Used car lots, shopping centers without any landscaping, beer bars and, yes, gay hangouts. Why did The Big Strawberry attract that clientele to its namesake street? Well, frankly, GG Boulevard was a scruffy thoroughfare then as it is in some places today. A half-dozen or so nightspots and bars scattered along Garden Grove Boulevard offered a place to meet and mingle for that portion of the public. The resolution passed by the Garden Grove City Council on Tuesday night declaring June to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month marked a kind of milestone in the history of the city.Īs was pointed out by one speaker, Garden Grove was at one point “ground zero” of the gay culture in Orange County.
A lot has changed in the last 50 years (Flickr/Dani Oliver).