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One of the things I’ve always appreciated about South Florida is its openness. This is a community where people from all over the world, with widely varied backgrounds and interests, co-exist comfortably. The same is true of people with different sexual orientations. I’m not gay. But to me, greater Fort Lauderdale’s ready acceptance of gays and lesbians, and everyone else, is part of its charm.
I’ve lived in San Francisco. I’ve visited Key West many times. Both are known as gay-friendly places in the United States. I can honestly say that I find Fort Lauderdale just as open to diverse lifestyles as those cities. I often go for coffee to a spot called Stork’s, a lovely waterside café on Las Olas, whose customers include many gay and lesbian folks. On Sunday, a straight couple threw a kid’s birthday party there – six young children, two teens, a man and a woman. All sitting there, laughing and playing among the gay and straight singles. Everyone got along wonderfully. To me, it was another reminder about how easily we all mix here.
Wilton Manors has become a major hot spot for gays, with many shops, restaurants and clubs specifically catering to a gay clientele – as do lots of other businesses around Broward County. This is a live and let live kind of place. Most of us around here, including most of the politicians, treasure our culture of diversity.. It’s part of the fabric of greater Fort Lauderdale, just like the sunshine and the sea.
I’ve lived in San Francisco. I’ve visited Key West many times. Both are known as gay-friendly places in the United States. I can honestly say that I find Fort Lauderdale just as open to diverse lifestyles as those cities. I often go for coffee to a spot called Stork’s, a lovely waterside café on Las Olas, whose customers include many gay and lesbian folks. On Sunday, a straight couple threw a kid’s birthday party there – six young children, two teens, a man and a woman. All sitting there, laughing and playing among the gay and straight singles. Everyone got along wonderfully. To me, it was another reminder about how easily we all mix here.
Wilton Manors has become a major hot spot for gays, with many shops, restaurants and clubs specifically catering to a gay clientele – as do lots of other businesses around Broward County. This is a live and let live kind of place. Most of us around here, including most of the politicians, treasure our culture of diversity.. It’s part of the fabric of greater Fort Lauderdale, just like the sunshine and the sea.
posted by LauderBLOGGER at 4:41 PM
Your comments are interesting, to say the least. I still don't understand how it is appropriate to identify oneself by a private behavior, such as sex.
Also, where is the e-mail link to this website? According to the Sun-Sentinel the tourism board has said they "have received several e-mails" stating concerns over our gay problem here in Ft. Lauderdale. How do you receive e-mails if you don't have one?
Lastly, with the removal of Mayor Naugle from the Tourism Board, Ft. Lauderdale has just screamed loud and clear that it is Anti-Family.
Thanx.
Hi and thanks for your comments. Dialogue is always good, don't you think? I agree with you about anyone feeling the need to identify themselves by sexual orientation. In principle. In reality, however, it simply is a reality of our time.
I don't think many folks around this area see any problem with any group: gay, straight, black, white or pink. And to say that this area is "anti-family" is, to my mind, a misrepresentation of anything I see happening around me each day. Families are welcomed in greater Fort Lauderdale. This area thrives off diversity and tolerance and inclusion. Thanks again for your views, though!
Bob
Hey anonymous,
Open your eyes...If Fort Lauderdale is anti-family, then Washington D.C. is anti-politics.
The year is 2007 -- and your biased comments, especially the bit about our "gay problem" -- smack of something one might hear in 1957. Thanks for the memories.
By the way, the fact that you don't understand something certainly does not make it a problem. And no, I'm not homosexual.
-Matt C.
If people (gay or straight) are having sex in public rest rooms and the local government won't enforce decency laws then the area should be considered anti family.
Yes, you're quite right, of course. IF people, gay or straight, were having sex in public restrooms frequently and the authorities weren't making arrests, then one might have concerns about visits to that community. But the reality is that the Fort Lauderdale Police Department reports that they have made four arrests in public restrooms since 2005. If there were a problem, then we would encourage the City to clean it up. I have lived in this area for 18 years. Let's just say that I have used many public restrooms in that period. I have NEVER, not once, seen any sexual activity in any of them. The suggestion that this activity goes on all the time in Fort Lauderdale, or even semi-regularly, simply is the result of someone's overactive imagination. It is not supported by the facts. Anybody who has spent even a couple of days in our city knows this is true.
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