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

Contents:

• DAY DRKG AT THE “GAY BEACH OF NEW YORK”
• 10 BT GAY BEACH THE WORLD
• DISVER THE 10 BT GAY BEACH NORTH AMERI (AND WHERE TO STAY)
• GAY UNED KGDOM
• GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS LAKE GEE

DAY DRKG AT THE “GAY BEACH OF NEW YORK”

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) softball team, wh gay rights lear Barbara Gtgs kneelg at right, at Riis Beach, early 1970s.

10 BT GAY BEACH THE WORLD

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.

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.

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. Gee Chncey, Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of a Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994). “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.

DISVER THE 10 BT GAY BEACH NORTH AMERI (AND WHERE TO STAY)

“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.

GAY UNED KGDOM

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. ” After Stonewall, Riis beme a se of polil participatn where gay activists uld hold voter-registratn driv on the sand.

Baldg gay guys wh matchg potbelli eat guamole unr a circle of Life Is Good umbrellas; others throw back tall boys unr a shady tent. It's known today by lols as a gay beach, an affirmg space for queer and trans bodi to be publicly visible, but few know s history as such, which dat back nearly a century.The beach was named for the Progrsive-era photojournalist Jab Riis 1914.

A 1963 New York Tim feature dubs Jab Riis Park among the summer vatn spots "the New York homosexual n fd" that are "equented by his kd." Later 1974, the Tim noted that "Bay 1 at Riis Park...has for some years been a gatherg place of homosexuals." In a 1977 terview nducted by Rudy Grillo for lol rad statn WBAI, Stonewall veteran and grand marshal of the first Pri para "Mama" Jean DeVente rells her own experienc at Riis Park the mid-1950s. "We don't thk of queerns as havg such a long lifpan, but this has been a gay beach for longer than most people live," he ntu. An inic gay beach statn sce the 1970s, Fire Island is 5 kilometers off the ast of Long Island, New York, and pris a dozen beachsi muni.

GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS LAKE GEE

Sun-seekers who head to the longtime LGBT muny of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, n expect to mgle on the shor of gay-iendly Poodle Beach wh olr lol rints and vatng cy folks om Philalphia, Pennsylvania (207 kilometers), and Washgton, D. This town has a number of fay-iendly plac, such as CAMP Rehoboth, a full-service gay and lbian muny center that aniz summer events for all ag.

LGBT-owned bs have thrived here for s, particularly the gay nightlife the Broadway Corridor Alamos Beach, which clus venu like Mhaft, a pub for the jeans and leather crowd, and Paradise, a piano bar and eatery. Follow the rabow flags by the lifeguard towers surfsi at the foot of 12th Street to fd the epicenter of gay-iendly Miami Beach, Florida, 4 kilometers off the maland of Miami, Florida. This part of the beach is loud and proud, filled wh gay-iendly rtrants and bars that will tempt you to stay out all night.

Celebratg our 33rd season as a gay-owned, member's-only, adult-male mpground, at Jon Pond 's all about beg yourself. To get a sense of how the beach was g alive this season, I spent Memorial Day walkg along the boardwalk—toward the sounds of reggaeton and mbow and the smells of salt and suntan lotn—to survey the drkg scene at “the gay beach of New York.

Many are left wonrg what will happen to the plot of land the hospal habed; some have fears the spot will be taken over by velopers and transformed to a space that is no longer welg and nothg will ever tly pture the sense of The People’s Beach, there are some optns for those still seekg a queer-iendly summer two down is Fort Tiln, a seclud beach where gays gather when search of a more low-key, remote vibe.