Gay Guide to Miami Beach
In January 1977 Dade County passed an ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Anita Bryant, a singer and the public face of Florida orange juice, built a campaign called Save Our Children to overturn it, and on 7 June 1977 voters repealed it by better than two to one. The vote became a founding moment for the modern American religious right and, at the same time, handed the scattered gay movement a single national opponent it had lacked. Miami-Dade took twenty-one years to restore the protection, finally doing so in December 1998.
South Beach is the scene, concentrated on Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue. Twist is the institution, a warren of connected rooms that charges nothing at the door and stays open very late. The Palace does drag on the sidewalk facing the beach, with Score, Kill Your Idol on Española Way, Basement and the Foxhole nearby, and Hotel Gaythering on Lincoln Road is a gay hotel with its own bar and sauna attached.
12th Street Beach is the gay stretch of sand, straight off Ocean Drive and impossible to miss. Haulover, further north, is the county's clothing-optional beach and a genuinely established one rather than an unofficial corner.
The mainland has been taking a growing share for years. Club Space downtown runs the marathon terrace sessions it is famous for, R House in Wynwood built its name on drag brunch, and Wynwood Pride has become its own fixture separate from the beach.
Miami Beach Pride fills April, the Winter Party Festival brings the circuit crowd to the sand earlier in the year, and the OUTshine film festival runs alongside both. Season matters here more than in most places: winter is high season and the city is expensive and full, while late summer is hot, wet, cheap and much quieter.