The Abbey, the Legendary Wt Hollywood Gay Bar, Is For Sale

history of gay bars in los angeles

Back the pre-ter days of the early seventi, LA was flh wh gay bars and nightclubs (assiatn ntu to fell LGBT gatherg plac). Queerty took a look at about a dozen vtage...

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A HISTORY OF L.A.’S GAY BAR SCENE, TOLD MATCHBOOKS

A survey of 200 matchbooks om a bygone era of L.A.'s gay bar scene at the downtown Central Library. * history of gay bars in los angeles *

Gay bars and sex clubs, most of them now closed. -based queer artist who was a regular at a number of the spots worked briefly as a barback at Cuffs, a major gay hangout of the recent “was credibly dark and super cisey, ” Jony rells.

“As Silver Lake — and the whole landspe of gay Hollywood and the east si — changed so much I always had this ia my head of turng the place back to Cuffs for one night, ” he says. The early ’90s, there were more than a dozen [gay bars] on the east si. ”The closg of many east-si gay bars n be blamed, part, on gentrifitn’s effect on rents.

It also n be argued that the ongog expansn of jt what queerns n mean uld have ma a segment of gay bars, which thrived a sort of self-intified exclivy, obsolete. “I’m not one of them, ” Jony says, “but a lot of gay men my age and a generatn olr like to talk about the days of male-only spac and what that meant to them. ” Jony is pleased that anyone who intifi as male — trans men, for example — are now more wele at gay bars than they were the past.

A LOOK BACK AT HOLLYWOOD’S UNRGROUND GAY CLUB CULTURE OF THE 1970S

* history of gay bars in los angeles *

A third factor the shrkg number of gay bars L. ’s gay bar scene was headier, wilr and perhaps more excgly illic. The monstratn that’s memorated by the plaque stemmed om police raids that took place on New Year’s Eve 1967 at The Black Cat and other gay bars the area.

ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archive | Photo: ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archive. ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archive.

Loted on the mp of the Universy of Southern California (USC), the ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archive is the world's largt rearch library dited to honor and archive LGBTQ+ history. The two-story mm serv as a time psule for historic years of queer culture, and also functns as LA's Downtown gay muny center—hostg exhibns, art shows and cematic screengs for both the USC stunt populatn and Los Angel at large. The Mattache Steps | Photo: ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archiv, Facebook.

GAY BARS OF LA: THEN AND NOW

The bt gay bar and club optns L.A., om flirty Wt Hollywood stutns to hip Silver Lake alternativ, pl bars Venice and the Valley. * history of gay bars in los angeles *

In the summer of 1948, gay activist Harry Hay clanstely began a group lled "Bachelors Anonymo" a private Silver Lake rince at 2328 Cove Ave. By 1950, the llective of men had bee Ameri's first official gay anizatn, the Mattache Society.

Mattache was spiratnal as a major force the gay liberatn movement - not only Los Angel, but throughout the untry. It's the unofficial gay beach of Los Angel, but one vis to Will Rogers State Beach will prove the sandy lole is officially fun the sun.

THE BT GAY BARS AND CLUBS LOS ANGEL

Playfully known as "Gger Rogers Beach, " Will Rogers wel hard bodi to play volleyball and mature men to relax and get a tan - gays of all shap and siz have been wele here sce the 1950s.

LA’s first trib that habed the area, the Tongva, believed gay marriag, transgenr liftyl and that homosexualy was termed utero. The Tongva celebrated homosexuals as “two spired” people and thought of them more as gifted than as outsts. If you don’t know what that is, watch the acclaimed 2008 movie Milk, starrg Sean Penn an Osr-wng performance as gay rights activist and polician, Harvey Milk.

Opened 1923, the landmark Millennium Biltmore Hotel hosted a very gay-iendly bar through both World Wars and was the se of an early tone gay rights advancement. In 1971, the Biltmore hosted the Internatnal Psychologists & Psychiatrists nference, which was gog to clare electroshock therapy as the “cure” for homosexualy.

THE ABBEY, THE LEGENDARY WT HOLLYWOOD GAY BAR, IS FOR SALE

The meetg was dispted by the Gay Liberatn Front, which effectively forced one of the first dialogu between mental health profsnals and the gay muny. Wh two years of that cint, “homosexualy” was removed as a mental disorr after s of stigma and official misclassifitn.

Jewel’s was the first exclively gay and lbian dis for Ain-Amerins the untry. The Village is more than a place where gays turn for legal, fancial and tnal assistance—'s a place where they go to be entertaed.

WEHO'S INIC GAY BAR AND NIGHTCLUB, THE ABBEY, IS FOR SALE

Found 1982, the Celebratn Theatre is the longt nsistently-producg gay and lbian theatre the Uned Stat.

The work here is not only gay, 's five-star! The Factory was transformed aga 1974 when beme the legendary gay distheque, Stud One. Wt Hollywood has long been the rabow-draped pal of the gay muny Los Angel, but an article for KCET, cy planner Jam Rojas scrib the diverse and somewhat unr-the-radar gay dis circu of 1970s Hollywood.

The popular dis formed rponse to prejudice wh the gay muny, as one of s founrs told LA Weekly 2015. He scrib the rtrant and popular pickup spot as exemplifyg the, "quiet world of mastream gay whe culture. " In Lillian Farman and Stuart Timmons’s Gay LA, the thors scribe how rtrant staff ed to splash the bathroom floors wh ammonia—the smell enuragg patrons not to lger longer than necsary.

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

[KCET] Developers Will Save Parts of Historic Circ Dis But Raze Everythg Else [Curbed LA] Mappg Los Angel's Groundbreakg Role LGBT History [Curbed LA] The Past and Future of Three of LA's Historic But Threatened Gay Nightclubs [Curbed LA]. When we thk of LGBT culture and the movement for gay rights Los Angel, there's a tenncy to thk first of Wt Hollywood. But LA's rich gay history touch the entire cy, om Endale (now Silver Lake/Echo Park) to Huntgton Park to "Gger Rogers" Beach.

Below is a map of 14 of the most important lotns the fight for gay rights LA. This cint, though relatively small size, is often nsired by historians to be the first morn uprisg agast police treatment of gay people. John Rechy, a noted chronicler of gay LA, wrote his book Cy of Night that this lotn of the Cooper doughnut cha on Ma Street was the se of a 1959 uprisg of transgenr women and street htlers.

The event has also been tailed the 2009 book Gay L. Rechy, who was prent the doughnut shop on the night May 1959 when the rt took place, not that at this time, was not unmon for police to arrt members of the gay populace simply for ngregatg or beg a bar that was beg raid.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* HISTORY OF GAY BARS IN LOS ANGELES

A look back at Hollywood’s unrground gay club culture of the 1970s - Curbed LA .

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