For black gays, their clubs were often the only gathering place they had.
Whites had bathhouses, health organizations and other spaces. So in 1973 she opened Catch One, one of the first black discos in the country. There was no space where black gays could enjoy themselves in one another’s company, escaping what they saw as the racial discrimination of West Hollywood and the homophobia of the African American community. When allowed in, she would often be double-carded, having to show two forms of identification. When she started clubbing in the early 1970s, gay clubs often denied her entrance because she was black and female. Jewel Thais-Williams is a petite 76-year-old with a short gray afro. Celebrities would make pit stops when they were in town - from Madonna and Sharon Stone to “Queen of Disco” Sylvester.Īs the sun rose, they left drenched in euphoria and sweat.īut the joy experienced at Jewel’s Catch One club was more than a weekend choice for fun it was an act of defiance by black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the face of clubs in West Hollywood where they felt unwanted because of their race. Once inside, they danced under strobe lights and a lone disco ball in the center of two of its seven rooms.
In sequined dresses and leather jackets, afro puffs and high-top fades, they lined up outside the stucco nightclub on Pico Boulevard off Crenshaw, sometimes wrapping around the block.