The Uptown Gay Alliance (UGA) was founded in 1983 after Bobby Brown, a gay man, was murdered as he was leaving a gay bar in Highland Park, organization President Carl Matthes said. According to Matthes, the organization started as a form of resistance for gay people in NELA, and began to grow as more members of the LGBTQ+ community learned about it. Four years after Bobby Brown’s murder and the founding of the group, the Uptown Gay Alliance became the Uptown Gay and Lesbian Alliance (UGLA), which is what it is currently known as to the NELA community, Matthes said.
According to Brown’s sister and UGLA board member Ruth Riley, Brown and a friend were going out to a gay bar in Highland Park to get drinks one night, and both were robbed, losing a wallet and set of keys, Riley said.
“My brother and his friends went into the bar and were completely upset,” Riley said. “They called the police department, and the police came in and looked, they knew it was a gay bar, so they took a report and left.” Riley said.
When the police left, Brown and his friends wanted to make sure Brown’s car wasn’t stolen, due to the car keys being included in the robbery, Riley said. As the person was trying to start the car with the keys, Brown came around to the driver’s side, and the man pulled out a gun and shot him, according to Riley.
“The police didn’t do their job, if they had bothered to look around the corner they probably would have found the guy, they didn’t even look,” Riley said. “A group of people that frequented the bar Bobby went to, a couple of them business owners themselves, got together and had had enough of the police doing nothing for the gay community, so several of them got together and they started meeting secretly, and they designated an individual to be a liaison with the police department.”
Almost 40 years later, UGLA is using Bobby Brown’s name for good purposes, and the organization will continue to work for the East Los Angeles community, Riley said.
According to Matthes, he became involved in UGLA in 1988 because friends were going to a meeting for the organization, and suggested he join. In 2023, UGLA still stands as a means of resistance for LGBTQ+ individuals and other social issues in Los Angeles, Matthes said.
“The LGBTQ+ community is under attack viciously in some areas,” Matthes said. “Parents who want to support their children in medical transitions that align with their orientation are being arrested, we’re resisting the idea that drag queens want to groom young children and we’re resisting racism in any shape or form.”
UGLA is apart of Center Action Network (CAN) and its ActionLink initiative which helps LGBTQ+ community organizations navigate policy and advocacy issues Matthes said. According to Matthes, UGLA aims to work with groups who want progressive ideas to move forward regarding education and the environment.
Matthes said that despite the support UGLA receives from the NELA community, anti-LGBTQ+ messages are still prevalent.
“The Eagle Rock Library hosted a drag queen as part of an education outreach program for school children, and someone posted on the Facebook group Eagle Rock Rants a photo expressing that drag queens are dangerous for children, and that’s in the year 2023 in Eagle Rock,” Matthes said. “We wanted to know what in the world we could do to show people that drag queens are not going to molest your children.”
Recently, UGLA has supported the Bob Baker Marionette Theater with their efforts to resist the hateful and violent rhetoric that has been used to target same sex couples and drag queens, Matthes said.
“The Bob Marionette Theater is going to continue featuring shows with same-sex couples and drag queens to support the LGBTQ+ community,” Matthes said.
Tac Phung, who sits on the UGLA Board of Directors, said he has been involved with the organization since March 2022. According to Phung, when Matthes invited him to join the board, he was hesitant, because he is not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, but Matthes encouraged him to join.
“Carl said that’s OK, he did not hesitate in inviting me to join the board,” Phung said. “He encouraged me and said we want diversity and different perspectives.”
According to Phung, while he is one of the younger members on the board, his allyship adds value to UGLA.
“I think the board is very aware of current trends in the young LGBTQ+ community,” Phung said. “What I can advise them on as a younger member of the board is showing them through social media the courageousness of LGBTQ young people who are speaking up for their community.”
Contact Olivia Correia at ocorreia@oxy.edu
