Today, with a simple internet search, people in the LGBTQ+ community can find each other and welcoming establishments. But it wasn't always easy.
In the 1960s and '70s, even as gay culture began to gain widespread recognition, especially in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, it was hard to know who was friendly. That's where gay travel guides come in.
They functioned like Green Book guides, designed to make travel safer for blacks, or vacation guides, directing Jews to friendly places. For gay people navigating potentially difficult encounters, these pocket-sized guidebooks include bars, hotels, and restaurants across the United States that are frequented by the gay community or accepted by gay patrons, and more. Churches are listed.
The most famous guidebook of the time was Bob Damron Address Book. These annual guides were published by the eponymous author from Los Angeles, who wrote the first issue in 1964.
Photo of Bob Damron, the man behind the Damron Address Book, on display at a museum in Anaheim
Provided by: atomicredhead.com
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About Damron's address book
In the 1960s, there were several gay travel guides. The most popular and set the standard for this genre are: Damron address book.
Bob Damron was born in Los Angeles in 1928 and later moved to San Francisco, where he opened several gay bars and became a prominent businessman in the community.
He later became known as that guide. What started as a side project was a collection of gay bars he would visit during his travels in and around San Francisco. Damron's first address book was published in his 1964, and Damron added a new list of LGBTQ-friendly spaces each year.
A copy of the Damron Address Book, a 1991 issue of Gayellow Pages, another famous gay travel guide, and tickets to the San Diego Eagle, a gay bar.
Damron's guides, especially in the early years, were distinguished from their contemporaries by one important difference. That is, he focused on visiting all the target locations.
Eric Gonzaba, assistant professor of American studies at California State University, Fullerton, said that allows Damron to connect with owners and patrons and keep new editions of the book as up-to-date as possible. .
Another unique feature of Damron's guide is the character code system.
If a bar listed in the guide has a “B” next to it, the reader will flip to the front of the guide and see that “B” means that that particular bar is frequently “black” or gay African American men. You can see that it shows that you will visit. Other letters indicate whether the place is popular with lesbians (originally indicated by a “G” for “girl”, now updated to “L”), or if the customers are gay. and heterosexual with the symbol “M”. ” Gonzaba said.
“His letters weren't necessarily related to customers,” Gonzaba said. “Sometimes we got very practical information. If you're a gay guy and you want to go to a bar and play pool, he'll put the letters 'PT' in there to mean there's a pool table.” He gave it to me. ”
National project to map gay guides
Entrance to the “Mapping the Gay Guide” exhibition at the Anaheim Museum in Southern California
Provided by: atomicredhead.com
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And that level of detail is the basis of what is now being called the New Digital History Project. gay guide mapping. A joint project between California State University Fullerton and Clemson University. Bob Damron Address Book From 1965 to 2005.
“We're building these online maps to see if we can learn anything about the history of the gay community and the LGBT community in the United States,” Gonzaba said.
Gonzaba said Damron's guide provides excellent context and gives those who study history a better understanding of both these gay spaces and the cities they were in.
Gonzaba, along with project co-director and Clemson University assistant professor of history Amanda Regan, has already mapped out Damron's book. Results published until the 1980s online For public viewing.
Where to see these guide exhibits
Gay guide mapping, Museo In the city of Anaheim. The exhibit, which is on view until June 23, will highlight specific LGBTQ+-friendly spaces in Southern California, including Orange County, Long Beach, and San Diego, that Damron cited.
“I think a lot of people probably know or expect a lot of gay history in Los Angeles,” said Clark Silva, co-curator of the exhibit. “But I think it was good for us to show something like the gay history of our area and the surrounding communities in the Los Angeles suburbs.”
The exhibit begins with the prehistory of gay culture, before the guide was printed. This includes information about police raids and the difficulties of living life in the closet, Silva said.
After the Supreme Court's 1958 decision in One, Inc. v. Olesen granted free speech rights to gay news organizations and publications, travel guides and other LGBTQ+ printed materials proliferated. Damron address book.
Other gay and lesbian printed materials on display at the Mapping the Gay Guide exhibition
But Gonzaba said what people who visit the exhibit will notice is that there is little indication that these gay guides are for the gay community.
Another thing Gonzaba wants people to notice is its size.
“It's designed to be small so that it fits in your pocket. That, in part, indicates that it's meant to be taken with you when you travel,” Gonzaba said. “But the other thing it tells us is that they were meant to be hidden, right? Because even in the 1960s and even the 1970s, homosexual It was very dangerous to say it publicly.”
The exhibit also showcases Southern California's rich gay history. Divided into specific cities, visitors can learn about L.A.'s gay bars, Palm Springs' gay-friendly hotels, Long Beach's bathhouses, San Diego's cruising culture, and Orange County's gay churches.
“I think people who come to the exhibit will be surprised that this is more than just a list of gay bars,” Gonzaba said. “Gay travel guides talk about all kinds of businesses and all kinds of gathering places that a lot of people aren't aware of.”
Gonzaba and Silva Damron address book These come mostly from gay, white, cis male perspectives.
“Bob Damron didn't racially designate the location until later, so in the very early locations you don't differentiate who comes there,” Silva said.
How to view the exhibits
when: 'Mapping the Gay Guide' exhibition is on view until June 23rd
position: Muzeo, 241 S. Anaheim Blvd. Anaheim
phone: 714-765-6450
time: Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Fee: General Admission $10 | Anaheim Residents $8 | Seniors and Children 4-15 years old $7 | Children 3 and under are free
The importance of mapping your history
With the advent of the Internet and other cultural changes, Damron address book, and gay travel guides are a bit outdated overall. Silva says these changes have fundamentally changed gay life.
“One of the issues we're talking about is the disappearance of places, and that's largely due to the mainstreaming of gay, lesbian and queer culture,” Silva said. “We don't need to have gay bars anymore. A lot of bars, especially here in Southern California, feel like they're going back and forth between being a straight bar with a gay clientele and a gay bar with a lot of straight people.” is.”
Gonzaba said that by looking back at these guides, people can learn a lot about the different trends and historical geography of the U.S. gay community, but too few people know about it.
Gonzaba said that when he travels, he notices a lack of historical knowledge about gay people in cities across the United States and abroad.
When he asks tour guides if they know about local gay history, people almost always say nothing. What Gonzaba and most of his LGBTQ+ community know is not necessarily true. People just aren't looking for it.
“These gay travel guides really show that, at least for many gay men and women, visibility is what they want,” Gonzaba said. “They wanted to find each other for friendship, companionship, and sometimes sex. And the really important lesson these gay guides teach us is that people always long to find each other. It means that
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