City council members gathered this week in an upscale LA neighborhood to remove “No U-turn” signs that they said were part of the area’s homophobic history.
In 1997 there were signs with messages like: ‘No cruising. No U-turns. Midnight to 6 a.m. messages were posted throughout the Silver Lake neighborhood in an effort to curtail contact between gay men.
On Monday, city leaders were joined by local leaders LGBTQ+ individuals as they removed the last few “No U-Turn” and “No Cruising” signs.
In a statement, LA Councilmember Nithya Raman, who spearheaded the effort, said: “Los Angeles has a rich history of welcoming the LGBTQIA+ community, but there is also real and present homophobia, sometimes embedded in the physical spaces of the city, such as with these ‘no-U-turn’ signs.”
When the signs were posted in the late 1990s, gay men had to rely on printed guidebooks that listed the names of public places where they could connect with other queer individuals, sometimes for love and sex.
City council members gathered in an upscale LA neighborhood this week to remove “No U-turn” signs that they said were part of the area’s homophobic history
Along with several other locations, Silver Lake and West Hollywood, where similar signs were placed and removed, loomed large in the gay community.
After the signs were removed, Councilman Higo Soto-Martinez wrote on X.com:
“This kind of homophobia persisted 30 years after the Black Cat protests in Silver Lake,” he said, referring to one of the first examples in the U.S. of a public protest against police violence against LGBT people.
Councilman Soto-Martinez continued, “The physical remnants of that bigotry remained in our streets until yesterday, when we joined @nithyavraman to finally remove the signs.”
On Monday, city leaders were joined by local LGBTQ+ individuals as they removed the last few “No U-Turn” and “No Cruising” signs
The LA timesreported, however, that some people present at the sign removal were stunned and surprised to learn about the neighborhood’s homophobic past, “especially since the neighborhood was simultaneously a stronghold of gay resistance and resilience.”
Pickle, West Hollywood’s inaugural drag queen laureate, who spoke at the removal ceremony, said she was unfamiliar with the signs.
‘I didn’t know those signals and would never have found it [them].’
Pickle added that the signals were an “insidious” form of discrimination that he and other people “had no context for.”
Maebe A. Girl, a Silver Lake councilwoman and the first drag queen elected to public office in the U.S., made similar comments and spoke about her ignorance of the signs.
“I was also surprised that these U-turn signs were still up, and at first glance they look a little… ‘Oh, okay, it’s just a U-turn sign,'” Girl said.
In 1997 there were signs with messages like: ‘No cruising. No U-turns. Midnight to 6 a.m. posts were posted throughout the Silver Lake neighborhood in an effort to curtail contact between gay men
She continued, “But if you learn the history of [the signs]do you realize that these were used to profile gays.’
“It’s so important that we get these removed,” Girl added.
After a successful vote by the Silver Lake Council, the first ‘No Cruising’ signs were removed in 2011.
The remaining ‘No U-turn’ and other related signs were left standing and almost forgotten.
Donovan Daughtry, a Silver Lake resident, then alerted the City Council to the issue after listening to a podcast about the neighborhood’s gay history.
While pleased with the outcome, Councilmember Soto-Martinez believes more needs to be done to protect places like this.
Maebe A. Girl, a Silver Lake council member and the first drag queen elected to public office in the U.S., spoke at the ceremony
“I completely agree that we need to do more to protect these spaces,” he said, before adding: “It’s not just unique to Los Angeles… we’re all facing the same, very serious challenges .’
Albert LeBarron, who operates a gay bar in the area, reflected on the old complaints against gays in the area.
“People driving around all night with the radios playing Madonna probably wasn’t conducive to a quiet neighborhood like Silver Lake, and the noise in the bars sometimes spilled outside,” he told the paper. LA times.
“But honestly, a lot of us are people who walk or drive or hang out because we have nowhere else to go.”
