Advocates to petition Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee for ‘Historic Cultural Monument’ (HCM) status for LGBTQ Rights Pioneer’s home on June 6th
LOS ANGELES (June 1, 2023) AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is calling on Los Angeles city officials – and seeking the public’s support – to save the home of 20th-century Los Angeles LGBTQ rights pioneer Morris Kight.
On Tuesday, June 6th at 2:00 p.m., the city’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee is set to hear a pending Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) nomination for the Morris Kight Residence, a 1911 California bungalow home at 1822 W 4th Street in Los Angeles. Currently, less than one percent of the city’s HCM sites honor the LGBTQ+ community.
In mid-May at a prior PLUM Committee meeting, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s office offered an amendment to the HCM proposal calling for a ‘site of’ designation which, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy, “… will not include or protect the actual house in which LGBTQ+ history happened.” The owner could – and plans to – raze the property and redevelop the site.
“As Pride month begins, we call on civic-minded Angelenos and the public at large to help save Morris Kight’s home, site of some of the earliest uncloseted LGBTQ history in Los Angeles,” said Miki Jackson, a close friend of Kight’s and an AHF consultant who helped shepherd the Historic Cultural Monument petition. “We urge city officials on the PLUM Committee to honor Morris’ remarkable and fearless legacy by approving full Historic Cultural Monument status for his 4th Street residence.”
As the Conservancy notes, “Morris Kight (1919-2003) is considered one of the founding fathers of the American LGBTQ civil rights movement. His Los Angeles residence, a modest Craftsman home in the Westlake neighborhood and a hub of LGBTQ social activity in the twentieth century helped form the backdrop to his work as an activist and gay rights pioneer.” It adds, “Kight also spearheaded the creation of the Gay Community Services Center, which today is known as the Los Angeles LGBT Center.”
To contact the PLUM Committee urging they save the Morris Kight Residence from possible demolition and/or to also support Historic Cultural Monument status for this and other LGBTQ+ historic places in Los Angeles, please visit the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Morris Kight Residence Page. People may also visit the website: www.savemorriskights4thstreet.com and can also sign a petition urging city officials to preserve Kight’s home.
