To many a Californian, Los Angeles and San Francisco exist in perpetual rivalry. Los Angeles is nouveau glitz to San Francisco’s substance. Or San Francisco is the radical metropolis to L.A.’s more mainstream moderation. For gay and lesbian Americans, both cities have been destinations for decades. And yet what Los Angeles and San Francisco have offered gay Americans—and what they have allowed—have been strikingly different.

Join us for an exploration of the gay and lesbian past of California’s great urban rivals. Historians Nan Alamilla Boyd and Daniel Hurewitz, as well as demographer Gary Gates, visit Zócalo to discuss the long history of gay activities in the two cities. What corners of each city seemed amenable to a gay presence? What factors shaped acceptance or repression? The panelists will also examine the policing of gay men and women—the different tactics and approaches used in each city—and the different impact that those policies had. And because California gave birth to the national gay rights movement, the panel will explore the emergence of a gay political constituency within both cities and the country as a whole, trying to understand how and why it was California came to play such a central role.

(This event is made possible, in part, by a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation of Los Angeles.)