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HOLLYWOOD, CA – Imagine taking in all of Los Angeles’ LGBT history from the upper tier of a double-decker bus. Cruising East down Santa Monica Boulevard you are introduced to Barney’s Beanery where there used to hang a sign that said “Fagots- Stay Out.”  Approaching a corner in Hollywood, you are told this is where Eddie Murphy infamously picked up his late-night transsexual companion Atisone Seuli. Soon you stop at The Other Side Piano Bar in Silverlake for a quick cocktail with Ms. Judy Garland and then you high tail it through Old Hollywood where you acquire enough gossip to make you the hit of cocktail hour for weeks to come.

Out & About Tours is the first and only gay bus tour that provides an educational yet always entertaining look at LGBT history in and around Los Angeles. The tour is open to members of any and all communities 21 years of age and older; be it a straight local or gay tourist, everyone will get something special and memorable from Out & About Tours. With more than 100 points of interest, the tour mixes campy entertainment with heart-breaking personal stories of struggle and failure. In creating Out & About Tours, founder Jim Anzide aimed to combine entertainment with education and drive the message home by playing to audiences’ emotions.

“Doing the research for this tour has opened my heart and mind in ways I can’t begin to articulate,” said Anzide. “Knowing that people have lost their lives, loved ones, homes, and careers so that I can do something as simple as go to a bar in West Hollywood and dance with my friends, walk hand-in-hand with someone of the same sex or live with the person I love is overwhelming. I felt ungrateful through my ignorance. I knew that I had to be part of educating and empowering my generation and future generations of LGBT people in the best way I know how - through entertainment.” 

Anzide, who began his career as an actor and a founding member of Circle X Theatre Company, was inspired to create this tour after Prop 8 passed in California. Frustrated, he combined his gift for pleasing the masses with his anger and passion as an under-appreciated gay American in California. The result was Out & About Tours. The tour shines a spotlight first on gay life prior to the AIDS crisis, then focuses on the difficult time between the dark period of the AIDS epidemic and the pop phenomenon of being gay in a post “Will & Grace” world.  It examines the gay experience and reveals it as an undeniable part of California’s collective history; not simply the experiences of one group.

It’s not all solemnity, however.  Although riders are intellectually and emotionally stimulated, the tour is pure fun. From the attractive crew and lively tour guide (Anzide himself) to the audience’s participation with cheers for LGBT heroes and jeers for its villains, not to mention the free snacks and drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), this tour excites and entertains.  After the tour, the fun continues at an after party where riders get the opportunity to make new friends, share experiences, and dance.

As the Out & About vehicle cruises down the famous Los Angeles boulevards and on-lookers see a double-decker bus with passengers who are cheering and stomping their feet, they can then take a moment to appreciate how in a city that still requires heterosexuality in its leading men and in a state where bigotry is sometimes legislated - there is an opportunity to celebrate not only who they are but those whose struggles of yesterday continue to shape lives today. 

The tour runs every Saturday and Sunday and alternating Fridays. It departs from ONE Archives Gallery & Museum in West Hollywood at 1 p.m. and ends at approximately 4 p.m.  The $75 ticket includes a full day of fun and education as well as drinks and food available gratis at key stops. For more information and a complete tour schedule including future tailored tours to downtown and Old Hollywood visit Out & About online at www.outandabout-tours.com or email info@outandabout-tours.com 

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