On January 1, 1967—two years before the Stonewall Riots—members of the Los Angeles Police Department descended, unannounced, upon the Black Cat Tavern, a local gay bar that stood on Sunset Boulevard. There, amid the glittery folds of New Year’s, the officers went on a violent rampage, assaulting and arresting thirteen patrons and three bartenders, including the owner, according to Black Cat’s Wikipedia page.
Not long afterward, in response to the unprovoked raid, a gay advocacy group called PRIDE—Personal Rights in Defense and Education—organized the Black Cat Protest, a demonstration that drew over 200 attendees. But in order for the group to apply some sort of collective voice to the movement and its painful climb out of the closet, one need remained constant: A publication by gay people, for gay people.
Four decades later, The Advocate still continues to make sense of what is going on within the LGBT community and the world around us. No doubt, information under pressure is crucial. So it is a pleasure to announce that the publication will celebrate its 45th anniversary on Thursday, March 29th, at a gala event in Beverly Hills, benefitting the Point Foundation, the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for LGBT students.
“As a native of Los Angeles, the Black Cat Protest, from which The Advocate was born, has always been meaningful,” says Paul Colichman, CEO of Advocate parent company Here Media. “For 45 years it has been the news source of record for the LGBT community. From its inception, The Advocate's devoted staff of editors and writers have worked tirelessly to bring forward the issues affecting the lives of gay Americans.”
And clearly, all of us have come a long way since the early days of the gay rights movement. But no matter where we look, we still have a long way to go.
“I don’t think our founding editors, on whose shoulders we all stand, could have imagined the ways in which this publication would grow and develop to encompass a greater, stronger LGBT community," says Matthew Breen, editor in chief of The Advocate. “We look forward to another 45 years of singular dedication to telling the stories of our lives and our fight for equality.”
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