By Amy Patton
The streets of Los Angeles are about to get a little bit gayer. Well, one street in particular.
The City of LA and Venice Pride organization are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots with the city’s first rainbow crosswalk.
The crosswalk, which will be unveiled on Friday, June 28, will be right out front of Roosterfish, a gay bar that was successfully reopened last year with the help of Venice Pride.
The permanent crossing is modeled after the iconic rainbow crosswalks in the Castro District of San Francisco. There is a rainbow crosswalk already in the City of West Hollywood, at Robertson Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard. The City of Long Beach also has several rainbow crosswalks in the area affectionately referred to as the “gay ghetto” – the strip of gay bars along Broadway Ave. on the Eastside.
“June 28th, 2019 represents the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising (June 28th 1969). While there were many notable historic events on the road to equality before this event, notably some significant ones in Los Angeles including the Black Cat and Doughnut Riots, Stonewall is widely hailed as the beginning of the modern LGBT civil rights movement and culminated in the first Pride March (later adapted into parade format). Stonewall is a historical gay bar located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City,” Venice Pride stated in a press release.
The unveiling of the new rainbow crosswalk will happen from 1-2:30 p.m. at Roosterfish, located at 1302 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Speakers confirmed are: Taylor Bazley, Office of L.A. City Councilmember Mike Bonin; Lisa Lubchansky, Board Member, Venice Pride; Grant Turck, Board President, Venice Pride; Michael Weinstein, President, Aids Healthcare Foundation; Will Gaines, Office of State Senator Ben Allen; David Dancer, Chief Marketing Officer, MedMen; Stephanie Cohen, Office of Supervisor Sheila Kuhel ; Kim Sharp, Abbot Kinney Festival Association; Erinn Berkson, Abbot Kinney Merchant’s Association; Mario Vollera, Partner, Roosterfish; Ari Ruiz, Office of Assemblywoman Autumn Burke
