There were gay-friendly neighborhoods in Riverside Park and Sailboat Bend. “They’ll never come back.”Īccording to the Fort Lauderdale News, the mayor’s goal was to eliminate every vestige of homosexual activity from the beach: “If he had his way, the Marlin Beach… will go straight.”įejes quotes the head of the city’s Hotel Resort and Hotel Association as chiming in, claiming that the presence of a gay hotel was “a social stigma and it will drive families away.”Īccording to Fejes, a professor at Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale had previously tolerated the gay and lesbian community. “If a family from the Midwest comes to Fort Lauderdale and sees men making love on the beach, what will they think?” Shaw said. And the reaction wasn’t all that pretty.Īccording to Gay Weekly News contributor Fred Fejes, after a few years of operating under the radar, the Marlin incited the wrath of Mayor E. When the Marlin Beach Hotel opened its doors in 1972, it was the first. Whether in brochures, online searches or even the Broward tourism publications, it is easy to find listings for gay-friendly hotels. But when the Marlin Beach Hotel opened in 1972, it made powerful enemies.
Today, Fort Lauderdale is known as a gay-friendly tourist destination.
