West Hollywood has become more diverse these days, moving beyond its identity as the "Gay Camelot," and some in the LGBT community are struggling to accept the city’s changing profile.
When the West Hollywood Council voted recently to take down the rainbow flag above City Hall, they were surprised by the strength of the backlash from the community. As The LA Times’ Hailey Branson-Potts reported this week, Councilman John Duran and his fellow gay council members did not perceive the removal of the gay flag as a slight to the LGBT community, but as a sign that the city was responding to its more diverse identity.
"It's not just a city of gay men. It belongs to heterosexual people as well," Duran said.
But the backlash inspired a re-vote and eventually a flag with a rainbow city logo went up over West Hollywood’s City Hall.
As Branson-Potts argues, this controversy is emblematic of the current identity crisis of what was once known as America’s “Gay Camelot”:
When it was founded in 1984, West Hollywood was an oasis for gays, a place where they could be better protected from gay-bashing, find support during the AIDS crisis and fight discrimination
But things are changing in West Hollywood as of late, particularly its increased popularity among customers and businesses outside the LGBT community.
While the city's gay population has remained at about 40% for some time, the commercial scene is changing. The city's last lesbian bar, The Palms, was razed last year because the property owners wanted to develop the site, where an upscale supermarket has been proposed.
Internal arguments have changed the city's dynamics, for example about the so-called “Boystown” district have led to dissension among the LGBT community due to fears of exclusion among non-male members. The annual L.A. Pride celebration has also lost its former luster to many due to the increasingly corporate nature of the event, while some iconic gay locales among the district have been opened up to appeal to more diverse crowds.
The result: a West Hollywood that isn't exclusively defined by the LGBT community. As one West Hollywood resident told the LA Times,
"The shedding of the LGBT identity is happening slowly with development [and] straight business owners," said resident Larry Block. "There's just a changing environment in West Hollywood."
