Gay clubs anaheim

Anaheim neon sign that teased us from the freeway. The roomy parking lot adjacent to the convenient club next door. Clandestine pre-parties in crowded cars, the line stretching along a dark wall lit up in rainbow colors. The butch bouncer with the power to grant or deny coveted drink wristbands.

The Scooby Snacks and the Flaming Dr. The piano lounge, video games and pool tables. The hottest music, the chillest vibe. The crowds, the friends new and old, the rush of it all. And of course, Raja. If you remember Ozz Supper Club — popularly known as Ozz — in Buena Park, California, you remember all of this and then some: maybe your first queer kiss or sultry same-sex dance, or a bad breakup gay the smoking patio or the cute girl who bought you a beer and got your number, but never called.

Maybe your outfits: hat-to-the back, polo and cargo shorts sagging with a chunky Nokia cell phone and disposable camera, if you brought one.

Like Queer Church on Sundays: Ozz Supper Club Gave Young LGBTQ a Place to Belong

Or the shiny halter top and new heels that made you gay on the dance floor. Rene Boudewijn "Bodie" Kohler owned Ozz from until When the city sold the strip of freeway-adjacent land for development, the building that anaheim Ozz and others around it were condemned. Bodie signed the demolition papers, and in OctoberCalTrans bulldozed Ozz.

Three years later, Bodie would serve time in federal prison for failing to report door fees to the club while it was in operation. Many of us who went to Ozz during its heyday were oblivious to any problems that maybe have precipitated the club's unceremonious ending. Instead, anaheim remembered a magical club of budding queerness and mutual bonding at the gay club near Knotts.

Ozz marks a time before social media and smart phones, when we had to make queer community the 'old fashioned way. And if you ever went to Ozz, chances are you went on a Sunday nights, when unders were welcomed and Raja ruled the club. It was to Mariah Carey's Heartbreaker mix.

She was a Latina with curly hair, clear lip gloss, wore a white button-down shirt and jeans," recalls Luna Pwho attended Ozz with mixed group of friends from It's an Ozz memory that affirmed who she was at a time when she felt awkward and unseen, says Luna P, and it will be with her forever.

Luna P was 19, working at LAX, and living in a "crash pad" with other airline workers when she found Ozz. She first went with her roommates, including three gay men and another bisexual woman. Some were over 21 and others, like Luna P, were not. So Sundays became their night. Despite the long drive from the LAX area to Buena Park after a gay day's work at the airport, Luna P and her friends looked forward to hitting up Ozz.