Will WeHo keep street signs that target outdoor gay sex?

Traffic signs all around the idyllic neighborhood in the center of West Hollywood carry an odd warning: “No Turning 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.”

Why?

The signs might be dissuading drivers from criss-crossing these sleepy streets at night with the radio blasting. But their original purpose was to keep out a far different kind of traffic. 

A May 1991 article in the L.A. Times describes it as this:

For years, the area—one block south of Santa Monica Boulevard on Romaine Street between Havenhurst Drive and Harper Avenue—has been notorious for cruising and prostitution. Residents have long complained about men urinating in bushes and having sex in cars parked along the streets, sometimes in broad daylight. Concerns also have been raised over the used condoms and hypodermic needles that are found regularly in neighborhood hedges. The city has tried to resolve the problem in recent years by instituting foot patrols and placing no-turn signs on nearby streets, but no solution has been entirely effective.

In the 30 years since, the LGBTQ+ community has won the right to marry and witnessed the waning of many taboos and attitudes that were once common. 

Gone are the days when a West Hollywood councilmember (Abbe Land) would rush to the defense of her city commissioner (Norma Kemper), who faced calls to resign after she harassed a man she thought was turning tricks on her street in the middle of the day. (She pretended to snap pictures of him and threatened to send them to the police.)

Rigorous prosecution and discrimination of gay activities have fallen out of fashion, at least in WeHo, and today law enforcement officers seldom interfere with the city’s cruising spots except to disperse crowds. Yet while Vaseline Alley is still a 24/7 magnet for horny gays, the neighborhoods nearby no longer seem plagued by the level of scandalous behavior described in the LA Times.

So is now the moment to rid WeHo streets of the “No Turning” signs? Are they an antiquated relic of a discriminatory past?

Silver Lake thought so.

Just this week, L.A. Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Hugo Soto-Martinez celebrated the removal of similar signage in Silver Lake which had been displayed since 1997.

“Los Angeles has a rich history of welcoming the LGBTQIA+ community, but there has also been real and present homophobia— which at times has been inscribed into the city’s physical spaces, as with these no-U-turn signs,” Raman said.

It’s actually kind of shocking that West Hollywood’s City Councilmembers weren’t the first to address this.

The question now is whether removing the signs would send the message that cruising in West Hollywood is OK. 

It might already be legal. The city did after all direct the sheriff last year to stop pursuing similar low-level offenses like public solicitation. 

Regardless, hopes of pumping up WeHo’s progressive bona fides might still get cockblocked by the local sex NIMBYs, whose problem remains as matter-of-fact as it was three decades ago.

Former Commissioner Norma Kemper captured it succinctly: “I don’t want to infringe upon anyone’s rights, but I also don’t want to look outside my window and see people having sex.”