The Home Of LA LGBTQ+ Leader Morris Kight Gets Historic Status Protection

The home of a prominent gay civil rights leader in L.A. has been given a historically protected status that goes a step further than most.

After a three-year journey, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to protect Morris Kight’s home in Westlake and add conditions that it not be moved. If you haven’t heard of Kight, the gay rights giant spent decades advocating for LGBTQ+ people in L.A. and founded multiple community organizations.

About Morris Kight

Some have called him the Harvey Milk of L.A. and the grandfather of LGBTQ+ rights.

Kight was born in Texas in 1919, and according to the nomination documents, he created one of the first openly gay clubs at a college while at Texas Christian University.

Gay rights icon Morris Kight in a 2002 portrait, only a couple of months before he died.

(

Henning von Berg

/

via Creative Commons/CCBY-SA 4.0 license

)

That penchant for community continued when Kight moved to L.A. in 1958. On the cusp of the gay civil rights movement, he helped gay men find lawyers and medical care, created spaces where gay men and lesbians could safely meet, organized protests and became one of the foremost organizers of LGBTQ+ resources.

Among his long list of credits, Kight helped create the:

• L.A. chapter of the Gay Liberation Front.
• L.A. Gay and Lesbian Services Center (known as the L.A. LGBT Center today).
• Christopher Street West gay pride parade.
• Stonewall Democratic Club.

He died in 2003.

Kight’s home and the protection debate

Kight lived at the residence at 1822 West Fourth St. between 1967 and 1974. While another place he lived in has been given historical status already — and the Westlake house is on the national register of historic places — the local building designation almost didn’t come through.

Starting in 2020, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation nominated that the house be designated a Historic Cultural Monument. It argued that it was where the Gay Liberation Front was first convened in 1969, that it acted as an access point for social services for LGBTQ+ people, and that some planning, at least, took place for L.A.’s first gay pride parade.

But over multiple meetings, the nomination seemed in limbo. The property owners had plans to build on the land and councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who leads the First District, raised concerns about the building’s upkeep and somewhat dilapidated condition. For a time, a motion to preserve the land only was on the books — which indicated to building advocates that the chance of demolition was high. (Buildings designated as a historical monument can still be demolished, but it does allow for certain objections and delays in projects.)

The Morris Kight House today.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

“The world's first gay services center was operating and thriving in that house,” said the Rev. Dylan Littlefield, who’s been part of the groups organizing to nominate the house. “So to tear it down and just put up a sign, it's not gonna have the cultural impact that our historic cultural monument nomination is supposed to have.”

Littlefield echoes what dozens of other LGBTQ+ people said at meetings: that not protecting the home would be a disservice to the community and put another landmark at risk.

After hearing the debates, the council approved an amendment to the nomination to preserve only the house, with a stipulation that it cannot be moved. While ancillary and additional structures on the property won’t be covered under the protection, the amendment was welcomed by organizers in the chambers.

The property owner has committed to building affordable housing on the land that’s community-focused, according to Hernandez.

“We've been working toward a solution that not only will save the house at the current site … but it will also be rehabilitated so that it could eventually be open to the public to serve as a hub for the LGBTQIA+ community in our district and beyond,” Hernandez said.

Council President Paul Krekorian says this change takes historical status a step further than it typically goes, which he says doesn’t protect homes as strongly as people think.

“What Councilmember Hernandez has done today with her amendment, and by working with this property owner, is to actually preserve the building,” Krekorian said. “Not just do it on paper, but to actually preserve it.”