“One of the volunteers was telling me their experiences on Garden Grove Boulevard, and how it used to be like, or even much larger than WeHo back in the day,” she said.

Orange County Gay Pride last year, said she didn’t know her local history until she began working across the county line - at the LGBTQ Center in Long Beach. “Statistically, the bars have diminished, but if you go to bars in different cities, they’re actually crowded at night.”

“There has always been a changing scene,” Hilderbrand said. The most notable of these in Orange County was Laguna Beach’s Boom Boom Room, which closed in 2007 but reopens occasionally for special events. The few traditional gay bars around the county that remain have become, in many ways, isolated pockets of the LGBTQ community, according to Lucas Hilderbrand, a film and media studies professor at UC Irvine. “We stay open mainly because of our longevity and the history that we have,” Heier said. Heier said that if it wasn’t for the fact that she owns the building, the Frat House might not still be in business. Dating apps, social media, escalating real estate costs sparked by gentrification, and increasing acceptance of the gay community are leading to less patronage of traditional gay bars, which must also compete with the predominantly straight bars’ gay night promotions.