{"id":322303,"date":"2024-08-12T08:02:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T13:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=322303"},"modified":"2024-08-12T10:08:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T15:08:59","slug":"vegas-myths-busted-vegas-has-been-gay-friendly-since-the-60s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-has-been-gay-friendly-since-the-60s\/","title":{"rendered":"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Has Been Gay Friendly Since the ’60s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today in Las Vegas, you can see \u201cRu Paul\u2019s Drag Race LIVE,\u201d party at the Gipsy, sleep it off at an adults-only gay hotel called the Bent Inn,<\/a> and then hit the drag brunch at Treasure Island. If you happen to be in town on October 11, you can take in 2024\u2019s annual Las Vegas Pride Parade downtown.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A float in the annual Las Vegas Pride Parade passes through the Fremont Street Experience in this undated photo. (Image: Casino.org<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might think Las Vegas has been this way since the 1960s, and you might think that because it\u2019s all over the internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 1950s and 1960s, the city was a popular destination for LGBTQ+ people because it was one of the few places where it was relatively safe for them to be open about their identities,\u201d according to gayety.co.<\/p>\n

\"\"
An ad for “Ru Paul’s Drag Race LIVE,” which has played at the Flamingo since 2020. (Image PR Newswire\/Live Nation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That’s a beautiful statement — that isn’t true.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it’s not a surprising statement. Las Vegas has a history of rewriting history to place itself on the right side of it.<\/p>\n

All that Rat Pack magic of the 1950s was made before Black people — including Sammy Davis Jr. — were even allowed to enter through the front doors<\/a> of Las Vegas Strip casinos. (And did you realize that Elvis Presley\u2019s 1956 Las Vegas debut occurred in front of a segregated audience<\/a> at the New Frontier?)<\/p>\n

By the same token, LGBTQ+ people were routinely beaten up, fired from their jobs\/livelihoods, and even arrested just for daring to be themselves in public.<\/p>\n

Anything Goes in Vegas \u2026 Except That<\/em><\/h2>\n

In 1861, Nevada passed a law prohibiting sodomy. Calling nonmissionary-style sex an \u201cinfamous crime against nature,\u201d the law specified an automatic prison term of \u201cnot less than five years\u201d for any violation.<\/p>\n

In case it wasn’t clear just how dehumanizing this ordinance was intended to be against gays, it specified that violations could be committed \u201cwith man or beast.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a history from which no pride can be taken, Las Vegas police for decades used this law to conduct sting operations entrapping gay men.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Marge Jacque pours a cocktail at Le Caf\u00e9 in 1970. (Image: Panorama Magazine<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First Positive Sign<\/h2>\n

In 1970, Marge Jacque, an openly lesbian cocktail waitress, quit the Sands to purchase the former Club de Paris.<\/p>\n

She transformed it into the first openly gay bar in Las Vegas. Its motto, printed on matchbooks and T-shirts, was “Glitter and Be Gay at Le Caf\u00e9!”<\/p>\n

Patrons included Las Vegas performers Liberace, Rip Taylor, and Paul Lynde. And, the bar served as the editorial office for “Gay Notes,” Nevada\u2019s first gay publication.<\/p>\n

For a while, at least, it seemed that the tide was beginning to turn.<\/p>\n

Until, in August 1978, someone burned Le Caf\u00e9 to the ground. The apparent hate crime remains unsolved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Le Caf\u00e9 smolders following a still-unsolved arson fire in 1978. (Image: Dennis McBride)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As late as 1992, Jahna Steele, a dancer from the topless show \u201cCrazy Girls\u201d who was voted \u201cSexiest Showgirl on the Strip\u201d a year earlier, was fired after the tabloid TV show \u201cA Current Affair\u201d outed her as being born John Matheny.<\/a><\/p>\n

Final Gay Arrest<\/h2>\n

The last person arrested for breaking the sodomy law, whose name was never publicized, met an undercover agent at a local gym, then invited him into his home.<\/p>\n

If you don’t already know, you’re going to cringe when you read when this occurred.<\/p>\n

Are you sure you’re ready?…<\/em><\/p>\n

The year was 1993, and we knew\u00a0<\/em>you weren\u2019t ready.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The jury happened to be deliberating just as the Nevada State Senate repealed the sodomy law on June 16 of that year, so the case was dismissed.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Knocking Liberace for not being true to himself is a failure to consider the consequences of it at the time. (Image: TV World)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So consider this fact if you ever find yourself wondering why Liberace, Siegfried and Roy, or Sammy Davis Jr. lacked the courage to come out in such a gay-friendly town.<\/p>\n

Nope, that last name you read was not a mistake.\u00a0<\/em>In his 2013 memoir, “My Way,” Paul Anka wrote that\u00a0Davis frequently “got into bisexuality” with him during their heart-to-hearts.<\/p>\n

“He would confide these things to me, how cool it was to be involved with two women, with guys,” Anka wrote.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only time the Rat Pack icon came close to addressing this publicly was during an interview he granted the men’s porn magazine Genesis<\/em> for its\u00a0 February 1977 issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest turn-on I\u2019ve ever experienced was watching a gay film,” Davis told porn star Marilyn Chambers. “I couldn\u2019t deal with it. Maybe it\u2019s my own latent feeling about homosexuality that I can\u2019t deal with. I have this image as a stud, and you can\u2019t be a stud and a homosexual at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sammy Davis Jr. performs at the Sands during an undated photo from the 1960s. (Image: Sands Hotel\/UNLV Special Collections)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We bring this up not to out a Las Vegas legend who clearly identified as heterosexual, but to demonstrate the deep fear many people back in the day felt simply about the way they were born, and how much closer that fear hit to where most Americans live than they realize.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Las Vegas passed a different kind of gay ordinance — one that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, or public accommodations. It was one of the first cities in the country to do so.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet while Las Vegas has come a long way since the days when it mistreated LGBTQ+ people, it shouldn’t be permitted to whitewash the shamefully long period during which it did.<\/p>\n

Look for \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d every Monday on\u00a0<\/strong>Casino.org.\u00a0<\/b><\/em>Click here<\/a> to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today in Las Vegas, you can see \u201cRu Paul\u2019s Drag Race LIVE,\u201d party at the Gipsy, sleep it off at an adults-only gay hotel called the Bent Inn, and then hit the drag brunch at Treasure Island. If you happen to be in town on October 11, you can take in 2024\u2019s annual Las Vegas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":327436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81886,88494,60,82353,1,84511],"tags":[91933,85966,85426,23,82012,91239,91238,85967,82883,91184,91237,84288],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Has Been Gay Friendly Since the '60s - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today in Las Vegas, you can see \u201cRu Paul\u2019s Drag Race LIVE,\u201d party at the Gipsy, sleep it off at an adults-only gay hotel called the Bent Inn, and then hit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-has-been-gay-friendly-since-the-60s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Has Been Gay Friendly Since the '60s - 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