would probably require an armed insurgency. “The beach is a step toward a more radical agenda to take over spaces and then turn them into a block party with a predominantly gay crowd,” Mr. Timmons said.Īfter a successful year of bar invasions, the Los Angeles group decided this month that the time had come to expand. “This is very much coming from the spirit of young people saying they want to push the gates a bit more,” Mr. Stuart Timmons, an author of “Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians” (Basic Books, 2006), called the groups’ tactics “a new form of social activism.” The first gay party-insurgents surfaced in San Francisco in 2000 under the name “Guerrilla Queer Bar,” and since then similar groups have formed, disbanded and formed again, in cities like New York, Austin, Atlanta and Detroit. The group staged its first bar takeover last year in June and now draws up to 200 men and a few lesbian friends to its events, the organizers say. They pick targets based on the location’s perceived coolness - past choices included the Saddle Ranch restaurant on the Sunset Strip and Brennan’s Pub in Marina Del Rey - and take their roving gay bar to places where they would not go by themselves. So in the mode of flash mobs, the group shows up en masse at a straight site, mostly bars, once a month.
“We want to suggest that the world is bigger than West Hollywood.” “There’s a place for gay bars, but we feel gay people have become so segregated that some of them don’t go out into the wider community anymore,” said Matthew Poe, an organizer and the box office manager for UCLA Live, a performing arts producer and presenter. The mission of Guerrilla Gay Bar is not to protest or to shock, but to plant a gay flag in any place they fancy.īut the real motivation, according to the group’s manifesto, is to overcome boredom with a “ghettoized and sub-ghettoized” gay scene - which in Los Angeles is synonymous with the club and bar circuit in West Hollywood. There was no chanting, no marching, no waving of signs. Upon arrival, most of the group plopped down to chat, read or doze, and some went off to build a moated sand castle. 18, wearing a uniform of blue or red trunks and T-shirts with some of them carrying Harry Potter books, buckets and beach balls. It took an hour or two for about 70 men to trickle into their predetermined spot near lifeguard station No. Both the weather and the water temperature were beach-perfect, so the target was teeming with swimmers, sunbathers and surfers.īut at the appointed hour of invasion, 1 p.m., there wasn’t a single guerrilla in sight. New co-owner, who identified himself as Armando Cabana, confirms Faultline’s closure and says he has big plans for the historical space that was once mainly populated by members of the LGBT leather, kink and fetish community.IN the annals of takeovers, it was among the mellowest.Ī group calling itself Guerrilla Gay Bar, gay men looking to crash straight hangouts with the intent of turning them predominantly gay for a moment in time, set its sights on Venice Beach one recent Saturday. Shawn Farnsworth bought the business in 1993 and christened it Faultline. In the 1980s, it was known as The Stud, a Levi-leather cruise bar. The space has existed as a gay bar for more than 40 years. The virus has wreaked financial havoc on LGBTQ spaces, several bars and clubs have closed and others have created GoFundMe pages to stay afloat until they are allowed to re-open.įaultline space was a venue once called the Red Rouge in the 1960s, owned by gay icon Judy Garland and her then husband, Sid Luft. The Faultline bar has been closed since March of last year due to COVID-19 regulations and mandatory Los Angeles County health orders that closed other bars and clubs. Preserving this historic bar has always been close to my heart.” “I’m very excited to keep the legacy of Faultline alive. It featured a mix of themed nights, go-go boys, DJs, live performances, outdoor parking lot events, and a long-standing Sunday beer bust destination known to attract upwards of 600 participants.Ĭo-owner Ruby De Fresno confirmed the news stating, “We want to keep it going,” she said. After 26 years at their Silver Lake location The Faultline leather bar has closed and is looking for a new spot to call home.įounded in 1994, the iconic gay space was known for its indoor and outdoor bars with a large outdoor patio area.