The Run: Gay Downtown History walking tour

Join Esotouric on a walking tour of 20th century LGBTQ landmarks in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, for a time travel trip along The Run, the circuit of queer friendly spaces that provided community, culture and connection at a time when homosexuality was still criminalized, and in the early years of gay liberation. Drawing on original archival research and featuring unpublished images, this tour will bring a lost world to life.

Starting from Grand Central Market, we’ll take you where the action was, from Pershing Square to the Main Street fun zone, private assignations to bold political organizing, groundbreaking legal cases to discrete bars, and even into the shuttered 1920s-era speakeasy beneath the King Eddy Saloon to see scrawled hook up messages in the only cruisy bathroom that’s a designated National Register landmark! Plus, we’ll put the nail in the coffin of the urban legend that there was a gay uprising at Cooper’s Do-Nuts that predates the Stonewall Rebellion.

This walking tour is illustrated with rare photos you can view on your smartphone.

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• Next month, 14th June, 10:30 am, Raymond Chandler's Noir Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour in Los Angeles

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