Gay bars pensacola beach fl
"If we don't keep track of that history, it is going to be lost. "I think it is a part of history that does need to be preserved and recorded," Chisholm said. "We can go to any bar in town now," he said.īut Chisholm, Watkins and others said the Memorial Day gatherings continue to have a special place in the hearts of many because they helped open the doors for the acceptance the LGBT community has today. With more widespread acceptance of the LGBT community, events such as the Memorial Day weekend parties have become less popular because people can go to so many other clubs and events, Chisholm said. The massive beach parties featuring stage acts with drag queens and dance music drew tens of thousands of visitors every Memorial Day. Johnny Chisholm, owner of the Emerald City nightclub, began organizing and promoting local Memorial Day LGBT parties in the early 1990s after having participated in the events in previous years. The name is a unique way to recognize the efforts of LGBT pioneers in the city, she said. It made a big impact," said Ashley Rupp, president of the film festival. "A lot of local business owners weren't happy with the LGBT community, so people started stamping their cash.
Organizers of Pensacola's annual LGBT film festival, held in October, adopted the named Stamped in tribute to the act. Organizers devised a unique way of letting locals know the importance of the event to the local economy - having visitors stamp the cash they used during the annual weekend to let people know it was "gay money." The beach gatherings were on the remote swath of Pensacola Beach near the eastern entrance to Gulf Islands National Seashore where people could gather away from other residents and tourists, he said.Īs the parties swelled to tens of thousands in the 1980s and 1990s, they garnered push back and protests from church groups and conservative leaders. "The locals lived with it because money was coming in," he said. The region's tourism-driven economy helped the parties to succeed in Pensacola during an era when gays were often shunned.
The popularity of the summer gatherings has ebbed and flowed through the years, but the events have been a constant influence on LGBT culture along the Gulf Coast, he said. The parties grew throughout the early 1970s, drawing estimated crowds of more than 4,000.