Gay bars pensacola beach florida

It was no different in the s, and the celebration became an important event for many gay men and women in the south. Now the space is taken up by fancy event space and a restaurant. Ray and Henry Hillyer were a couple in Pensacola who wanted to get and share copies of gay magazines.

But at a talk he gave in Pensacola, Watkins explained postal inspectors would sometimes intercept those publications. And Watkins says their choice of date was intentional—a political act—claiming their place in both the community and the country. And for the most part, things were going fine. The parties did pull in visitors from all over the south, but the idea of Pensacola as a gay capital was more of an epithet—thrown around by critics rather than a title regularly claimed by the men and women gathering on the beach.

Afterlocal law enforcement cracked down on the revelers and the beach parties largely went away. The pattern played out again in the s after similar parties started happening on Memorial Day weekend. Again, the gatherings grew year after year until they became too visible for some locals—this time Pensacola was termed the Gay Riviera.

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LGBT Beach Parties Have Deep Roots In Pensacola

Credit Nick Evans. He graduated inbut not before picking up an internship at WFSU. While he worked on his degree Nick moved from intern, to part-timer, to full-time reporter. He listens to far too many podcasts and is a die-hard 49ers football fan. See stories by Nick Evans. Related Content.

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