For his second book, local author Rasheed Newson showcases LA queer history, steamy cruising spots of yesteryear, and what it meant to be gay and Black during the golden age of Hollywood.
After a lifelong love of old Hollywood and two decades working in the entertainment industry, “There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood” is a story Newson always wanted to tell. Newson’s writing work includes shows like “Lie to Me,” “Narcos,” “Bel-Air,” and others.
Following the fictional life of backlot fixer Aaron Toissant, Newson’s most recent novel showcases the glimmering facade of what it means to be successful in Hollywood during this time.
The novel’s journey follows Toissant’s life and eventual investigation into the suspicious death of fictional closeted Black actor Xavier C. Barlow. The narrative of their intertwining lives is told through Toissant, where he chronicles their journey for the ONE Archives in Los Angeles.
The novel is set during a pivotal time for the LGBTQ+ rights movement, years before the Stonewall riots and marriage equality, and under the Hays Code era of Hollywood.
The Hays Code governed the U.S. film industry from 1934 to 1968 with a list of restricted topics movies couldn’t include in their subject matter, leading to censorship. During the same time, the Cold War’s Red Scare also contributed to blacklisting and censorship.
These strict guidelines were made after a wave of conservative religious critics threatened to boycott films and values they claimed were “immoral,” according to the 1995 documentary “The Celluloid Closet,” which critiques 100 years of LGBTQ+ depictions in film.
The guidelines were made by a federal motion picture commission, and the code was named after the Republican political operative who helped shape it, Will H. Hays, according to the encyclopedia site Britannica.
A list of things prohibited, according to the film, includes: profanity, sex perversion, open-mouthed kissing, lustful embraces, seduction, rape, abortion, white slavery (which included prostitution and sex trafficking), nudity, and obscenity.
The Hays Code plays a part in the novel, where Aaron witnesses Xavier and other closeted actors do subtle changes to make the film queer-coded to those in the know. This becomes a central plot point in the book, leading readers to the dark side of the industry.
During this time period, it was illegal to be gay or participate in gay sexual acts, and many states had legal restrictions on people wearing opposite gender clothing. It was unsafe and career-ruining to be an out gay person during this period.
Homosexuality wasn’t decriminalized in California until 1975, with the passing of AB 489, according to the California State Archives.
The heightened level of danger and secrecy plays out in the novel as studio leaders do whatever it takes to protect their investment and monetary returns.
“Hollywood has done a very good job of convincing everybody that we’re this town where anything goes, and we just want to tell your story,” Newson said. “We are actually a very cautious, rather conservative business.”
Even today, LGBTQ+ representation and being out in the entertainment space remains an uphill battle.
LGBTQ+ inclusion in film hit a three-year low in 2025, GLAAD’s annual Where We Are in Film study found. This decrease in LGBTQ+ characters disproportionately affects LGBTQ+ characters of color. “Of the 112 LGBTQ characters recorded, 34 (30%) are characters of color, a decrease from the 36% counted the previous year,” according to the report.
Much of the opulence and Hollywood parties featured in the novel are set in the backdrop of real-life Black and queer Hollywood hotspots like the Dunbar Hotel, the Biltmore, Central Avenue, and the Crown Jewel.
Newson called Central Avenue the “heart of Black Hollywood in the 50s and 60s.”
Deed restrictions and discriminatory practices — like redlining — prevented Black families from living in or making a life in any other neighborhoods, according to the LA Conservancy website, leading to a prevalent Black arts scene in Central Avenue.
“I loved writing about the Crown Jewel (Cocktail Room) and how Black queers had a hard time sometimes getting into white gay spaces,” Newson said. “Even in gay spaces, racism is still a problem. Your average gay white man may not have been any more racially evolved than your average straight white man.”
“That there was segregation among queers is something we don’t like to talk about; it sort of just doesn’t come up in your average queer history,” he added.
Police targeting and discriminatory practices played a key part in the later portion of the novel.
Newson highlighted common practices of the time, including raids on suspected gay bars — which police called “fairy dusting,” according to Newson — and entrapment practices where undercover police posed as gay men to then arrest gay men they seduce or were propositioned by.
Black and Latino gay men endured especially harsh treatment from police, and lesbians were also subjected to raids in addition to bogus charges, detentions and beatings during this time, according to Atavist Magazine.
Newson also called out Los Angeles Police Department’s then-chief Bill Parker by name in the novel (via Touissant’s character), highlighting his targeting of gay men during his run as chief from 1950 to 1966.
Newson wrote, “his police force operated like a band of slave catchers. They stalked, entrapped, beat, captured, and sometimes killed their targets. High on their list of enemies were sex perverts — namely, homosexuals.”
Additionally, a pivotal point of the book highlighted the Black Cat Tavern raid in Los Feliz.
Predating the Stonewall riots by two years, the Los Feliz raid took place in 1967 on New Year’s Day and was the site of violent enforcement of anti-homosexuality laws and sentiment during that time.
The peaceful protest that followed a month after was one of the first forms of LGBTQ+ resistance for gay rights in the nation. The still-standing bar, now called The Black Cat, became California’s first LGBTQ+ historical landmark in October 2023.
“It was sort of fun because it rewards you (the reader) for knowing the history, but it doesn’t punish you for not knowing,” Newson said of the inclusion of the raid.
The novel’s local hotspot highlights don’t stop with historical significance.
Filled with a mix of deep, meaningful love connections and steamy one-time hookups, the book also highlights LA’s cruising scene.
Popular cruising spots during this time that Newson wanted to highlight include: Pershing Square, LAX bathrooms, the Subway Terminal Building, Central Library, the Biltmore Hotel’s men’s bar, and Griffith Park.
Newson’s addition of real-life LGBTQ+ history into his fiction writing is not new. His first book, “My Government Means to Kill Me,” did the same while covering a young Black man coming into his identity during the AIDS epidemic in New York.
He is currently working on his third book, based on a Black gay serial killer in San Francisco during the 1970s.
“There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood” is available now anywhere books are sold.