Dennis McBride remembers nights out in Las Vegas in the 1970s, hopping from bar to bar at where Paradise Road crosses East Naples Drive. He and his friends would visit Le Cafe, the Carousel and other bars in the area — frequently rounding an intersection that had no crosswalks — to hang out at popular spots in Las Vegas’ gay community.
“We used to walk, take our lives in our hands, and make the loop around that intersection to the various bars, where we go south to Le Cafe, or north to the Carousel or whatever else,” McBride, a queer historian, said. “So it became colloquially called the loop. And of course, some wag decided we’ll call it the ‘Fruit Loop,’ because it’s queer.”
What started out as a tongue-in-cheek name for a block of businesses for Las Vegas’ gay community may soon become the name of a historic landmark. On Monday, lawmakers in the Nevada Legislature will hear a resolution to formally recognize the “Fruit Loop,” an area with decades of history for LGBTQ+ residents and business owners.
The effort started last fall, state Sen. Fabian Doñate said. A viral video showed bar-hopping patrons darting between the oncoming, traffic on Paradise Road — where the south side of the intersection does not have a crosswalk.
Doñate, D-Las Vegas, represents the area and got in touch with the county about infrastructure improvements. He learned from speaking with those business owners that it was a longtime effort to get a crosswalk installed at that intersection, but the community felt their request was ignored.
McBride said it was well-known among the Las Vegas community that this was the “gayborhood.” Over the decades, it’s been the home of bars, nightclubs, book and video stores and more. The city’s first AIDS fundraising event was held at Gipsy nightclub in November 1983.
Back then, it was also more likely to attract unwanted attention. McBride said he and his friends sometimes felt cars would target them while they were walking on the street, and he said police would heavily monitor the area. One bar was damaged in an arson fire in June 1979, according to a timeline he compiled for the resolution effort.
Doñate said after hearing the neighborhood’s continued concerns, he saw an opportunity to leverage the neighborhood’s history to both build up the infrastructure and to create a cultural district that others can visit, similar to New York’s West Village, San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood and San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood.
“They have capitalized on LGBTQ+ businesses being a safe zone — and not just a safe zone, but also a high tourist pedestrian area that many folks want to frequent,” he said.
Billy Pilesky, manager at Quadz Video Bar in the Fruit Loop, said he plans to testify in support of the resolution, Senate Concurrent Resolution 2. He hopes it encourages growth of LGBTQ+-owned businesses and improved infrastructure in the “gayborhood.”
“I would love to see a rainbow crosswalk,” Pilesky said. “Something that would celebrate the area a little bit more and let people know, ‘Hey, this is the Fruit Loop.’”
McBride, 70, said the resolution effort is exciting to him because it shows how much has changed.
“What it does is give a tremendous sense of affirmation and acceptance to the gay community, which, obviously, we have not always had that,” McBride said. “I lived through all those horrible, horrible times that were going on. It’s an amazing thing for me to see us reach this point.”
The resolution will have its first hearing at 3:30 p.m. Monday before the Senate Government Affairs Committee.
Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.
