Issue With This Marker?
Report an IssueHistoric LGBTQ Site
2539
224 East Main Street, Lexington
Oldest continuous LGBTQ gathering place in Kentucky, and among the oldest in the U.S. LGBTQ patrons discreetly congregated here as early as 1939. In 1963 The Gilded Cage bar opened, ran by gay men John Hill and Estel Wilson. Patrons enjoyed same sex dancing and drag shows.
Sponsored by Just Fund Education Project, Inc. & Faulkner-Morgan Archive.
Renamed The Living Room in 1967. In 1970, site of Marjorie Jones and Tracey Knight wedding, the first lesbian couple in the U.S. to sue for a marriage license. Renamed Johnny Angels in 1978. Site of 1985 sodomy charge against Jeffery Wasson. The case overturned Kentucky’s sodomy law, which helped decriminalize homosexuality in the U.S.
Dedicated on June 3, 2018.