Gay bars laguna beach ca
LGBTQ Nightlife Guide
There was a time when Laguna Beach had its staple queer bars, which were a much needed presence during their reign of the beach city, and its very possible that in the future, more will make their way help to Laguna Beach, but until then, the urban area is filled with options galore.
The Seahorse
In 1926, a liquor store and a hardware store opened on the corner of Pearl Street and Pacific Coast Highway, and in 1946 it became its current namesake The Seahorse, which was actually Laguna Beach’s first gay bar. For many years, it operated as a secret watering hole for the local lgbtq+ community until it was eventually turned back to retail as Laguna Auto Parts…and now it’s help to its original roots. The bar celebrates diversity and inclusion and is a bar for everyone, with a really particular history for the LGBTQ community. It’s a wonderful place to start the evening with happy hour or even daytime drinks.
Rooftops Made For Sunsets
Surf & Sand Resort in South Laguna has two option; Splashes Bar and 15FiftyFive to enjoy the sunsets with the latter having couches and comfy chairs around a massive fireplace, to lounge in. Splashes hangs right over the sand an
The rise and fall of Laguna Beach, a same-sex attracted California hotspot
Standing on the beach steps with a verboten Zima bottle in hand, I looked up at the big colorless building above, thumping with music, colored lights flashing from the windows, scared and praying I could get inside.
I was 18, I was terrified, and I wanted to leave into my first lgbtq+ club, the Boom Boom Room in Laguna Beach, California, a seaside town that, before its increase to prominence via an MTV reality series and Bravo’s inaugural Real Housewives series, was known as a queer-friendly enclave in Orange County. It was an oasis for the LGBTQ residents of a county with the unfortunate tagline “Behind the orange curtain” due to its political conservatism.
I knew that AIDS/HIV affected the regulars inside the packed venue—as well as the city’s population—but not to what extent. I knew that, only two years before, a football player at a nearby high college had nearly beaten a gay man to death on this beach, in one of several local hate crimes aimed at gay men. And I knew that the recently procured fake driver’s license in my wallet looked nothing like me.
What I didn’t know was that, a decade later, the city that was once known
Sunset at Seal Rock is from my own photo, from when I lived in Laguna Beach for the Fall 2021-Spring 2022 season when my husband and I were between houses and living in an apartment looking over the ocean.I had gone for Chinese food at my favorite restaurant for takeout on PCH, and while I was waiting for my order, there was this beautiful sunset, so I walked down to the beach and took this photo, from a series of photos and videos at this surprise sublime occasion.
Seal Rock is famous at Laguna Beach for being these rocky outgrowths where seals and sea lions, and all numbers of herring birds and pelicans recover , about 120 offshore Crescent Bay Beach, a huge cove about ¼ mile in length, were Cliff Drive intercepts North Coast Highway.People aren’t allowed on the rocks, which also have dangerous surf conditions that make the tide pools inaccessible, and amidst the otherwise bucolic and serene incredible ocean views, there is something prehistoric and timeless about this landscape, as it’s overwhelmed with these sea creatures, like something out of a Charles Knight dinosaur mural at the Unused York Natural History Museum.With the intense sunset and cloud formations, it also seemed
It was bingo night at Main Street Bar & Cabaret, Laguna Beach’s last gay club. Techno song chugged; strobe lights blinked. The game’s caller – a redhead drag queen named Endora – fussed softly over the prizes, like an ikebana master arranging her flowers. But half an hour past the scheduled start moment, patrons had yet to arrive. Endora sat at the bar and ordered a cocktail.
In walked Craig Cooley, the bar manager for more than a year. “Where is everybody?” he asked, collapsing on a stool next to Endora. As usual, he seemed out of breath. Little wonder.
Gay bars around the nation have been disappearing, a trend attributed to greater social acceptance of gays, changing economic forces and evolving technology. Laguna Beach, in particular, has had many obituaries written for its once-thriving gay scene. Iconic establishments closed. Skyrocketing real estate prices have kept immature gays out of the city and led a number of established male lover residents to cash out and move to other cities, such as Palm Springs.
Against such odds, Cooley has made it his mission to revive this tiny dive bar off Coast Highway. He removed the privacy blinds on the windows. Pulled up the carpet coated i
.