated btseller lled “USA Confintial” promised to blow the lid off the natn’s praved triumvirate of Communists, labor unns and gays. San Diego, a Navy town on the rise, sent their gaydar to overdrive.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS

But gays and lbians mid-century San Diego did fd plenty to celebrate — and plenty to fear. As the annual LGBT pri para and ftival approach this weekend, here are five surprisg facts about San Diego’s gay world before the Stonewall uprisg, the seri of New York Cy protts 1969 that birthed the morn fight for LGBT rights.

Gay Bars Didn’t Beg Hillcrt. The first gay bars the cy set up shop downtown, not Hillcrt.

“USA Confintial” claims there were dozens of gay bars the cy, “packed every night. ” But some downtown bars were fely iendly to gay sailors.

NAVY PUNISH 13 SAILORS GAY INQUIRY : INVTIGATN: FORTY MORE AT JAPANE BASE, CLUDG OFFICERS, ARE TARGETS OF THE PROBE. A HOMOSEXUAL SUPPORT GROUP LLS THE SE A WCH HUNT.

The well-rpected 1990 book “Comg Out Unr Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women World War II” says so-lled “rough bars” San Diego, like Blue Jacket and Bradley’s, “tered to enlisted men of many rac, gay civilians and ‘tra’ (enlisted men and workg-class civilian men willg to go wh gay men). World War II Drew Gays Here. San Diego’s populatn explod durg and after World War II, and the cy’s gay populatn — both men and women — grew wh the fense dtry boom.

In “Comg Out Unr Fire, ” a veteran scrib gog to yeoman school at the San Diego Naval Trag Statn and fdg mararie wh other gay sailors.

Not that gays were wele the ary. Some gay men and lbians weren’t tected, or at least weren’t prosecuted, and ntued to serve. Whatever the se, many of them chose to stay San Diego, part of a wave of service members who transformed ci like San Francis, New York Cy and Los Angel to even bigger hot spots of gay culture.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

“World War II may be nsired the birth moment of morn gay and lbian history, ” wre two historians the new troductn to “Comg Out Unr Fire. Gay Probe Brought Down a Navy Admiral. All bee they thought he might be gay.

As thor Lillian Farman chronicl her 2015 book “The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle, ” big nam the lol civic world spoke Hooper’s fense at his urt martial, and a psychiatrist said he wasn’t gay. His mother, who lived at the Coronado hoe, ttified that she agreed: not gay.

THE SWALLOW, A NEW GAY BAR, OPENS WHE CENTER, AND A BIG-NAME CHEF TO INTERBAY

David Petras sex sndal, a law profsor told Stars and Strip that the se “hnted gay ary retire for s. Cops Targeted Gays S. It’s not clear whether San Diego ps voted much time to raidg gay bars as they did other ci across the U.

But an unintified man told the San Diego Rear 1999 that an timated 30-50 gay bars me and went downtown, often fallg victim to vice raids.

In 1951, a surprisg state Supreme Court cisn allowed gay bars to legally exist, although they had to be reful about “illegal or immoral nduct. In 1950s Los Angel, the owner of a gay bar adored her patrons so much that she even wrote a recently redisvered book about them. The Brass Rail: ‘Catalyst’ for Gay Hillcrt?

HELLO SAILOR!: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY LIFE AT SEA 1ST EDN

Early gay bars San Diego were flat-out div. “The drks were watered down, and the plac were not attractive, ” said Frank Nobiletti, a historian of gay San Diego, a 2011 terview wh me for KPBS. But, Noblietti said, the Brass Rail — San Diego’s most well-known gay bar — brought actual refement to gay hangouts.

THE BT GAY BARS EUROPE

The Brass Rail opened downtown the 1930s and later attracted a gay clientele at s first lotn at Sixth and B. In the 1999 Rear story, a man named Lou Arko relled that the Brass Rail was a gay bar, at least the evengs, when he bought 1957.