By Kennedy Dunn, Rutgers University
Located on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Los Angeles, The Black Cat is a monument to the city’s pivotal role in the fight for LGB rights. When the modest Art Deco building was built in 1939, it originally housed a grocery store but by 1966, the building was a gay bar. At the time, homosexuality was criminalized in California, and the community faced constant harassment from the Los Angeles Police Department. The Black Cat was meant to be a safe space for the gay community.