Gay bars in pensacola

Pensacola, Florida wasn't supposed to be a place that was crucial in the movement for gay rights. It was the late s. The media all over the state instilled constant fear in residents and worked with local law enforcement to seek out gay hangouts to shame those who hung out in them. The panic is probably the reason so many gay bars, male physique publications, and organizations began to pop up in the s and 70s.

At the time postal workers often made a habit of opening plain brown packages addressed to single unmarried men. They kept lists that they would turn over to the police who could then target and harass these individuals as well as follow them to find more gay men to do the same.

Pensacola at this time had no gay bars, and the places gay men did congregate were often raided by police. Meeting other gay men was virtually impossible and the only way to really do so was to cruise parks or public restrooms.

Discovering the Heart of LGBTQ+ Pensacola!

Ray and Henry Hillyer gay to change that. They were lifetime lovers who chose to share their last name and came to the area in the early s. Ray was an artist for the St. In an effort to network more with local gay men who felt they had no social outlet, the Hillyers setup a P. They picked the name because they felt it was average and boring and wouldn't draw much attention.

Once a month a New Orleans lady friend would come to the area to check the P. Box and deliver the material to the Hillyer's house. The Hillyers even developed a social register of sorts of the gay population in the area which grew with every new delivery. On the Fourth of July in they threw the first of a series of annual beach parties.

The Fourth of July was chosen because it represents freedom and was a widely celebrated holiday. The beach was chosen because so many others would be at the beach already and a large group of gay men would be less noticeable amongst them. Each year the amount that would actually show up exceeded by a large margin the number of invitations sent out.

The beach parties became so well attended that they became victims of their own success. Police eventually did begin to show up and put a damper on the festivities. The hotel, once a grand jewel of the GiIded Age, was now a shadow of its old self. As a result, the hotel welcomed the gay community since they caused little trouble and had more expendable income than straight couples or families that once frequented the hotel.

While pensacola actual numbers are difficult to determine, it is thought that the events drew the same amount if not more people than those that attended the Christopher Street Liberation Day celebrations in June of the same time period. Benton Abbey was a reporter for The Figaro, a New Orleans based newspaper in the s known for its reporting of unconventional news topics, such as homosexuality.

With Pensacola so close by he set out on July 2, to find out who Emma was and why so many gay men bar drawn to this event. Concerned that not having an answer for who Emma Jones was would make his story for the newspaper lack substance he continued to navigate the convention from every corner of the hotel.