Colorado’s LGBT historical sites

By Christine McManus

2900 Aurora Ave., Boulder

What: First Out Front Colorado office

Near the southern gateway into Boulder, it was here that Managing Editor Phil Price, a recent journalism graduate of the University of Colorado, and his staff put together the first monthly issue of Out Front Colorado (then Out Front). Price, who said in an early column that he had been out only three years at that point, recognized the importance of a professional publication to serve the community. From the very first issue onward, this publication posted activist news and celebrated LGBT culture in Denver and the West. The site is now home to the Cavalier Apartments.

1400 Lafayette St., Denver

What: First Unitarian Church

For decades, the leaders and membership of this church have supported LGBT rights. Most recently, the church has supported civil marriage at the statehouse, helping coordinate multi-denominational protests on the Capitol steps every fall. Back in 1976, when the Unitarian Universalist church allowed the Christian Metropolitan Community Church to meet in its building, public notices invited people to join the Lesbian Task Force of N.O.W., for example. A strong activist group called Unity also met there in the ‘’70s.

1373 Grant St., Denver (16th Street Mall near Adams Mark)

What: Former Raddison Hotel site & First Baptist Church of Denver

On Election Night Nov. 2, 1992 voters statewide passed Amendment 2, abolishing state and local laws protecting lesbians and gays from discrimination. At 11:30 p.m., more than “300 gays and lesbians began to gather outside the Radisson Hotel where the Democrats were celebrating their victories. Police barred them from entering the building,” according to an Out Front Nov. 11, 1992, page 6 article. Mayor Wellington Webb and Governor Roy Romer addressed the angry crowd after midnight. Romer said if any state employee fired someone due to sexual orientation, he would “fire their supervisor as well as file a suit against them.” Webb met the next morning with 500 gays and lesbians at the First Baptist Church across the street from the Capitol. After several years in the courts, the Amendment was ruled unconstitutional.

“On the Hill” at 1129 13th St., Boulder

What: Former Tulagi’s club site, now a Which Wich shop

In the 1970s, Boulder Gay Liberation Inc. organized “zaps” – a political tool of direct confrontation with homophobic or anti-gay elements of the community. To make their presence known, with pride, the members of BGL would adjourn to a local tavern to dance with same-sex partners. Other targeted sites included Guiseppi’s On the Hill and the Sheraton Hotel, where five lesbians were arrested and others were kicked out. Out Front reported that the zaps resulted in tacit acceptance, while others ended adversely.

1540 Race St., Denver

In 1976, this was one of the sites where Unity – a group of a couple dozen LGBT organizations – met to plan the first Pride Week Parade June 27, 1976. Though it was the third annual observance of Pride Week in Denver, the Privy Council of the Imperial Court of Colorado and other groups spoke with police and the city to get a permit. Organizers nearly had to cancel the parade when the permit did not come through and had to slash through bureaucratic red tape, according to Out Front reports. About 1,000 people holding signs stretched along the four-block-long parade, which began in Cheesman Park, took Franklin to Colfax and headed to the Capitol. There was a “gay-in” at the Civic Center, with health advice, cold drinks, workshops and skits by Gay Guerilla to “show there is not as much unity as you think in the community,” according to Out Front reports.