"'FAGOTS STAY OUT' - HOW GAUCHE," Angela Douglas and members of the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front protest Barney's Beanery, West Hollywood, California, February 7, 1970. Photo by Pat Rocco @onearchives. Founded in 1920 by John "Barney" Anthony, Barney's Beanery became a popular hangout for Los Angeles artists between 1940 and 1975; Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Janis Joplin, Charles Bukowski, and many others were regulars at the original location. By 1950, however, Barney made clear that the local gay community was not welcome; that year--and perhaps much earlier--the owner hung behind the bar a sign that read "FAGOTS [sic] - STAY OUT." It gained the restaurant notoriety, even being featured in a 1964 "Life" magazine article, and much of Barney's promotional efforts--its matchbooks, for example--highlighted the offensive tagline. On February 7, 1970, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) launched its first major direct action in Los Angeles, when over a hundred members descended on the Beanery, determined to remove the sign themselves, if necessary. Although the restaurant's management agreed to remove the sign that night, it was back up within a few weeks, and it remained there until a 1985 anti-discrimination ordinance made it too costly to keep the sign. The GLF's ranks that night included Angela Douglas, a pioneering transwoman whose discomfort with the cisnormative GLF later prompted her to form the Transvestite/Transsexual Activist Organization (TAO), an early leader in the fight against the categorization of gender identity disorder as a mental disease and against transphobia both inside and outside of the LGBT movement. #transgenderdayofvisibility #transisbeautiful #remembertheT #morethanvisibility #andshelookedgooddoingit (at Barney's Beanery)
