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It’s a month for merriment as California gets a handle on its COVID-19 cases and we pay tribute to the sacrifices, heroes and the civil rights movement of the LGBTQ community.
But this year’s Pride Month festivities in the L.A. area will look different than they did in pre-COVID years. Landlord disputes and lack of government support during the pandemic have caused several favorite LGBTQ spots Rage, Club Cobra, Gold Coast, Flaming Saddles, Faultline and Oil Can Harry’s among them to close their doors.
“It’s hard work keeping a bar open day to day during ‘normal’ times,” said Markus Molinari, an LGBTQ activist and partner in H.wood Group, which operates Harriet’s Rooftop in West Hollywood. “But since COVID and all the mandatory government shutdowns, it’s damn near impossible to sustain for that long without any real bailout or help.”
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Among the things endangered by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the New Jalisco Bar in downtown Los Angeles. As my colleague Andrea Castillo notes in her Column One story from Monday, the New Jalisco Bar is more than just a watering hole. It has been a lifeline for the city’s Latinx LGBTQ community since the early 2000s. After nearly a year of being closed, New Jalisco is on the brink of disappearing.
New Jalisco wasn’t always an LGBTQ space. When Maria Rosa Garcia, the current owner, first started working there in 1992, it was a billiards bar called the Jalisco Inn. By the time the Score, the only gay bar in downtown L.A.,