West Hollywood vs. Lakeview, Chicago: Will the Real 'Boystown' Please Stand Up?

it should have been logaytion, not gaytion. stopped reading there.

As you write: "What do you think? Is Historic Boystown in the cards for WeHo, or should we leave it to Laketown?"Umm, it's Lakeview, not Laketown.

For me, West Hollywood is inherently a gay name designated to a gay community. Like the West Village in Manhattan. Could you imagine if the West Village or Chelsea started to stake a claim to the historic rights of the name "Boystown"? Like the Gayborhood in Philly, or the Fruit Loop in New Orleans, make up your own creative name. Boystown is Chicago Lakeview's, and it would just get confusing with two Boystowns. I think West Hollywood is an apt enough name already. I do not want to see NYC's Village turn into anything else. West Hollywood folks should have the same pride.

While the artical states that Los Angeles Metro area has a larger gay population than the Chicago Metro area, if you break it down to WEHO and Lakeview, which is what the story is about, then Chicago wins. WEHO has a population of 34,399 people while the Lakeview neighborhood's is 98,817. LAPRIDE.ORG says 400,000 people will attend LA Pride, and 500,000 people attend Chicago Pride. WEHO is a much smaller gay hood than Lakeview's boystown.

For any gay man or lesbian woman, or anyone else who has lived close to or inside a gay community to object to calling a segment of Santa Monica Blvd "Boystown" is cowardly and spineless on it's face. First of all, noone can deny, wish away, abolish, legislate or otherwise rewrite history. West Hollywood as a gay enclave began long before West Hollywood became a city. In fact in the early 60s Ciro's (Now the Comedy Store) on Sunset Blvd began allowing same sex dancing on Friday nights. (Then, it was illegal for 2 men to dance together, but not 2 women). As a result of this perceived image of tolerance (it didn't take much in those days), more gay clubs emerged in West Hollywood. The 1969 Stonewall Riots inspired gays from all over So Calif and other parts of the US to move to the West Hollywood area, which at that time was unincorporated. It was a gay man, Ron Stone, who has often been called the "Father of West Hollywood" who planted the seeds of cityhood for West Hollywood. Ron was a strong advocate for gay and lesbian rights, He said he wanted West Hollywood to be a place where people would be free to celebrate who they are, especially in the areas of sexual expression and identity. Reporters from as far away as France and Japan captured the tearful euphoric inauguration of the nation's first majority gay city council.The moniker of "Boystown" for the area in question could not be more appropriate. Businesses in this area were built and kept afloat by gay people. The Christopher Street West Gay Pride Parade (which I rode in the first one in 1970) was moved from Hollywood Blvd to this area, very appropriately, as West Hollywood had already long become a bastion of gay expression and people used the intersection of Santa Monica and San Vicente as a place to protest and demand human rights, for themselves and everyone else. But they were there. And West Hollywood increasingly became a symbol of gay liberation, of social and political power across the country and around the world. It seems to me West Hollywood , as well as becoming a home for more and more gays & lesbians, became the focal point for gay businesses as well, not only bars, as is sometimes mean spiritedly implied. And there is so much history of that area that seems to have been banished to the ages, but the memories can never be politicized or discriminated away. I remember well the attorney and gay and political activist Sheldon Andelson, owner of the famous "Trumps" Restaurant on Melose and Robertson (now Ciccones), founder of the Bank of Los Angeles, inviting me to lunch at the great Mexican Restaurant "Por Favor" on Santa Monica near Robertson, then inviting me to one of his "boy parties". Being very young and new to the area, I replied that I probably wouldn't know anyone. "Don't worry" he said. "You'll be a good decoration." Scott Forbes seated me and an actor friend at the Back Lot of Studio One when Bette Davis held a grand soiree on the opening night of Geraldine Fitzgerald's show (her costar in "Dark Victory") and I shook hands with such luminaries as Gregory Peck and Olivia de Havilland. Scott Forbes once told me that most of his treasured photos and momentos from those wonderful events were lost in a house fire. Don Ovens held a record album signing for Bette Davis to sign her album "Miss Bette Davis" at his "Celebrity Records" store which was on the North side of Santa Monica Blvd. near Robertson. I was pleased as punch to provide Ms. Davis with a desk for the occassion. Pia Zadora danced on the bar and passed a hat to collect money at an AIDS fundraiser at "The Revolver", which I think now is East West. "The Adams Family" star Carolyn Jones was married at "Rage". Don Cook's clothing store "Ah Men" on the corner of Santa Monica and San Vicente soon became a smash hit in the neighborhood and grew into a world wide mail order store, because there was no other place like it at the time. And so many of us collected at Butch and Earl's "Four Star" to play pool, and I once had the honor or shooting pool there with Carroll O'Connor. Martha Raye and Patsy Kelly partied on the block after Martha rode alone in the Gay Pride Parade on the "Garden District" float under the banner "Colonel Maggie Raye". I recall sitting next to Sal Mineo and Keir Dullea at Tom Walsh's coffe shop called "Drakes", at approximately the present location of "Champagne" today, discussing a play they were doing at the Westwood Playhouse, shortly before Sal was killed outside his nearby apartment. So much world class action within that one little square. And, yes it was considered a gay neighborhood in those days. But it was not decreed to be so by some self serving politician or anyone else, it just happened naturally. There are so many more stories... and so much more to be written, about the likes of Morris Kight, Don Kilhefner, Albert Gordon, Rev Troy Perry, Bob Craig, Pat Rocco, CSW's first official president who came up with the idea of a festival after the parade. These were the true pioneers, true progressives and creative people who make some of the present so called "gay leadership" and elected officials look like back seat observers at a cheap side show, almost completely void of charisma or presence. I'm particularly dismayed at what I consider the whining of the lesbians who would have the presence of mind to object to the Boystown moniker. I have had many lesbian friends through the years, but where they went I do not know. But I do know that a once-a-year appearance in a parade as "Dykes on Bikes" is not enough to raise their level of visibility through the rest of the year. I understand that Northampton, Mass. is now the #1 spot for lesbians to settle in, followed by Portland Oregon, San Francisco, New York City and Atlanta. I don't see West Hollywood on that list, although I wish there were more lesbians here and I would love to see a qualified lesbian run for and win a seat on our city council. We did have the honor of having the first lesbian mayor in the country, I think, but she was subsequently arrested for embezzlement and forced to resign. I knew her well and was quite stunned by that incident. I do remember when lesbians objected to being included under the one-tent description of "gay", and wanted to be known only as lesbians. That was accomplished. When the term GLBT" came into use, lesbians objected to having the "G" before the "L" and therefore the letters were reversed to make them feel more included and the term LGBT is now used. But I still feel that lesbians, instead of standing by moaning and childishly complaining about feeling left out, especially about a simple sign on a stake in the ground, should roll up their sleeves and jump into the action. be creative, be progressive, make some meaningful noise, and be constructive instead of counterproductive. I recently read in an article in a gay publication "When you win the right, you give up the fight". Quite a shocking statement from a gay person! There are now countries in Africa who want to legalize the execution of gay people and we have "representatives" in our own congress who support them. And there are countless cities/states in the US where many members of the LGBT community should not risk going lest they at the same time risk their lives. And anyone who thinks West Hollywood is completely tolerant of gays and lesbians and thinks we are completely safe here, needs an awakening. The owner of "The Abby" recently said that gay people are assimilating in West Hollywood society and "isn't that what they always wanted?" I beg to differ. Gay people have always felt at home here. It is the non gay people who have assimilated into the gay culture of West Hollywood, which is good, but Mr. Cooley has it backwards. And perhaps his statement is more self serving than true. Let him try to peddle his wares in Bakersfield or Fresno or thousands of other places,and he might change his tune. Who ever really wins the fight for equality and nondiscrimination? Noone. Once you have experienced the hurt of discrimination and rejection, it becomes part of your psyche for a lifetime -and you surrender the fight at your own peril. And those elected officials who would indulge their own political interests at the risk of opening up a new pathway to discrimination in West Hollywood are treading upon historic territory. History can and does repeat itself, but only if we allow it to. Woody McBreairty

Seriously! We already have the name Boystown! How unoriginal can you get?

We GET IT. It's a hot name and YOU WANT IT. All you West Coast boys are jealous. But it's our gayborhoods name, and you can't steal it just by after the fact justifying it by making it a "who's gayest" contest.

The fact of the matter is our neighborhood has FOUGHT for this name. We've had to fight for acceptance here. Next door to Boystown is Wrigleyville, home of Wrigley Field -- and the sports-dominated neighborhood is as hetero as it can get. And we had to fight for our acceptance and recognition here.

What's next? Gonna crown your own Miss Foozie to round up all the little pineapples?

The fact you're saying you guys deserve it because you're a "gay city" is ridiculous. Not to mention the disrespect to the lesbians, but you're just taking another gayborhoods name and stealing it. Boystown isn't a gay name in itself -- it's a name that we took on and built into something. And you all better know we won't be letting it go easy! Get ready for a fight, Larry Block!

I like BOYSTOWN. I think it is poerfect for us here in weho. I blame all of this family love and strollers on the Landelman regime. . They wanted to create something that backfired, tossing Heilman into an all-time low in his approval ratings. ChicagoProud....Don't be so mean. Many of us don't care about cars.

Hey, morons in West Hollywood. Come up with your own origninal name. Chicago has the one and only Boystown. Why don't you name your gay area "Superficial-Town"? That suits you guys WAY more than us here in Lakeview. It's nice living in a city where the first question I'm asked at a gay bar is not "What kind of car do you drive?".