Silver Lake Neighborhood Council member Maebe A. Girl (far left), Los Angeles city council members Hugo Soto-Martínez (second from left) and Nithya Raman (second from right), and Silver Lake resident Donovan Daughtry (far right) prepare for the removal of No U-Turn sign on Griffith Park Boulevard on Monday. Photo: Office of Councilmember Nithya Raman
Commentary
I wasn’t expecting all that from a couple of No U-Turn signs.
About a year ago, I was surprised to learn from a stakeholder that there were still a few signs left up in Silver Lake regarding the No Cruising ordinance approved by the City of Los Angeles in 1988. The ordinance was intended to crackdown on low-riding, which in and of itself was a racially charged ordinance impacting the Chicano community. Cruising in this context is a euphemism for gay men searching for sex partners.
No U-Turn signs posted
Context matters here. The practice of cruising was popular in the 1990s before queer acceptance was widespread and before the invention of apps like Grindr. Many closeted queer people didn’t feel safe or comfortable going to gay bars for fear of being outed and possibly impacting their personal and professional reputations.
Griffith Park Boulevard, a relatively quiet side street in Silver Lake, became a hot spot for cruising given its proximity to gay bars in the area.
In 1997, the City of Los Angeles installed a number of No Cruising signs alongside No U-Turn signs accompanied by signs stating “Midnight-6am” along Griffith Park Boulevard to quell the cruising.
These signs were used by LAPD to profile gay people they perceived to be searching for gay sex, whether or not they were actually engaging in lewd conduct in public.
Hopefully we can agree that using an ordinance to target, profile, and discriminate against a particular marginalized community is a bad thing.
Black Cat bar in Silver Lake is California historic landmark
Take down the signs
Fast forward to 2011. Nearby residents claimed the signs had outlived their purpose, and the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council voted in support to remove the No Cruising signs.
The signs came down from Griffith Park Boulevard later that year. What remained until last week were the No U-Turn and “Midnight-6am” signs.
Many folks have asked, both in good faith and bad faith, how No U-Turn signs can be homophobic?
These seemingly innocuous signs were used to specifically target gay people in the area, as has been reported by various media outlets.
The indigenous speakers who opened the press event where the signs were removed Monday noted how even infrastructure like road signs can be misused to perpetuate colonialism.
The last of the No U-Turns and “Midnight-6am” signs came down at a community Pride event Monday hosted by District 13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez and District 4 Councilmember Nithya Raman, who spearheaded the bureaucratic steps to have the signs removed after being informed about them by local resident Donovan Daughtry.
The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council supported this effort through a letter of support that I co-authored with Arden Grier as co-chairs of the council’s Reimagining Public Safety Committee. This was truly a community-driven effort, not a publicity stunt as described by annoyed, far-right conservatives far removed from Silver Lake.
This small, local victory for the LGBTQIA2S+ community in Silver Lake is actually important given that more than 500 anti-LGBTQIA2S+ bills have been introduced across the United States in 2024 alone.
Conservatives lose their minds
Conservatives have been losing their minds over this hyper-local issue, claiming the signs are actually just for traffic safety.
This begs the question, if the signs were simply for traffic safety, why would the No U-Turns signs only be in effect from “Midnight-6am” when traffic is at its lowest?
Why not have them during rush hour?
Alt-right commentators like Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok, Matt Walsh, and the X, formerly known as Twitter, account End Wokeness have unsurprisingly used this local issue to rile up their followers and further divide people with statements intending to stir a culture war against all things LGBTQIA2S+.
Chaya Raichik posted an image of a No U-Turn sign with the caption “The new symbol of hate and bigotry. This photo is enough to send Leftist activists running to their safe spaces in tears.”
This is hardly the case, and they know exactly what they’re doing here.
I would counter argue that far-right conservatives are the ones running to their safe spaces, or rather their echo chambers of hate, because a couple of outdated signs came down in one specific neighborhood with a storied history.
Either way, what remains clear is that local leadership has once again declared Silver Lake a safe haven (safe space) for the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Cry about it.
