When did Dupont Circle swing gay?

May 4, 2022 12:15 PM

Dupont Circle in DC was famously a gayborhood by the 1970s. I'm curious when it started trending that way. Was there a major influx of non-straight people in the late 60s and early 70s? Or would a bachelor living there in the 1950s (or before) have received a certain level of wink wink, nudge nudge compared to other neighborhoods in DC?

Most of what's easy to find about the area and its relationship with LGBTQ focuses on the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

I did find this mention at rainbowhistory.org:

"The Circle itself and Connecticut Avenue have been cruising areas for generations of gay men. Jeb Alexander and others have memories of cruising Connecticut and the Circle for most of the 20th century"

I'm more interested in hearing if it was thought of as a social area where gays lived than just where they looked for sex. I'm also interested in all genders, not just men.

posted by Candleman to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Best answer: I lived nearby from 1964 to 1967 and hung out there a lot. I was a teenager. It was the DC equivalent of Washington Square Park in NYC where I also spent time during that era. Beatniks, bohemians, hippies, students, and gay men. I was a straight in terms of sexuality young woman and knew a few gay men, but mostly I hung out with the older straight beat types. Of course we used the word straight differently back then. The local underground paper was the Washington Free Press and their offices were right near the Circle, I forget the street. Somewhere in one of them there is a picture of my naked foot next to a pot plant someone planted among the flowers. If you want to know more about the neighborhood in the sixties you can find copies of it in DC Public Library.
posted by mareli at 4:54 PM on May 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

Best answer: This book might be helpful.
posted by mareli at 6:04 PM on May 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Annie's Paramount Steakhouse became a significant gathering place in the 1950s. It was located in Dupont and presumably had a big influence on the neighborhood's development.

DC also had notably visible queer subcultures before the postwar Lavender Scare, which of course were driven underground. If you want to read more, the DC Planning Office has a free, book-length history on the district's LGBTQ communities: Historic Context Statement for Washington's LGBTQ Resources.
posted by veery at 6:37 AM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: As maerli notes, Dupont was a counterculture hub in the mid-late 60s and early 70s, and this seems to have brought gay men to the neighborhood, laying the groundwork for what came later. The late Deacon Maccubbin, for example, who later opened Lambda Rising, had his first business, a headshop called Earthworks in the 1700 block of P St., NW.

I've had a few people tell me over the years that the so-called "Black Forest" woods behind P Street Beach were a cruising spot even before the 60s, and that this contributed to the latter being the site of DC's earliest Pride celebrations - but I have no non-anecdotal sources to back this up.

It has been a long time since I read Jeb & Dash: A Diary of Gay Life, but it may be worth checking for additional references.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:52 PM on May 6, 2022 [1 favorite]