Queerest Little City in the World: Gay Reno in the Sixties

Abstract

This article is a history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Reno, Nevada, during the 1960s. Despite prevalent beliefs that there was not a coherent LGBT community in Reno before Stonewall, my article shows the opposite. Linked by several LGBT-owned businesses and public places, Reno had a well-defined community that people knew about. The article also shows how Reno was looked at as a failing marginalized city throughout the 1960s and that this, in turn, allowed it to become a prime place for LGBT peoples to move and start gentrifying the area. The article also shows how the unusual nature of Nevada and its relation to vice during the middle decades made it fertile ground for businesses to spring up that catered to the LGBT community. Overall, the article shows a dense series of networks between LGBT Northern Nevada natives, tourists, and the spaces they inhabited during the 1960s.

Keywords:

• Reno
• Nevada
• LGBT history
• United States