To buy some protection for the bar and its patrons, lesbian bar owners often paid off police officers, either with cash or sex or both. As a result, people didn’t keep things that might associate them with those bars. Before the Stonewall riots, which are credited as the single most important moment leading to the gay liberation movement, police used to routinely raid gay and lesbian bars. WEHOville consulted with the archive to learn more about some of the early lesbian bars in the area.Īngela Brinskele, the archive’s communication director, said that early records of lesbian bars are sketchy. The June Mazer Lesbian Archives, located at 626 Robertson Blvd., adjacent to West Hollywood Park, maintains an extensive collection of lesbian-related information from across the nation. The Palms may be the only lesbian bar in West Hollywood and the oldest continually operating lesbian bar in the Los Angeles area but it is far from the first lesbian bar in the area. (Photo courtesy of the June Mazer Lesbian Archives)
The photo is also notable because the women are freely posing, which was rare during a time of police harassment. Until this photo was donated to the Mazer Lesbian Archives, no LGBT historian had ever heard of the Green Door. An August 1955 photo shows lesbian patrons posing inside the Green Door bar, on Lankershim Blvd.
