Florida’s panhandle hosted the largt gay event the untry for years - LGBTQ Natn

gay pensacola beach 2018

Florida has long been known as one of the world's premier gay travel statns. Here's our list of the top 10 bt gay beach Florida.

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GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS PENSALA BEACH

* gay pensacola beach 2018 *

That’s when lbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgenr people scend on Pensala Beach for a weekend of revelry, rary, and ivoly. As a gay man, I will never fet the overwhelmg sense of awe when I first vised Pensala Beach on Memorial Day the early 2000’s. From private rooms and apartments to LGBTQ-iendly hotels, you have the optn to stay the heart of gay districts as well as other neighborhoods the plac you vis.

A loft Soho, a shared room Barcelona or the Castro, a gay-iendly hotel Le Marais or Chelsea, experience misterb&b all gay travel statns! While Natnal Pri Month is observed June followg the history of the 1969 New York Cy Stonewall Rts, which set a talyst for the gay right’s movement, Pensala’s pri gathergs date back to the early 1960s.

OUT THE SUN: FLORIDA’S TOP 10 GAY BEACH

Growg up, there were only two gay people at my high school, ” said Samore. I n actually remember the moment my life when I disvered that the vio store actually had a gay and lbian sectn— was emotnal.

From gay Florida party statns such as Miami, Key Wt and Fort Lrdale to mellow, seclud spots St. Pete Beach and Sarasota, here are some of bt gay beach Florida.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS PENSALA BEACH

The most popular gay beach Miami is mostly a hangout for men, but you’ll also fd lbians and straights soakg up the sun wh lols.

It’s across the street om the Palace Rtrant & Bar, a gay hangout that has been welg sunbathers for the past 25 years. Bt time to vis: In March, when the Wter Party, the biggt gay beach party North Ameri, tak place. At 2½ long, Smathers is big pared to other beach on this ty island of Key Wt, one of the natn’s top statns for gay travelers.

FLORIDA’S PANHANDLE HOSTED THE LARGT GAY EVENT THE UNTRY FOR YEARS

Info: Gay Key Wt Visor Center.

The most popular gay beach  Fort Lrdale is across the street om the Rz-Carlton and wh blocks of some of the cy’s gay rorts and gutho. One of the wt ast’s premiere gay beach, bohemian Sunset Beach is on the southern tip of St.

Bt tim to vis: In October for the Tampa Bay Internatnal Gay and Lbian Film Ftival, or June for St. Info: Tampa Bay Internatnal Gay and Lbian Films Ftival, St.

PENSALA BEACH’S GAY MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATN

Bt tim to vis: In October for the Tampa Bay Internatnal Gay and Lbian Film Ftival, ; June for St. Smathers Beach Key Wt, one of the natn’s top statns for gay travelers. Pete Beach, the breathtakg, stic North Beach area of this unty park has a northern expanse near the end of the island where gays and lbians ngregate.

The quiet northern reach of this whe sand key is popular wh gay sunbathers Sarasota. There’s an unofficial gay meet-up at Guana’s first beach accs pot, reached by a boardwalk that wds down a 40-foot-tall dune system to a priste stretch of seclud sand. Pensala Beach cy near the Alabama borr may not seem like the most gay-iendly spot, but ’s been a beach getaway for LGBTQ folks om the South for a long time, particularly for Gay Memorial Day Weekend, which started rmally the 1980s and has grown to a huge gatherg, drawg thoands to late-night circu parti wh well-known profsnal DJs and rmal tent parti on the beach.

GAY WEEK 2010 QUTN PLEASE?? - PENSALA BEACH FOM

Bt time to vis: May for the Pensala Gay Memorial Day Weekend.

About 20 mut north of South Beach, Hlover Park Beach is one of the bt-known clothg-optnal beach Florida and ’s gay-iendly. Only the north part of the 1½-e priste, whe stretch of sand at this gay beach the Miami area is legated for urban nu sunbathers.

Stonewall Beach, a swath of sand near the Pompano Beach pier, was unoffilly named by lol gay rints on the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, a seri of spontaneo monstratns followg police raids New York's Greewich Village 1969.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS PENSALA

Jt ask the members of the gay muny of Pensala, once known as “The Gay Capal of the South. ”“Over the years there's been a lot of change the way Northwt Florida has teracted wh the LGBTQ muny, ” says Louis Cooper, print of Gay Grassroots, the anizer of the annual PensalaPRIDE cultural awarens theme, the progrs of the LGBTQ muny the time sce the rabow flag first was unfurled 1978, is the foc of this year’s PensalaPRIDE, which kicks off Saturday wh the Ftival the Park Seville Square and ntu wh a seri of four addnal events over the next week.

There were ads on the rad for the mercial (gay-oriented) events. Now the public knew that 'the homosexuals' all me to Pensala and a lol DJ joked that Pensala was beg a gay pal.

THE STAY FOR THE GAY

” Nightclubs were raid, and the then-mayor boasted that gays had been “round up” and were no longer wele the cy.

“Queerg" revers the fotten and erased history of gay men and lbians North Florida, a regn often overlooked the story of the LGBTQ experience the Uned Stat.

GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS PENSALA BEACH

The gay-iendly beach is known for s stunng whe sand beach, turquoise waters, and warm weather, makg a popular vatn spot for beachgoers, fai, and outdoor enthiasts. Proceed through the park, and will soon enunter a gay cisg area and sometim people wh flags jt so you know you're the right spot.

Emma Jon turned out to simply be a ver for a regular gay gatherg on the beach Pensala Florida, startg on the Fourth of July 1964. The Advote once scribed the celebratns as one of the “largt gay anized events the untry.

While today the area has a handful of gay bars, back then, there was nowhere for the gays to go. Regis Paper Company and Henry worked the display partment at Gayfers Department Store. In an effort to work more wh lol gay men who felt they had no social outlet, the uple set up a P.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS PENSALA BEACH

The Hillyers sought to share this experience wh other gays the area.

In keepg wh the ia of matag this safe social outlet for gays the area the Hillyers began keepg a social registry. As a rult, the hotel weled the gay muny pecially sce they had more expendable e than straight upl and fai that once equented the tablishment.

In fact, the hotel had already been noted many gay guis as a popular place to stay the Pensala area. For the next few years the gay men would start the day out at the beach and make their way back to the hotel’s ballroom where there would be mic, dancg, drag shows, and ntts. At the time he worked for The Figaro, a New Orleans based newspaper the 1970s known for s reportg of unnventnal news topics, such as homosexualy.

PENSALA BEACH’S GAY MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATN

In 1971 he attend the annual gatherg and found himself standg the lobby of the Hotel San Carlos and amidst the many gay men around him were signs notg the “Emma Jon Society Conventn. He noted that for this weekend every bs around downtown Pensala seemed gay: every bar, every rtrant, and every store.

US Gay” ntt.

Jerry Watks III, who has rearched the nventn great tail, said of the event near s end, “The Emma Jon Society parti [the Hillyers] hosted were wrten about as a gay event on the ont page of the paper by the 1970s.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY PENSACOLA BEACH 2018

Pensala bt gay acmodatns: book rooms, apartments & hotels .

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