Black Cat Tavern: Why Is the Monument of a Historic LA Gay Bar Covered Shake Shack Signs? | Them

Contents:

• WHY IS THE MONUMENT OF A HISTORIC LA GAY BAR COVERED SHAKE SHACK SIGNS?
• WT HOLLYWOOD’S HISTORIC GAY NIGHTCLUB THE ABBEY IS UP FOR SALE

WHY IS THE MONUMENT OF A HISTORIC LA GAY BAR COVERED SHAKE SHACK SIGNS?

Today, peers out om above the kd of gastropub where you n orr a $16 cktail, easily ftg wh this gentrifyg part of Sunset Boulevard, once known as a workg-class Lato neighborhood and gay enclave. Fifty-five years ago, though, photographs ptured a different Black Cat, a gay bar that spired civilians to gather unr those large fele ey and prott the unfair treatment of LGBTQ people. They anchor the gay bar not only as a place that once sndalized society wh the tenrns patrons showed one another, but also as a se of polil stggle.

Police chased two men down the street to New Fac, another popular gay bar, and beat the owner, a woman named Lee Roy. The New Year’s raid on the Black Cat me at a time when every state the untry had anti-sodomy laws and on the heels of anti-gay McCarthyism known as the Lavenr Sre, a wch hunt that had reverberatns the upper echelons of the natn—Print Lyndon B. Gay Angelenos’ anger and tratn toward the system had already been reachg a breakg pot.

WT HOLLYWOOD’S HISTORIC GAY NIGHTCLUB THE ABBEY IS UP FOR SALE

What happened at the Black Cat now spired a new aln of gay rights anizatns, helmed by Personal Rights Defense and Edutn (PRIDE), and other groups facg harassment by police—hippi, anti-war activists, club owners targeted by curfews—to jo together prott two months later, on Febary 11, 1967.

The gatherg of several hundred people marked a watershed moment for the gay rights movement—one of the first tim LGBTQ people ma such a large public mand for regnn, and a promise to ph back agast police harassment and reprsn. The monstratn reamed the stggle as a fight for the civil rights of gay people and other mory muni who faced police abe.