Miami Always Gay Friendly | Greater Miami & Miami Beach

Contents:

• THE TEN MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS MIAMI'S GAY HISTORY
• MIAMI THEN AND NOW ALWAYS GAY FRIENDLY
• LGBTQ FLORIDA: GAY & LBIAN WALKG TOUR MIAMI BEACH
• MB GAY HISTORY 101
• MIAMI AND MIAMI BEACH IS THE GAY GETAWAY YOU NEED RIGHT NOW!
• YOUR GUI TO EXPLORG GAY MIAMI
• MIAMI GAY BEACH
• THE TEN MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS MIAMI'S GAY HISTORY

THE TEN MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS MIAMI'S GAY HISTORY

At the 1972 Democratic Natnal Conventn, a woman named Male Davis lled for somethg new: The party, she said, should clu gay rights s platform. Davis, the first out lbian legate at a major party nventn, clared that gay people were "here to put an end to our fears. A few months before Davis' speech, the cy played host to what some believe to be the first anized gay pri week, which began as a prott agast the cy's anti-cross-drsg law.

Once aga, gay rights activists were a major prence, holdg protts outsi. But om s earlit days as an untamed, fantastil playground for the rich to s emergence as an ever-changg global mec, the cy has been the settg for moments of both triumph and feat the slow march toward gay equaly — moments that had profound implitns beyond the cy's borrs.

From the cy's earlit days, long before the begng of the gay liberatn movement, queer people had rved out plac for themselv Miami — much to the chagr of the nservative lg class. In later years, the passage of antidiscrimatn legislatn Da County sparked what would bee a natnal movement agast gay rights, as well as an unprecented mobilizatn of the gay muny. Ku Klux Klan Raid on La Paloma Gay Bar, 1937.

MIAMI THEN AND NOW ALWAYS GAY FRIENDLY

Bryant — a 36-year-old former Miss Ameri nnep, sger, and Florida orange juice spokperson — took the stand that outlawg workplace and hog discrimatn agast gay people would "discrimate agast [her] children's right to grow up a healthy, cent muny. It was one of the first major mpaigns agast the gay rights movement sparked by Manhattan's Stonewall Rts, which followed a police raid of a club that weled gays 1969. At the same time, Bryant's csa — which brand gay people as perverts and lked homosexualy to pedophilia — uned and activated the gay muny a way that had never been seen before.

"The Ana Bryant mpaign, to me, is one of the most, if not the most, pivotal or semal moments policizg gay people the Uned Stat, " Capó says. But so, too, me the gay muny's galvanizg to fight back.

LGBTQ FLORIDA: GAY & LBIAN WALKG TOUR MIAMI BEACH

But Cuba, they ran the risk of beg thrown to a forced labor mp if their relatnship was disvered by the dictatorship, which nsired homosexualy to be antirevolutnary. Beyond swellg the cy's gay populatn wh queer exil such as Rodriguez and Gonzalez, who were eager to pe opprsn Cuba, the mass emigratn forced a kd of reckong over a homophobic immigratn policy. Shor, Capó says, the untry barred homosexual foreigners om entry.

Among the nearly 125, 000 people fleeg Cuba were thoands of self-intified homosexuals the Castro regime had emed unsirable.

MB GAY HISTORY 101

"In this way, the Uned Stat' long-standg antimunist rhetoric tmped s long-standg anti-gay immigratn policy. " Rather than screeng for homosexualy, immigratn workers would ny gay people only if they disclosed their sexual orientatn unsoliced — a policy change that ultimately would lead to immigrants beg granted asylum on the basis of their sexualy. Meanwhile, Ameri beme a permanent home to somewhere around a thoand gay Marielos, cludg Rodriguez and Gonzalez, who, after more than 50 years together, are married and livg Miami.

The longtime uple was anx to fd out whether Miami-Da Circu Judge Sarah Zabel would lift a stay on her lg that the state's gay marriage ban was unnstutnal.

Over the next week, gay upl said "I do" across the Sunshe State, the 36th to legalize same-sex marriage before beme the law of the land later that year. That the first same-sex marriage took place Miami-Da County — where Ana Bryant began her natnal csa agast gay rights and where so many other pivotal moments played out — was ftg. Miami has had a gay nightlife scene as early as the 1930s.

MIAMI AND MIAMI BEACH IS THE GAY GETAWAY YOU NEED RIGHT NOW!

From then on, would be a rolleraster of ups and downs, filled wh progrs, failure, celebratns, and heartbreak Miami LGBT history, leadg to our current stat as a gay mec that attracts more than 1 ln LGBT visors a year.

YOUR GUI TO EXPLORG GAY MIAMI

A place wh s own chamber of merce dited to the queer muny sce 1997, and where Art Smh hosted and officiated a mass gay weddg for more than two dozen upl this past Febary. Of urse, didn’t happen right away, and the early gay nightlife scene of the 1930s was not long-lived. This silent film shows a police raid on a Miami gay bar 1957.

MIAMI GAY BEACH

In 1964, a Florida legislative mtee led by Senator Charley Johns published Homosexualy and Cizenship Florida, also known as the Purple Pamphlet, as part of a wch hunt to seek out gays and bisexuals workg schools, universi, and ernment jobs, who they believed were termed to “subvert the Amerin way of life by ntrollg amic stutns and by rptg the natn’s moral fiber, ” acrdg to Carry’ on the Lbian and Gay South. Acrdg to The Encyclopedia of Lbian and Gay Histori and Cultur, “The first anized gay pri week was celebrated Miami Beach early 1972 wh a march on Lln Road prottg a cy law banng cross-drsg.

THE TEN MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS MIAMI'S GAY HISTORY

In Augt of that year, hundreds of gays and lbians joed thoands of prottors at the 1972 Republin Natnal Conventn Miami Beach.

In January 1977, an ordance passed banng discrimatn agast gays and lbians.

Two years earlier 1994, the st of The Real World: San Francis clud Pedro Zamora, a Miami gay man fightg AIDS. “You were trippg over gays.

Leonard Horowz, the openly gay founr of the Miami Dign Prervatn League, was propelled to the public spotlight the 1980s for his dited efforts to promote and prerve Miami’s Art De archecture, alongsi founr Barbara Capman. Save Da, which ntu to promote equaly for LGBT members of the muny, was found 1993, and 1998, equal rights for gays and lbians beme unty law. At the same time, Miami has always had a grty si, and the gay muny volved bathho and anonymo sex Flamgo Park, at the same time as the AIDS epimic swept through the untry.

There was a new wave htg the Beach, one that clud more mercialism and homogeny.

This began a pilgrimage to Broward, pecially to Fort Lrdale and s neighbor Wilton Manors, which has bee a gay mec s own right, ranked as the cy wh the send hight percentage of LGBT rints the untry as of the 2010 cens, makg up 14 percent of s populatn of jt over 11, 000. Miami Beach may be glz and glamour, but Wilton Manors is a fay town, and the two are close enough that there’s plenty of overlap between the two famo gayborhoods. Acrdg to the prevailg story, the origal owners put the word u the name an effort to not offend anyone, sce the beach right across the street was known as a popular gay hnt.

It stantly beme popular wh the gay muny, and the shop began addg liquor to s juic, eventually offerg drag shows. As rents priced out other gay bs, the Palace persevered, and ’s now the only gay bar on Ocean Drive.

The cy has been a pneer for ci all over the untry, wh openly gay elected officials and servic for LGBT youth, senrs, and the homels. From Twist, Sre, and the bevy of themed queer nights at lol bars, to Hotel Gaytherg, Miami Beach’s only gay hotel, opportuni to celebrate LGBT culture abound.