California’s history with its LGBTQ+ history runs nearly as deep as the golden ore which brought folks to the state in the mid-19th century. From the queer liberation movement in San Francisco to the rise of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship in the state’s capital, LGBTQ+ Californians have always and continue to contribute to the betterment and growth of the largest state in the union.

In an effort to document an often overlooked aspect of the United States history, the city of Sacramento launched its LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project — designed to record and preserve the stories of the queer community of the capital city.

This expansive history even has its own roots in Yolo County, particularly in West Sacramento according to accounts collected in the project’s efforts.

LGBTQ+ history in Yolo County

LGBTQ+ people, specifically trans or gender-nonconforming folks, have existed in Yolo County way before it was chartered in 1850.

The Patwin people — who have called the land Yolo County sits on home for thousands of years — embraced gender nonconformity and “nontraditional” expressions of sexuality. It wasn’t until Spanish missionaries and European settlers made their way to the west coast that restrictive attitudes toward queer folks arose.

Those who refused to conform to the “traditional” norms were often met with arrests and imprisonments, some even being killed simply for expressing who they were. While there were folks who were targeted for their nonconformity, some of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ residents of the late 19th and early 20th century were celebrated as performers who would portray members of the opposite gender on theatrical stages across downtown.

After World War II and into the Cold War era, more awareness for those who would today identify as LGBTQ+ rose, but with the awareness came mass paranoia and criminalization of any personal expression that differed from societal norms.

Sacramento was one of the cities where sodomy laws — policies persecuting those who engaged in “deviant” sexual behavior, which mostly targeted LGBTQ+ residents — were heavily enforced, according to the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project. Because of this, many gay-owned establishments and gathering places opened in West Sacramento, where police had a more “laissez-faire” approach to sodomy law enforcement.

“In the early 1970s, the district attorney’s office in east Yolo County prioritized cracking down on violent crimes that caused physical injury to others, the illegal sale of narcotics, and crimes against property, such as burglary and theft, over-policing what it viewed as ‘moral issues,’” the project report states. “As such, the local police in West Sacramento adopted a laissez-faire attitude toward enforcing vice ordinances in the area.”

An unincorporated community at the time, West Sacramento became THE spot for social gatherings amongst Sacramento and Yolo County’s LGBTQ+ population. In fact, it became known as “Sin City,” a place where you could gamble and hook up with whoever you wanted, though “major” crimes such as murder and assault were nearly nonexistent.

LGBTQ+ business boomed in Yolo

The first LGBTQ+-friendly establishments were located in West Sacramento and were listed in the 1965 edition of the Damron Guides — a constantly updated collection of friendly places to visit for specifically gay men. According to these listings, most of these businesses were along West Capitol Avenue and Sacramento Avenue, both of which led in and out of Sacramento.

The most well-known of these early gay establishments were the Yolo Baths (also known as the Yolo Sauna), a gay bathhouse at 1531 Sacramento Ave. and the Log Cabin, a gay bar at 1532 Sacramento Ave.

Other LGBTQ+ spaces located in West Sacramento in the 1960s included the Kolo Club, No Hu Hu Hut tiki bar at 2400 West Capitol Ave., Robert’s No. 3 and the Hide & Seek.

The Hide & Seek was the oldest hard liquor bar with dancing in the Sacramento area and became a popular place to stop on the road between San Francisco and Tahoe or Reno because of its proximity to the Yolo Baths, where those needing to recover could rest and revive themselves after a night on West Capitol Avenue.

One unnamed gay man recounted their times in 1960s West Sacramento to Sacramento native and gay rights activist George Raya, where he described his first experience in a gay bar.

“I had spent most of my life in a tightly closeted redneck corner of the Midwest known as Missouri,” the resident explained. “I had only a sketchy ill-defined idea of what gay was, much less what mysterious weird or perhaps dangerous things might be happening behind that bar door.”

Upon walking in the door, this man saw a room filled with men sharing a few laughs, having a couple of drinks and flirting with one another. For once, the unnamed man found a space where he could just be himself without fear of being cast away.

“In looking back at that first night in the gay bar I must admit that I was not looking for community — I was looking for sex,” he recounted. “What I didn’t know was that I had found both.”

The first lesbian bars in the area were also located in West Sacramento, according to the city’s LGBTQ+ archive project, as Sacramento police were trying to prevent women’s bars from opening within its city limits. The first known lesbian bar was Jean’s Place, which was eventually replaced by Hide & Seek. Some accounts claimed the Log Cabin operated as a lesbian bar before catering to gay men in the 1950s.

The most well-known lesbian bar, however, was Off Key, which opened at 1040 Soule Street around 1967 and was run by a straight man named Jack Gaylord (yes, that is his last name).

“He gained a reputation for protecting the lesbians who frequented his bar,” the report from the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project states. “In the early 1970s, Cherie Gordon and Patricia (now Matty) One Person—both Sacramento State University students and founders of the lesbian theater troupe, Le Theatre Lesbien—previewed films they created about the lesbian experience at the bar.”

After the Stonewall riots on June 28, 1969, the LGBTQ+ community in West Sacramento shifted to the east side of the river, taking root and moving to California’s capital city. Now, Sacramento has its own LGBTQ+ district known as Lavender Heights, blocks of gay-friendly nightclubs and a library dedicated to LGBTQ+ history, but without those early businesses in Yolo County, none of it would have been possible.

“These early gay establishments offered a safe and accepting space for gay and gender nonnormative people to be themselves during a period of intense discrimination,” the report reads.

For more information on the LGBTQ+ History Experience Project, go to the city of Sacramento website at https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/community-development/planning/preservation/lgbtq—experience-project.