Silver Lake to Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Black Cat Gay Rights Protest

SILVER LAKE, CA — Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell announced Thursday he will be joining activists to mark the 50th anniversary of the demonstration at The Black Cat, which is credited as the first LGBTQ civil rights protest in the United States.

The event is scheduled for Feb. 11 at The Black Cat at 3909 Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake and will feature a re-enactment, march and political rally.

"Los Angeles and the 13th Council District have been ground zero for some of the most important events in LGBT history, especially the watershed Black Cat protests that took place right here in Silver Lake 50 years ago," O'Farrell said.

"It wasn't that long ago that people like me were targeted by the police for being true to ourselves. Lives were ruined, and a whole class of people were marginalized," the councilman said.

The protest at the Black Cat Tavern on Feb. 11, 1967, is credited with being the first public protest for gay rights in the country and happened in reaction to police beating and arresting some gay men on Jan. 1 for kissing in public -- which was illegal at the time.

The event on Feb. 11 will take place exactly 50 years to the date of the original demonstration.

"We feel it is our role being at the center of the physical location, to keep this story alive," said Lindsay Kennedy, one of the current owners of the Black Cat. "It is our obligation to the community to be caretakers of that history. To us, gay rights are human rights."

In 2013, O'Farrell and some of the original demonstrators dedicated The Black Cat as an historic landmark and unveiled a plaque outside recognizing the demonstration.

City News Service; Photo: Spenseratlas via Wikimedia Commons