“It was my high desert cowboy fantasy come to life,” Halbach says of seeing Peck and Tanya Tucker perform just minutes from his homestead. When gay, fringe-masked country-western singer Orville Peck performed at Pappy and Harriet’s in April, the Station owners Glen Steigelman and Steve Halterman outfitted Big Josh, the 21-foot-tall fiberglass cowboy outside their Joshua Tree gift shop, in a pink fringed mask to match the country crooner’s trademark disguise.Ī wood-burning fireplace adds warmth to the living room. Another choreographer, Spencer Liff, is turning an abandoned homestead cabin into a dance studio.
(You’ll also spot an occasional anti-Biden “Let’s Go Brandon” flag in town.) Celebrity dancer and choreographer Ryan Heffington, who lives in the desert, recently started hosting a popular queer dance party at the Out There Bar in Twentynine Palms. Visit the shops along Route 62 and you’ll be greeted by pride flags in the windows. Coming from those two very gay-welcoming communities, I felt some real trepidation about what a gay man might find in the high desert - especially in some of the more conservative communities here,” he adds.Ī lot has changed.
“At the time, I lived full-time in San Francisco and had a second home in Palm Springs. The couple’s home is located on five acres in Yucca Valley. “Today there is a very vibrant and visible gay community here,” says Dave McAdam, founder and co-owner of Homestead Modern short-term rentals, who moved from San Francisco to the high desert in 2003. But recently, residents of the high desert - comprising Morongo Valley, Pioneertown, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms - say LGBTQ visibility is growing, thanks in part to surging interest in the desert during the pandemic. Unlike the famous gay cowboy song “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other,” it’s no secret that Palm Springs has long been a popular destination for the LGBTQ community. It’s definitely a huge change from when we first started coming out here 10 years ago.” “Two of our favorite restaurants out here, La Copine and Frontier Cafe, are both queer-owned. “We’ve met so many queer folks since we’ve moved to the desert, including the owners of the Station, The Beauty Bubble, Geode and Gypsum and Joshua Tree Blanket Company,” says Williamson, 36, who wrote and starred in the Silver Lake-based gay soap opera “EastSiders,” in which Halbach, 42, co-starred and co-executive produced. Many people told KESQ that no mater how comfortable they feel in a desert that is so welcoming they always will keep their guard up and remain vigilant.įOLLOW JOE GALLI ON TWITTER AND LIKE HIM ON FACEBOOK.John Halbach, left, and Kit Williamson at their Yucca Valley home. Hate crimes have happened in the Palm Springs area before, most notably resulting in the death of LGBT activist George Zander. I did that for years living in the South and I refuse to do that anymore.”
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“You can’t let people who don’t like you tell you how to live your life,” said Brandon Holland at Chill Bar.
“I think I push that away and say that I am going on with my life and I am not going to let fear rule what I do and how I choose to celebrate or not celebrate.” “Rather than feel safe I would rather not feel fear,” said Linda Quigley inside Hunter’s Nightclub. Some patrons at gay bars refuse to be intimidated by the intentions of a hateful few. Security cameras cover many of the businesses inside and out, and there are regular patrols by the Palm Springs Police Department. There are plenty of doors to the outside, and many of them are set up with with alarms for emergencies. Many of the the gay bars on Arenas Road in Palm Springs have open layouts. I was looking at the news about Pulse and it seemed like a very familiar setup,” said Bowdoin.
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“Clubs in Florida had no windows and for example, the club I worked in only had one door in the front and one hidden exit out of the kitchen which customers wouldn’t be able to find.
The general manager of Chill Bar Ron Bowdoin says he’s worked at gay clubs in both Florida and California and he says they are typically set up very differently.