SANTA MONICA BOULEVARD
FLAMING SADDLES
BIKES AND HIKES LA E M P L O Y E E S O N LY
WESTSIDE
At its west end, the boulevard is flanked with unique restaurants, eclectic boutiques, coffee shops, gyms, and bookstores. Here, rainbow flags symbolize the guiding principle on which West Hollywood was built: freedom to be yourself and to live life your own way. The LGBTQ community plays a leading role in the area, culturally and economically.
As home to the most popular gay and lesbian scene in Los Angeles, the west end is famous for its gay nightclubs, frequented by anyone and everyone eager to celebrate diversity and acceptance, along with tasty cocktails, catchy music, and lively entertainment, often served up with a well-executed theme. Patrons at GYM Sports Bar (gymsportsbar.com), for instance, frequent this man’s man
The first community to provide a safe, welcoming environment for gays and lesbians, West Hollywood blazed the trail to uninhibited freedom and equality for the LGBTQ population. Home to a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population that comprises more than a third of its residents, West Hollywood is renowned as the preeminent LGBTQ sanctuary. The city has been a symbol of independence and counterculture since its humble beginnings as a settlement called Sherman, where rough railroad workers enjoyed living outside the jurisdiction of Los Angeles law enforcement in 1896. Without official city status, Sherman continued to sidestep legal authority
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during Prohibition; alcohol flowed freely there at nightclubs such as Sunset Trocadero and Ciro’s, which were popular among movie stars from adjacent Hollywood and Beverly Hills. In 1927, capitalizing on its neighbor’s fame, Sherman renamed itself West Hollywood. Ciro’s again defied the established order in the 1950s, when it hosted the world’s first Sunday afternoon T-dances, at which gay men danced together, though it was illegal. As the gay community embraced the social freedom of the 1960s, their influence spread along Santa Monica Boulevard, prompting residents to nickname the west end of the street “Boys Town.” The closing of Ciro’s (which became The Comedy Store in 1972) spurred gays to open their own nightclubs
and dance bars, and laws prohibiting gays dancing together were repealed in 1975, just in time for disco. In the next decade, a movement in L.A. County to drop rent control laws motivated West Hollywood to incorporate in 1984, which also allowed the city to obtain funding to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was devastating its community. Simultaneously, with nearly 50 percent of its voting population comprised of gay residents, West Hollywood elected the first openly lesbian mayor, Valerie Terrigno. In 1985, West Hollywood blazed the trail as the first place in America to legally recognize same-sex relationships. Ultimately, in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court followed in West Hollywood’s progressive footsteps by legalizing same-sex marriage across the country.
PHOTO: EMPLOYEES ONLY: JOSH TELLES
A GROUNDBREAKING REFUGE
V I S I T W E S T H O L L Y W OO D. CO M
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