West Hollywood is one of the best-known LGBT (mostly G) enclaves in the country, but queer Los Angeles isn’t limited to that gayborhood. Significant events in area LGBT history also took place in Long Beach, Hollywood and Silver Lake.
In Silver Lake, a New Year’s police raid on the Black Cat galvanized the community. That sparked a protest against police mistreatment of LGBT people in 1967—two years before the Stonewall uprising in New York. And it is at the Black Cat (where a new business now uses the old name) that Chris Cruse convened an initial meeting to discuss the idea of a festival paying homage to the area’s history.
“I just feel a lot of love for this area,” said Cruse, who is now working to make that event a reality this year.
The event will likely kick off with a night or two of events in area venues, then wrap up with a one-day Sunday street fair with live speakers and entertainment.
“The genesis of this event was simply to focus on the historical importance of Silver Lake to the LGBTQ community in Los Angeles (and the U.S.), and celebrate many of the LGBTQ artists who live and work in the neighborhood,” Cruse said via e-mail. He envisions “transform[ing] Silver Lake back to a time when there was a higher concentration of gay-owned/ operated/ frequented establishments” such as bookstores, bars and artist groups.
The organizers—who reportedly include promoters tied to events like A Club Called Rhonda and Booby Trap—have not released details about the event. Cruse has said they’re looking at early September, potentially Labor Day weekend, but he said that is not confirmed. Cruse initially referred to the event as Queerfest but followed up to say that the event’s name, too, is unconfirmed, as are participating venues and the website domain name.
Organizers have reportedly applied for permits from the city of Los Angeles and plan to make a public announcement about the festival soon.
Many years ago, when Silver Lake was considered the alternative gay neighborhood – more like San Francisco than West Hollywood – there was the Sunset Junction Street Festival. It was a very gay event for many years, but it got co-opted into a more generic, straight, family-oriented and Latino-flavored event. I think it eventually died as the organizers didn’t have the funds to secure stuff like insurance, clean up, permits, etc.
It will be interesting to see what the organizers of this “Queerfest” can do.