Gentrifying Downtown L.A. Getting Its Own Gay Bar

Hip downtown Los Angeles crosses the gentrification threshold with the first brick-and-mortar gay bar opening this summer on Broadway and Fourth in the Historic Core, Frontiers reports.

While LGBT parties have one-off nights in venues throughout downtown (often called DTLA), Precinct will be the first one to have a regular home. Party promoters Brian McIntire and Thor Stephens are behind the venue, which will include a bar, dance floor, performance stage, and second-floor patio/veranda facing the lively intersection. McIntire and Stephens were drawn to DTLA because of its many LGBT residents and a fondness for the area's historic architecture.

"As is the case with most of the Historic District, the building we are in was constructed just after the turn of the 20th-century," McIntire told the magazine. "Personally, we're fans of the architecture of the era — a time when there was a more open celebration of individual craftsmanship and artistry — less disposable cookie-cuttery."

McIntire and Stephens also like the idea of DTLA because of its role in gay history, which is, sadly, mostly forgotten. While many Los Angeles gays splintered off to West Hollywood or Silver Lake in the late-20th century, they're returning to the city center and Precinct will welcome every stripe of LGBT humanity.

"We're hoping to see lots of beards and tattoos, with equal parts glitter, lipstick and leather," McIntire said. Broadway also houses a new Ace Hotel and a forthcoming outpost of Big Gay Ice Cream.