In its 40-year history, the Dolphin and its patrons have been on the receiving end of eggs, prank calls, bricks and one Halloween night, a pumpkin. That’s not to say malicious incidents haven’t occurred. “It was drunk people trying to do photo opps, nothing malicious,” says Brandon Gresham, the Dolphin’s weekday bartender. The Dolphin, a small neighborhood dive bar on Artesia Boulevard, is easy to miss – especially without its signature rainbow flag hanging outside. It was once one of four gay establishments in the area, with dance club J.R. The Dolphin Bar is the only openly gay bar in the South Bay, a region of 105 square miles encompassing 19 cities with a population of nearly 900,000. Redondo Beach couple Steve Bopp and Gilbert Gonzalez tied the knot at the Dolphin Bar two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled Prop. “It was supposed to be a one-night-stand.” “I got picked up here, got proposed here, and got married here,” Bopp says later, all smiles. They turned off the jukebox, and the bar’s attention shifted to the two men on the stage. They had decided the ceremony would come at a later date.īut Rivas, 36, who was ordained some 10 years ago and recently began officiating ceremonies for couples who can’t otherwise afford it, suggested they tie the knot in front of everyone right then inside the Dolphin Bar. Minutes ago, the couple had approached Rivas about signing their marriage certificate. Steve Bopp, a 65-year-old Redondo Beach native, and his 36-year-old boyfriend Gilbert Gonzalez quietly faced each other on the dim corner stage with Omar Rivas, a longtime Dolphin bartender, presiding over them. Two weeks after the Supreme Court ruling in late June declaring unconstitutional Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot measure banning same-sex marriage, some 50 patrons at the Dolphin Bar in Redondo Beach happened to be at the right place at the right time. The couple, originally from Kansas City, has been together for 52 years. Torrance residents Jim Dawson, 86, and Wayne Flottman, 87, share a kiss at the Dolphin Bar in Redondo Beach.