Historic LGBTQIA+ Sites You Need to Visit in LA

From must-see monuments to iconic bars, celebrate Pride by exploring these 10 inspiring places.

While communities inNew York CityandSan Franciscoget most of the ( well - deserve ) spotlight for their study in advancing LGBTQIA+ right wing , the City of Angels has its own report to assure . There ’s nothing like year - round sunshine to really fill in the corporate action calendar !

When you call back of iconic sites , does your brain immediately jump to West Hollywood ? safe instincts , but much like rum people , historic faggot site can show up in diverse and unexpected place . Even in the 1950s , long before Stonewall , the LGBTQIA+ people of this metropolis were hard at work trying to make these thenar tree - line street safer for the generations to add up . The city is rich with locales worth remembering and even literal history in the bod of unparalleled pouf archive — and this list barely scratches the surface .

The Black Cat

Silver LakeIn February 1967 , more than 200 demonstrators peacefully protested police brutality at an LGBTQIA+ bar called The Black Cat Tavern . Police violence had strain a febricity lurch during a raid on New Year ’s sidereal day prompting victims and PRIDE ( Personal Rights in Defense and Education ) to organize the protestation .

In 2008 , the City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission mark The Black Cat as the site of the first document LGBTQIA+ civic rights demonstration in the land . This claim has since been disproven , but it ’s still one of the first demo , the large at the time , and it predates the Stonewall Riots by two geezerhood . possession has changed hands here and there , but it ’s once again called The Black Cat . Now a gastropub , it offers up casual American fare , a well - round drink fare , and a side of history .

The Mattachine Steps

Silver LakeIn 1948 , gay militant Harry Hay concord meetings for a secret group call Bachelor ’s Anonymous out of his Silver Lake home . Two long time afterwards , he found the Mattachine Society , one of the first queer organizations in the nation . Some woman were invited to join the meetings , but the collective primarily let in braw men and trans people were excluded outright .

The organization gain popularity throughout California , but Hay ’s leftist politics led to him being expel in 1953 . Under his leadership , however , some members foundedONE Magazine , the first nationally - diffuse homophile and sapphic magazine . The Mattachine Society became more and more materialistic under its new leadership , but successfully extend throughout the commonwealth .

formally named in 2012 , the Mattachine Steps are a section of the Cove Avenue stairway a block away from Hay ’s home .

Las Memorias AIDS Monument|David McNew/Getty Images News/Getty Images

El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument

Downtown Los AngelesIf you have n’t heard , the City of Los Angeles resides on Tongva acres . Near Union Station , El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument mark the settlement of the city . It also includes a brass recognizing the big village bid Yangna that covered much of downtown Los Angeles .

Like many indigenous communities , the Tongva worship two - spirit citizenry , or those who embody both masculine and womanly traits . They also conducted same - sex marriages and believed gay multitude were # BornThisWay . There are currently only about 2,000 Tongva people still living in Los Angeles .

ONE Archives Gallery and Museum

University Park and West HollywoodThe ONE Archives Gallery and Museum contains what is wide considered the human beings ’s largest collection of LGBTQIA+ ledger , magazines , movies , photo , and prints . The collecting is the marriage of activist Jim Kepner ’s International Gay & Lesbian Archives and the ONE Institute . The X of grand of works traverse personal papers of influential fairy leaders , book , monograph , paintings , drawings , work on paper , photographs , carving , movie reel , video , and audio recording .

The aggregation is so vast that it ’s held in two locations . Most of the odd media rests in the archive at the University of Southern California Libraries while the West Hollywood Gallery shows a rotation of exhibitions . The archive are presently closed for overhaul and the gallery is closed due to COVID-19 restrictions , but most of the collection can be accessedonline .

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Studio One/The Robertson

West HollywoodThe history of this location covers several measure for the metropolis . earlier , the Mitchell Cameras that burgeon forth classics fromCasablancatoThe Apartmentwere design and build here . In the late ’ sixty , it became essentially the Soho House of its time , The Factory , fund by picture sensation and musician .

In 1974 , it enter its most popular era as an infamous homo disco club . While it was a legendary place to be on a Saturday night , it was notoriously difficult for men of color or charwoman to gain entry . Not long after disco music died , the location briefly became a lesbian - own cabaret and then a lesbian bar . Despite being add together to the California Register of Historical Resources , the internet site was pulverize in 2020 to make way for a assorted - use development .

Jewel’s Catch One

Arlington HeightsIf you could n’t get in at Studio One , you could turn the meter around at Jewel ’s Catch One . When it opened in 1973 , it was one of the first Black LGBTQIA+ bars in the area . Facing oversized favouritism from both the police and blank - dominate fairy distance , the city ’s homophile opprobrious community found safe oasis on Catch One ’s dancing story .

Forty - two year of table service to the Black LGBTQIA+ community subsequently , it became the longest - turn tail Black homosexual bar before shutter in 2015 . The club now put up in its position retains the name Catch One as an homage to the locating ’s chronicle .

Las Memorias AIDS Monument

Lincoln ParkThe Wall Las Memorias Project is a residential district health organization founded in 1993 by Richard L. Zaldivar focused on help marginalized community bear upon by AIDS . Thanks to his desire for a communal place of mourning and the work of architect David Angelo and artist Robin Brailsford , the nation ’s first publicly - fund AIDS remembrance stretches across eight wall control panel in Lincoln Park . The roughly 9,000 - satisfying - foot memorial also include a park with benches and an arch meant to encourage sober meditation .

The monument is ground on the Aztec symbol for rebirth : a Quetzalcoatl ophidian . Six panels sport murals showcasing AIDS in the Latinx community while the remaining two carry the public figure of the lives lost to AIDS complications . Anyone can submit a name to the commemoration , but it ’s mostly focused on the Latinx and LGBTQIA+ community . Each year , in December , the new names are unveil in a observance .

Celebration Theatre

HollywoodThe Mattachine Society ’s legacy does n’t end at a magazine . Co - founder and gay rights icon Charles “ Chuck ” Rowland founded Celebration Theatre in 1982 . It ’s currently the nation ’s honest-to-goodness , continuously produce LGBTQIA+ theatre yield works from gay and sapphic playwrights .

From the lustful creation premiere ofNaked Boys Singingto becoming the destination for a Los Angeles premiere for queen plays debuted in New York or London , likeHedwig and the Angry Inch , the theatre is an integral part of rum theatre . It ’s currently know for take aim hits likeThe Producersand reimagining them for a smaller level to great effect as well as highlighting arise queer playwrights . Small but mighty , the theatre has received a uniform litany of awards over the year from the likes of Ovation , NAACP , GLAAD , and many more establishment .

Hollywood & Highland

HollywoodThough the firstPrideparade took place in New York City , the first official one filled the street of Hollywood on June 28 , 1970 . The Christopher Street West Association and a cell of founding members of rummy organizations ( Rev. Bob Humphries of the United States Mission , Morris Kight of the Gay Liberation Front , and Rev. Troy Perry of the Metropolitan Community Church ) act indefatigably to get the first permitted Pride parade in the nation .

The Los Angeles Police Commission inflict fines add $ 1.5 million , but the organiser and ACLU take their case all the way to the Supreme Court . The parade was allowed to proceed from Hollywood Blvd . and Highland Ave . down to Vine St. and back with more than 50,000 spectators in attending . The parade moved to West Hollywood in 1979 , but will be give on Hollywood Blvd . this year .

After the June 2020 police savagery protest in the same surface area , the street invite a fittingly intersectional , lasting mural recital “ All Black Lives Matter . ”

Metropolitan Community Church

University ParkThough the Metropolitan Community Church ( MCC ) begin in Rev. Troy Perry ’s home , it quickly call for a large place . The church was establish on inclusivity and was the first religious organization to conduct same - gender matrimony in 1969 . After bounce around flexible space , its first official Christian church take root near USC in 1971 .

This location also housed former meetings for Temple Beth Chayim Chadashim , which it claims is “ the world ’s first synagogue constitute by and for lesbians and festal men . ” After this locating receive escalating attacks climax in arson , both fold find fresh houses of worship .

The MCC currently boasts about 300 congregations and over 43,000 church follower . Rev. Perry is still an influential activist for queer and civic rights .