Skip to main content
BoomMag: Readers and Fans
Advertise With Us

WLT Report WLT Report

Advertise With Us
We may receive compensation from affiliate partners for some links on this site. Read our full Disclosure here.

LA Council Removes “No U-Turn” Signs Because They’re Oppressing The LGBTQ Community

I know what you’re thinking, and yes this is real.

Not satire or clickbait.

Members of the Los Angeles City Council celebrated on Friday after taking down some “No U-Turn” traffic signs.

The reason?

Homophobia.

Again, this is no joke.

See for yourself in this clips going viral on social media:

And, here’s the full video on Youtube:

Apparently the signs, which read “No cruising. No U-turns. Midnight to 6 am” were originally put up in the ’90s.

The Los Angeles Times reported they were intended to stop gay men from cruising around looking for late-night hookups:

At first glance, the signs are innocuous, simply directing traffic on the road. But longtime queer residents of Silver Lake knew they were a symbol of the neighborhood’s darker past.

Messages like, “No cruising. No U-turns. Midnight to 6 am” were posted around the neighborhood in 1997, with the intent to curb gay men from roaming the streets to hook up.

For years the signs remained, even as the city’s leadership changed and the community grew — until this week. In a celebration with LGBTQ community members, District 4 Councilmember Nithya Raman and District 13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez retired the signs on Monday.

“Los Angeles has a rich history of welcoming the LGBTQIA+ community, but there has also been real and present homophobia— which at times has been inscribed into the city’s physical spaces, as with these no-U-turn signs,” Raman said in a statement.

In the late 90s, when the internet was still new and gay dating apps such as Grindr did not exist, queer men sometimes relied on printed guidebooks that listed public areas where they could find love, sex and community without outing themselves. Among those areas was West Hollywood, where anti-gay traffic signs similar to the ones removed Monday were installed in 1991 and later removed — and Griffith Park Boulevard in Silver Lake, where Soto-Martinez and Raman’s districts now meet. The area is also where more than half a dozen bars, all within a 2-mile radius, serve a thriving queer clientele between East Hollywood and Silver Lake.

Los Angeles Daily News added:

About 27 years after “No U-turn” signs were posted along Griffith Park Boulevard in Silver Lake in an attempt to keep gay men from cruising the neighborhood to pick up other gay men, members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community joined two Los Angeles city councilmembers on Monday, June 10, as they took down the last two remaining “No U-turn” signs that were put up in the 1990s.

The removal of the signs took place at Griffith Park Boulevard and Fernwood Avenue, which straddles Los Angeles City Council Districts 4 and 13.

Getting rid of the signs was long overdue for many, including Donovan Daughtry, a gay man who five years ago moved to Silver Lake, known as being LGBTQ-friendly.

Two years ago, Daughtry reached out to L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman’s office about the signs after learning about them from a podcast hosted by Chris Cruse, founder of queermaps.org, an online archive of 150 years of queer history in L.A. On Monday, moments after he helped take down the last sign, Daughtry said, “This is a small effort, but just to have a sign that I would have to walk past with my dog every day be taken down meant a lot.”

Before the signs came down, city elected officials and community members gathered nearby at the AT Center, a recovery and wellness center for the LGBTQ+ community, to mark the occasion with speeches and performances.

This is California, folks — Liberal capital of the world.

Where you might step in a homeless person’s feces or come across some discarded needles on the streets…but you won’t find any homophobic traffic signs!

 

What’s next?

Racist stop signs?


, , ,

 

Join the conversation!

Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!

log in

Forgot password?

reset password

Back to
log in
Leave a comment
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing!
We invite you to become a WLT Report insider. Sign up for our free email newsletter, and we'll make sure to keep you in the loop.