Los Angeles City Council members have removed seemingly innocuous traffic signs from a neighborhood, claiming that they were homophobic.
In a move that drew mockery and scorn on social media, the signs were taken down in a gesture of goodwill to the very special demographic for “Pride” month, a 30-day national celebration of homosexuality and other alternate sexual lifestyles.
The offensive signs which read “No cruising. No U-turns. Midnight to 6 am” had been put up in 1997 in the city’s Silver Lake neighborhood “with the intent to curb gay men from roaming the streets to hook up,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
(Video: YouTube)
“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,” said District 4 Councilmember Nithya Raman in a statement.
According to the LA Times, “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,” the outlet reported.
“How is a no u turn sign homophobic? What am I missing here? This is bonkers,” remarked Outkick founder and nationally syndicated talk radio host Clay Travis.
X users offered up their takes on the ceremonious removal of the road signs that hurt the feelings of the thin-skinned demographic.
There’s so much crime in Los Angeles but this is what they’re concerned about ♀️
— Hi, I’m KellyJo ♀️ (@BiologicalWoma2) June 14, 2024
We are almost back at the level of caveman intelligence. Actually cavemen were probably smarter.
— MAZE (@mazemoore) June 14, 2024
Tell me again these people are not mentally ill…
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) June 14, 2024
Bruh…literally everything is homophobic now
— Steph Anie (@mynerdyhome) June 14, 2024
i would love to see a traffic study done to see how many more car accidents begin happening there, hopefully they won’t be fatal accidents.
— James (@TheN1James) June 14, 2024
So what the hell do we put up if we don’t want people to make a U-turn? My God, this community is full of delirious and mentally screwed people.
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) June 15, 2024
Nice now paint a pride flag at that intersection so I can make a U-Turn on it!
— Gregory Lanzillo (@GregoryLanzillo) June 14, 2024
Cause U can’t turn a way from their forced propaganda!
— Julio Murillo (@JEM_el_tarasco) June 14, 2024
How will they handle this one? pic.twitter.com/kgkYttddbk
— Noah Fencebutt (@Noah_Fencebutt) June 14, 2024
“We are living in an era with where there are, annually, hundreds of bills being introduced discriminating against transgender people,” said Maebe A. Girl, a representative of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council who etched his name in the history books as the first drag queen to be elected to public office in the nation.
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. And queer people are very much on the menu right now,” Girl told the Los Angeles Times.
They only wanted to be allowed get married, a wish granted by the Supreme Court which unintentionally ushered in a new era of bullying and censorship akin to an American version of the religiously intolerant Taliban.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.