In other countries, “simply being gay is illegal,” resident Dan Berkowitz said a council meeting.
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Still, some say the city should be doing more for gay rights. In February, gay bar The Abbey banned “every legislator in any state that votes for bills to allow for discrimination against LGBT people” and gave such legislators’ head shots to security guards. Local businesses have drawn widespread attention for taking political stands on LGBT issues. There are rainbow-colored crosswalks on Santa Monica Boulevard and rainbow flags in traffic medians. West Hollywood officials say they have no intention of shying away from the city’s gay history. There also was a split over LGBT bars and neighborhoods, with 56% saying it was important to maintain them and 41% saying they will become less essential. Of the adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center, 49% said they should pursue equality while maintaining a distinct culture 49% said they should “become part of mainstream culture and institutions like marriage.” And with the Internet they can find friends anywhere.Ī survey of LGBT Americans last year found they were split on how much they should assimilate into the broader culture. Gary Gates, a researcher at UCLA’s Williams Institute, which studies LGBT demographics, said people are more comfortable being out of the closet wherever they live, even outside gay neighborhoods. The same transition is underway in other historic gay districts like the Castro in San Francisco, Chelsea in New York and Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle. “You can still wear drag or leather yourself out, but you can also marry somebody and have children or you can serve as a Marine.” “You can still have some of the craziness of what West Hollywood was always about, the late-night parties and good times on Santa Monica Boulevard,” he said. There’s still the wild bar scene, but now gay residents can also get married and raise kids in the city. The young city government turned its attention to battling the disease and it was one of the first cities in the nation to create an AIDS educational campaign.ĭuran says West Hollywood, which turns 30 this year, has matured along with the gay experience and become more diverse. “Today we rarely see hate crimes in West Hollywood.”īack then, the city was losing scores of young men to the AIDS epidemic. Even in West Hollywood, he had gay slurs screamed at him and rocks and bottles thrown from cars passing on Santa Monica Boulevard. “The idea that there was a community that was embracing the LGBT community, that was something very novel.”Ĭouncilman Duran moved to West Hollywood in 1990 after his Anaheim law firm, known for handling gay rights cases, had a swastika sticker slapped on its business sign with the words “Trash ‘em, Smash’em, Make’em Die.” He and his colleagues kept a thick file of hate mail, and the back porch of his Santa Ana home was set on fire. “When we first became a city, there were only a handful of gay and lesbian elected officials in the world,” said John Heilman, who has been on the City Council since incorporation. The city’s first mayor, a lesbian, personally removed the infamous sign in the tavern Barney’s Beanery that read “Fagots Stay Out.” One of the first acts of its City Council, the first in the nation with a gay majority, was an ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals. West Hollywood grabbed headlines around the world when it was incorporated, with activists declaring it “America’s first gay city.”
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But these days, there are complaints that the parade has become more about corporate sponsorship and partying than about the civil rights message. The parade started as a political statement about gay pride and unity.
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Pride celebration, when Santa Monica Boulevard is taken over by rainbow-colored floats and wild costumes. There also has been much debate about the annual L.A. “Boystown failed … because the lesbian community, the female community and people who are not LGBT felt excluded, which is understandable,” said Robert Gamboa, co-chair of the city’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board. But city leaders balked at the idea, saying they felt the name was too narrow. Some residents and merchants wanted to officially designate the area - the site of numerous gay rights protests and AIDS vigils - as “Boystown,” long a colloquial reference to the nightlife scene there. He was a vocal critic when it was taken down.Īnother flashpoint is the strip of gay bars along Santa Monica Boulevard. Block pushed to have the city fly the gay pride flag - raised in June to mark Pride Month and the legalization of gay marriage in California - year-round.