Gay community has shaped and influenced Palm Springs for decades.

Liberace and Rich Canning, Desert Circus official (Photo: Palm Springs Historical Society/Special to The Desert Sun)

The gay community is given much credit for creating the renaissance of modernism by purchasing mid-century homes and gentrifying Palm Springs neighborhoods beginning in the 1990s. But Palm Springs was influenced and shaped by the gay community long before then.

A little story in the Desert Sun in 1940 read, “Bob Roberts, Hudson automobile dealer for Hollywood, and Mrs. Roberts have been visiting here in Palm Springs all week…