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.