Los Angeles City Council Removes ‘No U-Turn’ Signs In Neighborhood, Says They’re Homophobic

The LA Times has more on the story:

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At first glance, the signs are innocuous, simply directing traffic on the road. But long time 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 prepared statement.

In the late 90s when the internet was still new and gay dating apps like 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.

“I was unaware of those signs and never would have found [them],” said Pickle, West Hollywood’s inaugural drag queen laureate who performed at the removal ceremony. The signs were an “insidious” form of discrimination that he and others simply “didn’t have any context for,” Pickle said.

Pickle, who is part of the newly established LGBTQ commission in Los Angeles County, is hopeful that these public displays of support can invite further discussion on how to protect LQBTQ spaces. “If we can get that sign taken down, maybe we can implement more change…It’s both completely symbolic and and an entry point for real material action.”

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Psalm 74:4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.

Job 24:2 Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

-Teardown and destroy the existing signs and landmarks and set up the Pride flag.

How much more stupid can we get? (I’m not holding my breath). A No U-Turn sign is now offensive? I suppose it’s symbolic in a way: these wicked people have no desire to turn from themselves and their sin.

Ezekiel 14:6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. [19] Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: [20] But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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