Silver Lake Has Always Been Gay, Readers Say

The Coolest Family in Town

Readers thrilled to Pamela Chelin's cover story about the charmingly eccentric Morgan sisters, actress/belly dancer Molly and actress-stuntwoman-contortionist Bonnie — and their equally eccentrically charming parents, Gary and Suzy ("The Fabulous Morgans," April 19).

"This is such a delightful story of a sweet and amazing family!" Babedarla enthuses. Cb00 agrees: "Wonderful article. Great writer."

"I am blessed to know these wonderful people as friends," adds prizantproducts4u. "They are part of my spiritual family. God bless the Morgans!" From our reading of it, He already has.

To Be Gay in L.A.

Tyler Trykowski's online-only piece on the merits of Silver Lake ("Move Over West Hollywood — Silver Lake Is the True Gay Mecca," April 19) stirred up plenty of buzz last week, beginning with its headline. Writes Bingoninja, "There is something peculiar about the phrase 'gay mecca.' It's either so ignorant, and so inappropriate — or so ironic, and so inaccessible. I dare say, Mecca is not a place gay people would feel welcome." Point taken.

Wendellxx isn't buying the premise. "The author is so out of it he actually believes Silver Lake is an Eastside neighborhood (it's not), and that all of West Hollywood is the same as a few blocks of Boys Town. I live across the alley from the Gold Coast, which is full of guys 50 and up, and a few blocks away from Fubar, which is full of as many alternative gays as Akbar. When my partner lost his Silver Lake apartment, he had to move to east West Hollywood because he could not afford the rents in Silver Lake, which has become totally gentrified."

Shapirobrendan writes, "The problem with young people is that they are so unaware of anything before their own time: It's all new to them, so it must be NEW, period. Having moved to Silver Lake in 1976, I can tell you that Silver Lake has always been a vibrant and wild gay mecca, the gay man's alternative to Boys Town and West Hollywood. This writer is trying to compartmentalize a group that defies compartmentalization."

CheapTrick writes, "WeHo has always drawn a younger crowd. But while 40 years ago gay men hid in the Mafia-owned clubs, and 20 years ago, gay men over 30 were either dropping dead or retreating to the suburbs, now the 40-ish crowd is big and out and going strong and not really into the glam, loud dance clubs and martini bars in WeHo. Instead we go to the more laid-back bars in Silver Lake. Not sure why that seems to upset some people."

Correction

Our April 12 GoLA section referred incorrectly to the network that first broadcast the miniseries Sybil. It was NBC. We regret the error.

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