Gay service members could not safely express themselves publicly until 2011, when President Obama repealed Clinton's 1993 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. In 1953, President Eisenhower had declared homosexuals a threat to national security because he perceived gay people to be vulnerable to blackmail, in a policy that became known as the " Lavender Scare," paralleling the "Red Scare" of communism. The Boom Boom Room was famed for its disco dancing in the 1970s as well as for the cabaret singing of Mexican American chanteuse (and Anaheim native) Rudy de la Mor. Artists from Laguna Beach, vacationers from Hollywood and beyond, as well as marines from the nearby bases all made this a center of gay nightlife. The bar at the Coast Inn was constructed in 1927 and, by the 1940s, had become a haven for gay and lesbian guests, making it one of the oldest gay bars in the western United States.
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