The Black Cat Tavern was a gay bar at 3909 W Sunset Boulevard Los Angel (which, acrdg to my Google maps, is now a rtrant lled Black Cat so that's awome). It had been around for about five mut before got raid by the LAPD. I mean, was tablished November of 1966…
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.
WT HOLLYWOOD’S HISTORIC GAY NIGHTCLUB THE ABBEY IS UP FOR SALE
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. 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.