Laguna Beach, Gay Cy Gui and Gayborhoods

Contents:

• THE RISE AND FALL OF LAGUNA BEACH, A GAY CALIFORNIA HOTSPOT
• LAGUNA BEACH GAY LIFE EBBS AWAY : AIDS: LONGTIME HAVEN FOR HOMOSEXUALS NOW HAS THE NATN’S HIGHT RATE OF THE DREAD DISEASE.
• HANSEN: GAY LAGUNA FAS AWAY
• LAST VTAGE GAY BAR LAGUNA BEACH IS CLOSG – ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
• BT GAY BARS NEAR LAGUNA BEACH, CA 92651
• FOOD + FUN AT SOCAL’S ORIGAL GAY BEACH

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

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. 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. 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.

LAGUNA BEACH GAY LIFE EBBS AWAY : AIDS: LONGTIME HAVEN FOR HOMOSEXUALS NOW HAS THE NATN’S HIGHT RATE OF THE DREAD DISEASE.

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. 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. 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.

HANSEN: GAY LAGUNA FAS AWAY

“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.

LAST VTAGE GAY BAR LAGUNA BEACH IS CLOSG – ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Durg his last term on the cy uncil, Gentry says he was ntacted by the cy uncils of Wt Hollywood and Cathedral Cy to put together an ternatnal outreach for gay tourists. This refal to urt LGBTQ visors—and, turn, new rints—and a arth of affordable hog helped Laguna Beach morph to another versn of Newport Beach, s tony, antiseptic, and unabashedly homogeneo neighbor cy to the north. “The town uld’ve been such a shg star, enomilly and culturally, if had jt picked up on what had gog and not been fearful of stereotyp of the gay muny, ” Gentry says.

The Orange County native, who left for New York Cy and Boston durg his 20s and 30s, was dismayed to return to a town that he once thought of as a gay-iendly space and fd much ls so. Tebbutt formed the Laguna Beach LGBTQ Herage and Culture Alliance for lears tn, police officers, and elected officials, who want to help Laguna get some of s gay dollars back while makg sure the town is also a place where everyone feels they belong.

And while this unofficial booster mpaign do help cement Laguna Beach’s reputatn as a queer statn spot, do ltle to help brg gay people back as permanent rints. Thankfully the world has evolved and although gay bars will always be need, wanted and loved, ’s now not unnscnable for everyone, no matter of who they love, to party, drk and enjoy the night together, unr the same roof.

BT GAY BARS NEAR LAGUNA BEACH, CA 92651

There was a time when Laguna Beach had s staple gay bars, which were a much need prence durg their reign of the beach cy, and s very possible that the future, more will make their way back to Laguna Beach, but until then, the cy is filled wh optns galore.

In 1926, a liquor store and a hardware store opened on the rner of Pearl Street and Pacific Coast Highway, and 1946 beme s current namake The Seahorse, which was actually Laguna Beach’s first gay bar. For many years, operated as a secret waterg hole for the lol gay muny until was eventually turned back to retail as Laguna Auto Parts…and now ’s back to s origal roots.

For those lookg for a more romantic way to start the eveng, head to Wt Street Beach, Laguna's "gay beach" where you n s on the sand and take the sunset. Gay bars around the natn have been disappearg, a trend attributed to greater social acceptance of gays, changg enomic forc and evolvg technology.

FOOD + FUN AT SOCAL’S ORIGAL GAY BEACH

Skyrocketg real tate pric have kept young gays out of the cy and led a number of tablished gay rints to sh out and move to other ci, such as Palm Sprgs.

Laguna Beach was once spoken of the same breath as Wt Hollywood, Fire Island and Provcetown, if a miature versn of those more famo gay enclav.

Wh walkg distance of the spot was a one-block district that boasted a handful of gay bars and rtrants – Ltle Shrimp (which later beme Woody’s); Coast Inn, which hoed the legendary Boom Boom Room; and Ma Street Bar & Cabaret, which also went by Bounce. “They were the first mon public spac for the gay muny, ” said Lus Hilrbrand, a UCI profsor of film and media studi who has wrten about the gay rights movement. Perhaps the heyday of Laguna Beach’s gay scene was already long gone by the time the storied Boom Boom Room closed 2007 after a Beverly Hills billnaire bought the Coast Inn wh plans – never rried out – to turn to an upsle boutique hotel.