Gay bar laguna beach california

Nevertheless, the military attracted people who desired a safe, queer space, and some of those people became fans of the Boom Boom Room. Lost LA. A People's Guide to Orange County. This space was a community center. In , when the Coast Inn was sold to a new owner and slated for bulldozing, conservative gay activist Fred Karger led community opposition that kept the Boom Boom Room open another year.

The game’s caller – a redhead drag queen named Endora – fussed. Watch SoCal Matters. wolfyy’s Laguna Beach gay travel guide to hotels & where to stay, things to do, the gay beach, & local LGBT life. Artists from Laguna Beach, vacationers from Hollywood and beyond, as well as marines from the nearby bases all made this a center of gay nightlife.

See More. With time, things shifted to the block of South Coast Highway, which was at one time, home to The Coast Inn, Boom Boom Room and other LGBTQ+ establishments. Techno music chugged; strobe lights blinked. The bar at the Coast Inn was constructed in and, by the s, had become a haven for gay and lesbian guests, making it one of the oldest gay bars in the western United States.

The Boom Boom Room was famed for its disco dancing in the s as well as for the cabaret singing of Mexican American chanteuse and Anaheim native Rudy de la Mor. In , President Eisenhower had declared homosexuals a threat to national security because he perceived gay people to be vulnerable to blackmail, in a policy that became known as the " Lavender Scare ," paralleling the "Red Scare" of communism.

Watch Now. PBS Passport. The following series of stories explore how the Cold War shaped Orange County in unexpected ways. Within walking distance of the spot was a one-block district that boasted a handful of gay bars and restaurants – Little Shrimp (which later became Woody’s); Coast Inn, which housed the.

Rising property values, an aging and gentrifying population and perhaps the greater integration of gay life meant that other gay bars have also recently shuttered across Orange County. It was bingo night at Main Street Bar & Cabaret, Laguna Beach’s last gay club. At the Boom Boom Room in the s, Michael Martenay built a memorial garden to be the final resting place for the ashes of more than 50 men who died during the AIDS epidemic.

Support Provided By. Best Gay Bars in Laguna Beach, CA - Tin Lizzie Saloon, Strut Bar & Club, The Silver Fox, Men's Room Bar, The Boulevard, Artesia Bar, WTF Events, The Menagerie, Flux Bar, For decades, Laguna Beach had a large gay bar on Main Beach and later the Boom Boom Room at the Coast Inn.

Luckily a gay man owns our much smaller and only remaining gay bar, the Bounce, and has made recent changes with more improvements coming. A wholesome getaway for gay travelers, Laguna Beach is famous for its picturesque coastlines, upscale California vibes, and for being the filming location of nostalgia-inducing TV shows from the s like The OC and MTV’s Laguna Beach.

Gay service members could not safely express themselves publicly until , when President Obama repealed Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Donate and Start Watching. The Local Favorite Bounce is the last remaining gay bar in a changing Laguna Beach, once the proud out refuge for the county's LGBT community (a quick toast to the dearly departed Boom.

In the s, Laguna’s Main Beach was home to two famous beachfront gay bars, Dante’s and Barefoot, making it the epicenter of the city’s gay culture. Explore some of the spaces in Orange County shaped by the Cold War. Click on the starred map points to read more in-depth stories.