{"id":12954,"date":"2024-02-12T08:48:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/main-bvxea6i-tdeoyxfdffv2e.us-3.platformsh.site\/?page_id=12954"},"modified":"2024-03-04T07:56:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T15:56:31","slug":"a-highlight-of-lgbtq-history-of-laguna-beach","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/things-to-do\/lgbtq\/a-highlight-of-lgbtq-history-of-laguna-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long History of LGBTQ+ Advocacy in Laguna Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Long History of LGBTQ+ Advocacy in Laguna Beach<\/h1><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Most of us know that the LGBTQ+ scene in Laguna Beach during the \u201870s was mainly what gave the city it\u2019s reputation of being an LGBTQ+ friendly destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the city\u2019s sordid past with the LGBTQ+ community started many decades before the beaches were heavily sprinkled with gay men during the summer of love.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Southern California film industry discovered in the \u201820s that Laguna Beach made for a great shooting location, and members of these early movie crews were the first gays to arrive and discover the beachside city. By 1927, The South Seas Bar, which was located in the Coast Inn, was designated as a late night place for gay men to meet and spend time together \u2013 that same bar would years later be transformed into the iconic Boom Boom Room. There are both great and not so great moments in the city\u2019s queer history, but at the end of the day, Laguna Beach was and still is a mecca for the LGBTQ+ community, whether as a residence or favorite vacation spot. What follows is a brief look through the chapters that shaped the city into becoming the accepting and open city that it is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1950s were a tough time for queers all across the nation, as President Eisenhower issued an order mandating sexual perversion as grounds for dismissal from Federal employment, including the armed services, which then promoted the hunts for gays within the federal government and beyond. It didn\u2019t take long before Disneyland adopted regulations regarding public dancing, which included a ban on same-sex \u201cshimmying,\u201d which can be mocked now, but back then, was just another way to discourage queers from being open about their sexuality. By the \u201860s things weren\u2019t getting any better, but were on their way to improving due to countless heroes who had finally had enough. Stonewall West, which took place prior to the Stonewall rights in New York, occurred on January 1, 1967, when the LA Police Department raided the Black Cat and New Faces bars in the LA Silver Lake District and many patrons and employees were injured. Days later on the 5th of January, a demonstration was held, organized by the Personal Rights in Defense and Education (PRIDE), which was the start of a queer revolution on the west coast, including in Laguna Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the \u201870s Laguna Beach had earned its reputation as being one of the only places in Orange County where queers were meeting. West Street Beach became the mecca of gay social life, including an unofficial \u201cMayor\u201d of West Beach who held a \u201cGrand Opening\u201d of the beach that took place on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend with a pink ribbon cutting ceremony. During this decade, there were many protests, meetings and discussions held in and around Laguna Beach, discussing the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community. This was also a time when LGBTQ+ organizations were continuing to form and when queers really started to make their presence known, by no longer hiding. This was also a time with the police were still raiding bars in Orange County, mimicking what was going on throughout the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1983, Laguna Outreach was founded for those interested in social issues, and Bob Gentry, who later came out as a gay man, was elected to the Laguna Beach City was established and sponsored by Laguna Outreach. The \u201880s were also a time of crisis in our country, when the AIDS epidemic was at its full force, destroying lives and also, bringing a devastated community, even closer. The Laguna Beach AIDS Task Force was established by the Laguna Beach City Council, which had 16 local representatives, including members of Laguna Outreach. At the end of the \u201880s, Bob Gentry was honored by the OC Human Relations Commission for his work in stopping discrimination regarding AIDS\/HIV in Laguna Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next decade was mainly about visibility and services. Bob Gentry was now an openly gay mayor, who was not only working for all Laguna Beach residents, but also fighting for the LGBTQ+ community, which included passing a domestic partnership ordinance in 1992. The next year, Hagan Place, a home for AIDS patients, was established in the city. And in the spring of \u201894, Laguna Outreach sponsored the first annual \u201cLaguna Pride Weekend,\u201d in an effort to bring the communities gay and non-gay together, and offer support to local businesses. By 1995 though, conservative Republicans gained control of the Laguna Beach City Council and protested the annual \u201cLaguna Pride Festival\u201d by withdrawing their endorsement of the event. The years that followed were met with ups and downs and as the world evolved, so did Laguna Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forwarding to present day, 2017 brought about a resurgence of the importance of the presence of the LGBTQ+ community within Laguna Beach. In early 2017, a group of Laguna Beach businesses and residents gathered, including the Mayor, to discuss how to \u201cbring the gay back.\u201d This group is now known as the Laguna Beach LGBTQ+ Heritage & Culture Committee, which works to ensure that the LGBTQ+ community is honored and celebrated in Laguna Beach. In May of the same year, Mayor Toni Iseman presided over the resolution that the month of June was to be LGBTQ+ Heritage & Culture Month in Laguna Beach\u2026forevermore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course this is just a glimpse at rich history of LGBTQ+ events that took place in and around Laguna Beach, and doesn\u2019t include everything. The good news is that historians have been recording anything and everything LGBTQ+ that took place within Orange County, which includes Laguna Beach, and can be accessed through archives at the University of California Irvine Libraries, both online and in-person. Laguna Beach\u2019s LGBTQ+ history is still being written, and with such an exciting reinvigoration by the local community last year, only great things are to come, like the revival of Laguna Beach Pride Weekend, taking place every year in the spring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Start Exploring More of Laguna Beach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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\"LGBTQ+
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\n LGBTQ+ Travel in Laguna Beach <\/h3>\n <\/div>
\"LGBTQ+
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\n LGBTQ+ Events & Things to Do <\/h3>\n <\/div>
\"Bette
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\n Bette Davis, Hippies and a Pirate Tower \u2013 Visit Laguna\u2019s Past <\/h3>\n <\/div>
\"Food
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\n Food + Fun at SoCal\u2019s Original Gay Beach <\/h3>\n <\/div>
\"The
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\n The Story of Laguna Beach, California <\/h3>\n <\/div>
\"LGBTQ+
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\n LGBTQ+ Itinerary <\/h3>\n <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit With time, things shifted to the 1400 block of South Coast Highway, which was at one time, home to The Coast Inn, Boom Boom Room and other LGBTQ+ establishments. Today, with a shift in tides nationally, and the LGBTQ+ community going more mainstream, the blending of communities coming together and sharing spaces is overtaking the necessity for niche neighborhoods or areas, although Laguna Beach is still home to Main Street Bar & Cabaret, it\u2019s lone ranger all-welcoming nightclub and of course West Street Beach, the unofficial \u201cgay beach\u201d.\u00a0 Laguna Beach\u2019s long history of being [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14178,"parent":6380,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-dark-header","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12954","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12954"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14186,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12954\/revisions\/14186"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}