Sun, Sand, and Sk: Fire Island’s Gay Haven the Neteen-Seventi | The New Yorker

Contents:

• BEFORE STONEWALL, CHERRY GROVE: HOW A BEACH TOWN BEME A GAY 'SAFE HAVEN'
• CHERRY GROVE, WHERE GAY NEW YORKERS BEME ‘THEIR REAL SELV’
• GAY RORT FOR MEN
• SWEET ESPE: PHOTOGRAPHS OF FIRE ISLAND’S CHERRY GROVE SHOW ITS HISTORY AS A GAY SANCTUARY
• SAFE/HAVEN: GAY LIFE 1950S CHERRY GROVE
• SUN, SAND, AND SK: FIRE ISLAND’S GAY HAVEN THE NETEEN-SEVENTI
• CHERRY GROVE, FIRE ISLAND: SIXTY YEARS AMERI'S FIRST GAY AND LBIAN TOWN PAPERBACK – DECEMBER 3, 2014
• FIRE ISLAND GAY BEACH

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

A few away, was said to be a welg muny of gay people.

CHERRY GROVE, WHERE GAY NEW YORKERS BEME ‘THEIR REAL SELV’

Hartmann walked down, and what she saw is on display at a new exhib at the New-York Historil Society, as well as chronicled the 1993 book “Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years Ameri's First Gay and Lbian Town” by Esther Newton. Hartmann, now 90, was terviewed for the exhib, “Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry Grove, ” which opens Friday at the New-York Historil Society, on Manhattan's Upper Wt Si. And I’m gay.

GAY RORT FOR MEN

Hot Hoe, Grove Archiv CollectnCherry Grove was one of the first gay beach towns the Uned Stat, jog a handful of LGBTQ vatn spots and rorts that beme popular the pre-Stonewall era, along wh plac like Provcetown, Massachetts, and Sgatuck-Douglas, Michigan. In Cherry Grove, gay rints were able to form a muny, have a voice how thgs were n and be out. Cherry Grove Archiv CollectnCherry Grove was different om the cy, where the gay bars were n by the mob, acrdg to Sargent, who scribed the urban waterg hol as “dark and seedy clubs” where “you always had to be reful that the lights would e on, ” signalg a police raid.

” Cherry Grove ntued to evolve after the 1950s, movg om a sanctuary for mostly whe and affluent gay men and women to a more clive place wh the advent of the 1960s, as the civil rights movement gaed tractn and more mercial real tate the area led to affordable hog optns for greater swaths of the muny. "Cherry Grove Archiv CollectnPart of the missn behd “Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry Grove” is to create an archive where there has been none.

“It's gettg that material out there for people to see and to rewre our history a way that has been very blank bee we tend to thk that gay life started at Stonewall. … People have a look at gay history before Stonewall.

SWEET ESPE: PHOTOGRAPHS OF FIRE ISLAND’S CHERRY GROVE SHOW ITS HISTORY AS A GAY SANCTUARY

” Today, Cherry Grove remas a beloved summer statn for LGBTQ beachgoers, particularly lbians, as has the adjog muny of the Fire Island P, which has tradnally tered to gay men. Art & Dign|Cherry Grove, Where Gay New Yorkers Beme ‘Their Real Selv’ ADVERTISEMENTCherry Grove, Where Gay New Yorkers Beme ‘Their Real Selv’In the 1950s, the Fire Island hamlet was a refuge for gay men and lbians. Muny took shape among New Yorkers on a remote Fire Island hamlet known as Cherry, visors spent summer weekends sunbathg and partyg, formg one of the untry’s first gay beach towns when beg openly gay uld rult ostracism or imprisonment.

SAFE/HAVEN: GAY LIFE 1950S CHERRY GROVE

The imag “Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry Grove” e om the Cherry Grove Archiv Collectn, a volunteer anizatn formed 2011, about 40 years after the muny archivist Harold Seeley began assemblg Historil Society; Glenn Grove Archiv CollectnSome of the photographs show the quotidian ease and enjoyment that me wh exprsg outlawed sexualy a safe space: In one, a pair of men kiss at a hoe party; another, two women s close together on the beach. Still, gay men and lbians flocked there each summer, cludg the wrers Tennsee Williams, Patricia Highsmh and Tman Capote. The photographer Richard Avedon and his wife were also the photographers behd the imag rema mostly unknown, many were likely the gay whe men who first began to filtrate the island the late 1940s and 1950s, followed by lbians.

Acceptance — and the joy characteristic of the place — foretold the flourishg of gay and lbian life New York Cy and beyond, she said. ” Kravz/Cherry Grove Archiv CollectnA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn C, Page 13 of the New York edn wh the headle: Gay New Yorkers Beg, the 1950s. Come enjoy gay Fire Island at s ft.

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.

SUN, SAND, AND SK: FIRE ISLAND’S GAY HAVEN THE NETEEN-SEVENTI

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. 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.

CHERRY GROVE, FIRE ISLAND: SIXTY YEARS AMERI'S FIRST GAY AND LBIAN TOWN PAPERBACK – DECEMBER 3, 2014

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.

New York’s Fire Island, often referred to as Ameri’s first gay and lbian town, has been a summer statn for the LGBTQ+ muny sce at least the 1940s. Still today, an enormo rabow flag ntu to wele visors at the ferry docks, proudly proclaimg the area's inty as a gay island is currently home to 17 different small beach towns—cludg Ocean Beach, Fire Island P, and Cherry Grove—and the latter is one of the island’s most popular gay getaways.

Tled Safe/Haven, a new showse om Manhattan’s New York Historil Society explor gay life Cherry Grove durg the 1950s and beyond—dog so through a llectn of 70 enlarged photographs, on view until October 11th. Acrdg to the mm, many gay men and women traveled to Cherry Grove well before the Stonewall era. ” And while Cherry Grove has sce gone on to be a popular summer statn for all New Yorkers, s populary durg the early days of the gay pri movement was clearly even more poignant and Man Posg for Polaroid, 1959Photo: Courty of New York Historil Society/Cherry Grove Archiv Collectn/Gift of Don SteeplePhotographs the exhib pict Cherry Grove visors partakg elaborate stume parti and wearg fabulo, retro ensembl on the beach.

FIRE ISLAND GAY BEACH

Durg weekends and summers the pre-Stonewall era, gay men and women, cludg many New Yorkers, traveled to the seclud beach town of Cherry Grove on Fire Island where they found opportuni for sexual exploratn and self-exprsn—behavr that was both stigmatized and crimalized the straight world.

Aun, Carson McCullers, and Patricia Highsmh, the visors to the Grove took pleasure the stumed parti, theatril events, and liberated atmosphere that this gay sanctuary view outdoors New-York Historil’s rear urtyard, this exhibn explor the gay and lbian muny that flourished durg the 1950s Cherry Grove through some 70 enlarged photographs and addnal ephemera om the unique holdgs of the Cherry Grove Archiv Collectn. (Curated by Brian Clark, San Kravz, and Parker Sargent for the Cherry Grove Archiv Collectn and ordated at New-York Historil by Rebec Klassen, associate curator of material culture)Learn more:Shop books about Cherry Grove the NYHistory Store now, cludg Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years Ameri’s First Gay and Lbian Town; Koz Gay Fire Island: It's Good to be Us; and Masra, Mirth and Mayhem: Inpennce Day on Fire Island, a photography book by -curator San Kravz Related anizatns: Arts Project of Cherry Grove; Communy Associatn of Cherry Grove; Fire Island P Historil Society Documentari about Fire Island: Snap: Year of the Queen (directed by -curator Parker Sargent) The Panzi Invasn (directed by -curator Parker Sargent) Comg of Age Cherry Grove: The Invasn Cherry Grove StoriPodst about Fire Island: The Bowery Boys: A Very Gay History of Fire Island (featurg -curator Parker Sargent). Recently screened at the Sydney Film Ftival, Fire Island is a rom- spired by Jane Aten’s Pri and Prejudice, the film breakg tradnal nventns to feature gay romance as the plot.

The island qutn is a barrier island off the ast of Long Island, New York Cy, featurg a unique and threatened environment that has long been a gay sanctuary, providg a space of eedom and exprsn at a time when same-sex activy was still illegal and gay muni highly policed. To New York’s gay theatre personali, the Grove’s relaxed policg suggted eedom and safety, though they remaed outnumbered by the island’s wealthy heterosexuals. Amassg large bts the effort to rebuild, straight lols rented their properti to a younger metropolan crowd, a crowd who heard whispers of the island’s untamed bety throughout New York’s downtown gay scene.