Today In History, 1968: The Flower Power Protest Against Los Angeles Police

Jim Burroway

August 17th, 2016

L.A. Police check ID's of more Patch patrons outside the bar.

L.A. Police check ID’s of more Patch patrons outside the bar.

From the day The Patch opened four months earlier, the popular Los Angeles bar fought a series of battles just to stay in business. The Los Angeles police tried to prohibit dancing in the joint, the local musician’s union demanded the Patch put up a week’s worth of wages for any bands they hired, and the local PTA was trying to drive it out of town. If that weren’t enough, local youths who hung out at a nearby hamburger stand made a sport out of threatening and harassing bar patrons. Whenever anyone from the bar tried to call the police, cops would simply threaten to arrest the patron and give the local toughs a free reign.

Things came to a head on Saturday, August 17 when the Patch’s manager, Lee Glaze, noticed a couple of vice cops in the room. During a break in the music, Glaze got up on stage, pointed out the cops, and chided the LAPD for sending such “homely” vice officers. The cops left, but returned a little later at around midnight with five or six uniformed officers in tow. As the band kept playing, the officers fanned out and began checking IDs. They arrested two of the patrons and charged them with lewd conduct. Glaze was outraged. The two had been competing for a third man’s attention and weren’t the least bit interested in each other. As Glaze remembered later, “How could you possible arrest two queens who hated each other?”

This wasn’t a full-on police raid. The police understood that they didn’t need to go through all that just to close a bar down. Ordinarily, all it would take to do that would be for the police to show up and ask for a few IDs, and the bar’s patrons would go scrambling for the door. Make a few arrests, and the patrons would never return and the bar would be out of business. Glaze wasn’t about to let that happen. He jumped back onto the stage, and with the police looking on, he urged the audience not to be intimidated. “It’s not against the law to be a homosexual,” he said, “and it’s not a crime to be in a gay bar.” He then announced that the Patch would provide bail money and a lawyer for the two who had been arrested. He stepped down from the stage, the band resumed playing, and a most remarkable thing happened: nobody left. The crowd of 250 kept dancing.

Glaze left, and went to the police station to find out more about the charges and bail amount. He then returned to the Patch a short while later with a crazy idea. “Anyone here own a flower shop?” he asked from the stage. Of course, someone did. “Go clean it out,” he shouted, “I want to buy all your flowers.” He then invited everyone to go down to the Harbor Division station after the bar closed.

Patch customers stage "Flower Power" protest inside the LAPD's Harbor Division station.

Patch customers stage “Flower Power” protest inside the LAPD’s Harbor Division station.

About twenty-five hardy souls took him up on the call, and the group camped out — in the best meaning of the word “camp” — all night in the station’s waiting room staging what has become known as the Flower Power Protest, as a bewildered desk sergeant looked on. “One flower hits me, and you’re going to be charged with assault on a police officer,” the sergeant said, intimidating exactly no one in the room. Troy Perry (Jul 27), who would later that year found the Metropolitan Community Church, was there:

When we arrived at the police station, Lee told the officer at the desk, “We’re here to get our sisters out.” The officer asked, “What are your sisters’ names?” When Lee said, “Tony Valdez and Bill Hasting,” the officer had this surprised look on his face and called for backup. They didn’t know what to do with all the gay men waiting in the lobby. …Lee showed me you don’t have to be afraid of the police. Once that happened, it encouraged me to become a gay activist.

The Flower Power protesters later that morning after the two detainees were released.

The Flower Power protesters later that morning after the two detainees were released.

The bondsman soon arrived, posted bail, and left, saying that the two should be out in a few minutes. The police had other ideas, and held the two for several more hours before finally dropping the charges and releasing them at dawn.

It’s easy to under-appreciate the significance of the Flower Power protest.  For the first time in memory, a gay bar not only survived the aftermath of a police raid after so many failed before, but thrived, thanks to the bar manager’s taking on the police on their home turf. And there was another important first: instead of fleeing, never to return, customers stood by the Patch after the raid. And for that, Glaze expressed his appreciation in a letter to the editor of The Los Angeles Advocate two months later:

If all gay bars had customers such as mine, there would be no further harassment from various agencies such as the ABC the police, and the so-called ” straight” public. Throughout these problems their attitude has been “We’ re doing nothing wrong. We re hurting no one. There is nothing illegal about being in a gay bar. There is nothing Illegal about a bar being gay. And we’re staying. Period.”

These people have finally had it. They’re standing up for their rights as individuals.

The protest inspired several others in the Long Beach area to form legal defense funds, gay community forums, and even the world’s first Christian denomination founded specifically to meet the needs of gay people. The Los Angeles Advocate, which later became the national gay newsmagazine The Advocate, called the courageous action “a remarkable sight” and hailed Glaze’s speech that night in the bar “a minor masterpiece. It infected his audience with some of his own courage. Let us hope that the infection spreads.”

[Additional sources: “Patch Fights Three-Way Battle.” The Los Angeles Advocate (September 1968): 3, 25.

Editorial: “Courage Catches On.” The Los Angeles Advocate (September 1968): 5.

Dick Michaels. “Cops Join Hoods in Harassing Bar.” The Los Angeles Advocate (September 1968): 5-6.

Lee Glaze. Letter to the editor. The Los Angeles Advocate (October 1968): 19-20.]

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