tangents

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HOMOSEXUAL RESORT

For about 15 years now the Black Cat, at 710 Montgomery St. in San Francisco, has been a target of the California State Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control on the sole grounds that the premises are "a resort for sexual perverts, to wit, homosexuals." Unlike Unlike any other gay bar owner that this reporter knows about, Sol Stoumen, proprietor of the now famous barrestaurant, has fought all the way, spending thousands and thousands of dollars in the process, for his right to remain in business and cater to homosexuals.

Yet, early in the morning of October 31st last, state liquor agents trooped into the place and lifted Stoumen's license to dispense liquor. And so for a little while anyway the ABC has prevailed in its determination to be able to proscribe the meetings of disfavored persons or groups in public places if they decide the operations are "contrary to public welfare and morals.' It is definitely frightening to think of any public agency, whether national or local, as having such power and control over the lives of American citizens. Ultimately, however, decisions in the matter must have a liberating

influence on all questions involving homosexuals and civil liberties generally.

The progress of the Black Cat case through administrative and judicial appeals has made one significant point clear: to close an establishment, the authorities must establish that the management countenanced or encouraged homosexual behavior in their patrons which went beyond equivalent heterosexual behavior in comparable bars. The tightly reasoned legal briefs of Atty. Morris Lowenthal and his offices in behalf of the Cat constitute a ringing declaration that this nation's constitutional guarantees to liberty are for homosexuals as well as heterosexuals (see ONE Institute Quarterly #8). But the ABC, all unheeding, continues to subject the Cat to a tyranny almost pathological in its efforts to close the bar. And so the ABC has finally got its way; the license has been taken.

The doors of the Black Cat are still open, however. Instead of liquor, Sol Sol Stoumen dispenses apple cider, orange, lemon and grape juice, etc. to the many loyal customers that continue to patronize what is left of their diminishing individual liberties.