Photos of New York's Beloved Inclive Gay Beach, Jab Riis Park That Feel Like Home

Contents:

• DIVERSE GAY BEACH - ROCKAWAY BEACH
• 10 BT GAY BEACH THE WORLD
• DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT
• REHOBOTH’S GALLERY 50 TO HOST SHOWS BY TWO GAY ARTISTS

DIVERSE GAY BEACH - ROCKAWAY BEACH

Historilly, has been the most popular gay beach New York Cy. "Gay Beach" at Riis Park, 1960.

Acrdg to Rodwell, gay men were nstantly harassed and given catns by police over alleged vlatns of the size of their bathg sus (Rodwell was later arrted for objectg to this). Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) voter registratn, 1971.

10 BT GAY BEACH THE WORLD

Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) softball team, wh gay rights lear Barbara Gtgs kneelg at right, at Riis Beach, early 1970s.

By the 1940s the most eastern end of the beach had bee a documented well-known statn for mostly whe gay men to sunbathe and cise. Durg the 1960s this area of the beach beme clothg optnal and was affectnately referred to as “Screech Beach” due to the gay prence.

Acrdg to future gay rights lear and bookshop owner Craig Rodwell, gay men were nstantly harassed and given catns by police over alleged vlatns of the size of their bathg sus. One of the bt Gay Rivieras the world…so crowd, nus go unnoticed. As a se of activism, the beach was the lotn of a 1971 voter registratn drive led by the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), one of the first gay rights groups to form after the 1969 Stonewall Uprisg.

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

Though, at tim, beachgoers have alt wh homophobia here over the years, the area still matas s queer inty as one of New York Cy’s popular and diverse LGBT public spac.

REHOBOTH’S GALLERY 50 TO HOST SHOWS BY TWO GAY ARTISTS

Gee Chncey, Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of a Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994). Hugh Hagi, ed., Swasarnt Nerf’s Gay Guis for 1949 (New York: Biblgay Publitns, 2010). Perry Brass, “Lost Gay New York: Riis Beach a.k.a., Screech Beach,” Queer New York June 25, 2010, b.ly/2ex9H5z.

When I ask why they e here, they all giggle before one of them tells me, “The gays. “Queers always exist at the margs, ” one of them says wryly; the gay part of the beach technilly li at the eastern edge of Riis Park, ont of the s of a tuberculosis sanatorium. “It feels like a gem the sense that I don’t particularly thk the beach is the prettit, but I thk the people are, ” says Abi Benez, -founr of Gayletter and a equent visor.

By 1963, the New York Tim was regnizg Riis as a place “the New York homosexual” uld fd iends of “his kd, ” and a lol guibook was llg “one of the bt Gay Rivieras the world … so crowd, nus go unnoticed.