Los Angeles City Council members reportedly removed “no U-turn” signs from a pro-LGBT neighborhood, saying that they would be viewed as “homophobic.”
“The signs that read “No Cruising” and prohibited U-turns were installed in 1997 when neighbors complained about gay men hanging out and looking for dates in certain residential areas close to popular gay bars,” NBC Los Angeles reported.
A resident reportedly brought the signs to the attention of the council, who decided to do something about them, Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman said.
A “podcast mentioned that there had been ‘No Cruising’ signs along Hyperion that had been removed in 2011, but that nine signs still remained on Griffith Park Boulevard. Our very own Silver Lake constituent, Donovan Daughtry, heard the episode, and in May of 2022 he reached out to our Silver Lake Field Deputy at the time,” Raman said.
Raman said she collaborated with Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, who oversees other parts of the neighborhood, to remove the final signs.
“For me, growing up in South Central Los Angeles, cruising had a very different meaning. It usually meant folks in their lowriders or their cars, a lot of hip-hop music, just going up down Crenshaw Boulevard,” Soto-Martinez said.
“But here in Silver Lake, cruising, of course, meant something very different. It meant an opportunity for the LGBT community to try to find human connection and intimacy and to be able to express themselves in a society at the time that was not very welcoming to the LGBT community.”
