A Queer History of Loring Park

Introduction to Landscape Architecture History

Instructor: Pat Nunnelly Fall 2021

I created A Queer History of Loring Park for our final project in Landscape Architecture History, which tasked the class with choosing a local site and examining the design and cultural significance of the place.

Loring Park has a long history of connection to queer communities, ranging from a history of queer businesses in the neighborhood, to cruising, to homophobic violence. Loring Park’s queer history is often forgotten. We know that Pride is there, but we don’t necessarily know why. In this zine I compiled primary resources of photographs and oral histories to highlight queer stories of place. Shown here are two spreads from the zine.

RUBY'S CAFE: "THE PLACE

THE LORING PARk GAYBORHOOD

Early queer public life in Minneapolis had been concentrated in the Gateway District in downtown. Following the Urban Renewal movement of the late 1950's and the subsequent shuttering of the Gateway District, queer public life and queer people scattered to different neighborhoods of the Twin Cities, including the Grand Avenue area of Saint Paul, and Powderhorn and Loring Park in Minneapolis.

Queer life became prominent in the Loring Park neighborhood in the 1960's and peaked in the 1980's and 90's. Dennis E. Miller, a former resident of Loring Park, discusses the factors that influenced the queerness of the neighborhood in an oral history with the University of Minnesota, citing the low rents of the neighborhood, proximity to downtown, and closeness to Loring Park as driving factors of the significant queer population of the area.

The Loring Park neighborhood became a hub of queer business and community space around this time. Businesses like Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, The 19 Bar, Ruby's Cafe, and others. Of these businesses, many have closed since the peak of the queer population of the area.

Queer Loring Park

Loring Park became a gathering space for members of the queer community, and in particular gay men, during the height of the Loring Park gayborhood. Loring Park became a popular space for cruising, particularly since the layout of the park made car cruising possible--a necessity in Minnesota winters.

Because of the known connection to queer community, Loring Park also became a dangerous place for queer people during the rise of "Gay Bashings" in Minneapolis. It became a space both associated with queer community and queer trauma, and queer communities responded to the tensions and dangers of the space. Attempts to criminalize cruising during the era also threatened the safety of queer users of the park.

--MARY BAHNEMAN,

Jean Tretter speaks of the danger of the park, saying: " There were gay gangs that came together to patrol the parks to keep gays from getting beat up. They had names like Pink Panthers, and the Third World Gays. I guess that was a '70s type of name.

The Third World Gays ended up disbanding after they beat up a couple cops that were trying to beat up gay people ".