Before Stonewall, Cherry Grove: How a Fire Island beach town beme a gay 'safe haven'

Contents:

• FIRE ISLAND: A GAY PARADISE OF SEX AND LIBERATN
• FIRE ISLAND GAY TRAVEL
• IS FIRE ISLAND A GAY RORT?
• BEFORE STONEWALL, CHERRY GROVE: HOW A BEACH TOWN BEME A GAY 'SAFE HAVEN'
• GAY BEACH STATNS PLAN FOR SUMMER, WH PANMIC MD
• EVERYTHG WE KNOW ABOUT FIRE ISLAND, A NEW GAY PRI AND PREJUDICE ADAPTATN

FIRE ISLAND: A GAY PARADISE OF SEX AND LIBERATN

From Osr Wil’s vis to the island 1882, to the steady velopment of Cherry Grove as “Ameri's First Gay and Lbian Town, ” Fire Island has long been a home and haven to LGBTQ visors and rints alike. Long before the Stonewall Rts set the movement for Gay Liberatn to motn, Fire Island provid an important enclave to rints and visors at a time when almost everythg about livg openly as a lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer (LGBTQ) person was illegal the Uned Stat. The Cherry Grove Communy Hoe is exceptnally signifint for the enormo role played shapg what gradually evolved to Ameri's First Gay and Lbian Town.

FIRE ISLAND GAY TRAVEL

As anizatns, the Cherry Grove Property Owners Associatn and Cherry Grove Arts Projects profoundly fluenced the muny's velopment, facilatg the gradual social acceptance, self-affirmatn, and tegratn of s gay and lbian rints to Cherry Grove's erng affairs and civic life. This tegratn of LGBTQ rints to daily life and events at s muny hoe afford Cherry Grove a sgular stat; beme the one of the first and, for many years, the only gay and lbian fluenced geography the Uned Stat. Its metamorphosis played out agast turbulent social and polil upheavals -- our natn's rponse to the pre- and early days of the homosexual liberatn movement.

The 1969 uprisg at the Stonewall Inn, which is largely creded as the turng pot the gay civil rights movement, has been documented by numero scholars. Loosely molled on Pri and Prejudice, Kim Booster's film shows Fire Island as a place of ntradictns; a space where you n be your thentic self, and let all hang out among iends, but also an tensely theatril space, where rol are performed, looks (judgmental, flirtat) are exchanged, and six-packs are rom- Fire Island pats a nuanced picture of s eedoms and hierarchi (Cred: Disney+)While readg Jane Aten one summer on Fire Island, Kim Booster "uldn’t help", he wrote a recent say for Pengu, but "map" the experienc of her characters "navigatg the limg social nventns of her time" onto "the siarly tortured social nventns of gay male spac". Edmund Whe, who wrote about a fictnalised versn of Fire Island his 1973 but novel Fettg Elena, not his memoir Cy Boy how the ruals of gay social life there "rhymed my imagatn wh the ruals of medieval Japan or Versaill".

IS FIRE ISLAND A GAY RORT?

Around the same time, queer and artsy folk om the cy were first disverg holiday rentals the small, stic muny of Cherry Grove, talysg a procs that would e to create what anthropologist Esther Newton lls "Ameri's first gay and lbian town". After a 1938 hurrine stroyed many of the ho Cherry Grove, Newton observ her history of the muny, gay men and lbians bought up much of the lots, then gog cheap, om the Long Island fai who prevly owned them.

BEFORE STONEWALL, CHERRY GROVE: HOW A BEACH TOWN BEME A GAY 'SAFE HAVEN'

The Grove's more upmarket neighbour, Fire Island P, was veloped later, the 1950s, as a "fay-iendly" muny, although this label didn't last for very long, spe the fact that numero gay homeowners had moved there om the Grove the hop that would act as a more discreet enclave. Reachable only by ferry and nnected entirely by boardwalks, the seclud Fire Island P and Cherry Grove neighborhoods are tly a gay paradise.

In ntrast to nearby lmer gay-popular towns like the Hamptons, people e to Fire Island for an actn-packed LGBT getaway. Before gettg to the tails of this Fire Island gay gui, the sectn below briefly vers the prec history of the Fire Island gay muni. When gay and lbian members of society had no protectns agast discrimatn based on sexual orientatn, the hamlets on Fire Island were leral p om mastream life.

GAY BEACH STATNS PLAN FOR SUMMER, WH PANMIC MD

Over the years, the gay muni of Fire Island P and Cherry Grove have ntued to grow populary, even spe stctive events like hurrin and buildg fir.

EVERYTHG WE KNOW ABOUT FIRE ISLAND, A NEW GAY PRI AND PREJUDICE ADAPTATN

They both are jt about 100% gay neighborhoods, not to mentn popular wh many gay celebri and fluential New Yorkers. In my opn, first-time Fire Island gay travelers should stay here sce provis more of the typil experience.