Gay Guide to Fire Island
Fire Island's two gay hamlets are among the oldest queer resort communities in the United States. Cherry Grove was already known as a safe haven by the 1950s, and in 1948 its Community House began staging what is described as America's first gay theatre, which still runs today. In 2013 the Community House and Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The island is car-free. Ferries cross the Great South Bay from Sayville to both hamlets, and boardwalks link the houses to the bay and the ocean beach. Cherry Grove is the come-as-you-are side, with the Ice Palace at the Grove Hotel, billed as the longest continually running LGBTQIA+ nightclub in the world, and drag, music and sunsets at Cherry's on the Bay.
Next door, the Pines is the sleeker scene, centred on its harbour. The Blue Whale has been there since 1966, the Pavilion is the dance club and Sip-n-Twirl the harbourside lounge, and the old Botel reopened in May 2026 as The Tryst, a 30-room hotel with a pool club. Afternoons run on the tea dance, starting at the Blue Whale and moving on to the Pavilion.
On 4 July 1976 a boatload of Cherry Grove drag queens sailed to the Pines after Teri Warren had been refused service at the Blue Whale for wearing drag. That protest became the Invasion of the Pines, which marked its 50th year in 2026 with almost 100 queens on the ferry. At the end of July, the Pines Party weekend raises money for the Pines Foundation and other causes with a Saturday night beach party that runs until dawn.
The season runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day and peaks in July and August. Most visitors stay in share houses or in the island's handful of hotels, among them the Grove Hotel and The Madison in the Pines.