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Steve Rothaus

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida - for and about (but not just) LGBT people

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We’ve moved! Steve Rothaus’ Gay South Florida is now a section on the new MiamiHerald.com

new GSF

Click here for all the latest LGBT stories, photos and videos at Steve Rothaus’ Gay South Florida.

Update your bookmarks. The quick link: www.miamiherald.com/gay

We’re now a full section at the new MiamiHerald.com, including local, national and foreign stories of interest to the LGBT community.

From now on, all Gay South Florida content will be fully visible on any device, including smartphones, tablets and desktops.

Also, you’ll be able to comment directly to Facebook from any story posted to Gay South Florida.

This blog will no longer be updated, but will remain available to quickly find earlier stories.

If you have any questions, contact me at [email protected]

Thanks for visiting!

September 18, 2014 in AIDS and Health, Arts, Bisexual, Books, Bullying, Business, Census, Crime, Current Affairs, Fashion, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Immigration, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Military, Music, Obituary, Palm Beach County, Pets, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (4)

‘The Day It Snowed In Miami: A Chronology of the LGBT-Rights Movement’ to premiere in March

SNOW poster

‘The Day It Snowed In Miami,’ a chronology of the LGBT-rights movement focusing on its early days during the Anita Bryant campaign in Miami-Dade County, is a feature-length documentary by Joe Cardona in association with the Miami Herald Media Company and WPBT2.

The film will air locally at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 6, on WPBT2 and nationally on PBS throughout the rest of 2014.

A premiere screening will be Tuesday, March 4, at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach. Tickets go on sale soon.

Click here to see the trailer and read our new 'The Day It Snowed In Miami' page.

January 31, 2014 in AIDS and Health, Arts, Bisexual, Books, Bullying, Business, Census, Crime, Current Affairs, Fashion, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Immigration, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Military, Music, Obituary, Palm Beach County, Pets, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Read the top stories: Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida available by email in free daily newsletter

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida is now conveniently available in a free daily Miami Herald newsletter.

Each newsletter features the last 10 postings, so you'll never miss a thing!

Just enter your email address in the Newsletter Sign-up field on the left rail with my photo, just below the Facebook icon.

Also, click here to read Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida on Facebook. And don't forget to hit the "Like" button.

September 26, 2013 in AIDS and Health, Arts, Bisexual, Books, Bullying, Business, Census, Crime, Current Affairs, Fashion, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Immigration, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Military, Music, Obituary, Palm Beach County, Pets, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Journalist-blogger in Cuba seeks to count all LGBT people, couples living on island

According to Havana Times, Cuban journalist-blogger Francisco Rodríguez is seeking to identify all the LGBT people and couples on the island.

From Havana Times:

How many homosexuals are there in Cuba? How many same-sex couples are living together? How many transsexuals does the island have? And how many bisexual and lesbian households exist in Cuba?

Rodríguez will conduct the survey from Sept. 15-24, according to Havana Times.

Click here to read more.

September 04, 2012 in Bisexual, Business, Census, Current Affairs, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Politics, Religion, Transgender, Weblogs, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Read the top stories: Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida now available by email in free newsletter

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida is now conveniently available in a free Miami Herald newsletter.

Just enter your email address in the Email Newsletter Sign-up field on the left rail with my photo, just below the Facebook icon. Thanks and enjoy!

May 04, 2012 in AIDS and Health, Arts, Bisexual, Books, Bullying, Business, Census, Crime, Current Affairs, Fashion, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Immigration, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Military, Music, Obituary, Palm Beach County, Pets, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Read the top stories: Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida now available by email in free newsletter

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida is now conveniently available in a free weekly Miami Herald newsletter.

On the blog, just enter your email address in the sign-up field on the left rail with my photo, just below the Facebook icon. Thanks and enjoy!

September 09, 2011 in AIDS and Health, Arts, Bisexual, Books, Bullying, Business, Census, Crime, Current Affairs, Fashion, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Immigration, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Military, Music, Obituary, Palm Beach County, Pets, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Census confirms it: Wilton Manors in No. 2 nationally for most gay couples per 1,000

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, [email protected]

For more than a decade, Wilton Manors has been known anecdotally as South Florida’s gayest city. Day and night, same-sex couples promenade hand-in-hand along the main drag, Wilton Drive, which is lined with rainbow flags, gay and lesbian bars and shops with names like Gaysha sushi and Gay Mart.

Now, the 2010 U.S. Census has provided numbers to back up that reputation: With about 140 per 1,000, Wilton Manors is the No. 2 city nationally in percentage of same-sex couples, second to Provincetown, Mass.

The demographics of Wilton Manors developed over 15 years, after the first major gay bar, Georgie’s Alibi, opened in the boarded-up shell of a shuttered bank in the heart of Wilton Drive and sparked the revival.

Since then:

  • Real-estate prices skyrocketed, peaking in 2007 at nearly $400,000 for the average single-family home.
  • Wilton Manors has become a comfortable place for gay people to live and work, providing an alternative to traditional gay-friendly places, such as Fort Lauderdale and South Beach.
  • The gay community has evolved and matured as people settled down in relationships and sought a quieter, family-friendly place to put down roots.

Vincent Frato, Alibi’s general manager, said Wilton Manors is “a very convenient neighborhood to live in.”

“It’s one of the few neighborhoods in South Florida that you can park your car when you come home and walk to the grocery store, walk through the neighborhood, walk to a bar,” he said.

Until about 15 years ago, “nobody wanted to put Wilton Manors as their [postal] address, they used Fort Lauderdale,” said Coldwell Banker Realtor Andy Weiser, who has sold homes in the area since 1998.

“It was very down market, very déclassé at the time. But not any more,” Weiser said. “During the boom, prices in Wilton Manors were rivaling many parts of Fort Lauderdale. Now that prices have readjusted, prices are lower, but they’re much higher than they ever were before gentrification.”

In 1996, the year before Alibi opened, the average single-family home in Wilton Manors was worth $85,612. In 2007, the average price was $396,150. In 2011, it is $215,548, according to Ron Gunzburger, general counsel for the Broward Property Appraiser’s Office.

By contrast, the average single-family home in similar-size Dania Beach sold for $76,476 in 1996, $328,426 in 2008 and $150,087 in 2011.

Before the Wilton Manors renaissance, many Broward gays and lesbians lived in Fort Lauderdale’s Victoria Park neighborhood, Weiser said.

“When Victoria Park was gentrified, everybody moved on to Wilton Manors,” Weiser said. “The prices were incredibly, incredibly low. ... When the properties began to be renovated, people began to take notice of it. All of a sudden it wasn’t this rundown neighborhood.”

Wilton Manors Commissioner Scott Newton has lived there since 1960, when he was 3.

“This city was a middle-class to low-class redneck community,” Newton said. “As the years progressed, the community got transformed to a more elegant neighborhood.”

Jennifer Morales, whose partner Laurie Whittaker owns Sidelines Sports Bar on Wilton Drive, says “it’s a delight” to live and work there.

“You feel a sense of — I don’t want to say freedom — relaxation, and being able to be who you are without any kind of fear of retribution. The people are wonderful.”

Gays and lesbians began moving to Wilton Manors from faraway places like New York and Washington, and nearby Northeast Miami-Dade and South Beach.

South Beach was the region’s internationally known gay destination through the ‘90s and into the new century, but when it got increasingly expensive, crowded and to some, chaotic, gays began to leave.

Jason Tamanini moved from Philadelphia to South Florida 10 years ago and managed Halo bar (now Mova) on Lincoln Road from 2007-09.

“When it was a gay mecca” in the 1980s and ‘90s, South Beach was very affordable, Tamanini said.

“You could have a one-bedroom apartment on Meridian [Avenue ] for next to nothing, but when I was living there, I was paying $1,600,” he said. “Sometimes South Beach can be intimidating. It became too fabulous. The average person wants to go out to a restaurant, go to a bar without dressing to the nines and paying a $30 cover.”

Two years ago, he helped open The Manor restaurant and nightclub complex on Wilton Drive.

“It’s filling a void in Wilton Manors ... making a more affordable product that appeals to the masses,” said Tamanini, The Manor’s general manager.

Carol Moran moved from the Beach to Wilton Manors in 1993, after growing weary “of riding around for a half-hour trying to find a parking space.”

Also, Moran got tired of living “in a 500-square-foot apartment” and wanted more for her money. “[Wilton Manors] was so cheap and as close to the beach as you could get,” she said.

Most importantly, Moran liked that “I can walk hand in hand with [partner Nancy Goldwin] and no one is going to say anything.”

Moran gave up her corporate job at Red Lobster and opened Kicks, a lesbian bar on Wilton Drive, in 1998. She sold Kicks in 2003 and opened another lesbian bar, New Moon, in ’05.

“I wanted to be on Wilton Drive because I want people to know we have just as much money, just as much power,” Moran said. “We’re just as wealthy, just as poor. We are the same.”

Many in Wilton Manors attribute the city’s revival to George Kessinger and his namesake bar, Georgie’s Alibi.

“I hate to say a bar is what changed a town, but it really had a lot to do with it,” said Weiser, the Realtor.

Alibi is in a strip-shopping center at 2266 Wilton Dr. When Kessinger first saw the property, it was a boarded-up former bank without electricity. The main reason he liked the site: plenty of parking.

“The first thing we did was take down the boards and expose the storefront windows,” Kessinger said. “We proceeded to open a bar. A video bar. The concept was a place that everyone wanted to hang out in. When we first opened, we figured it would be a mom-and-pop organization and we’d work it.”

Kessinger said the day Alibi opened, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, a line of men waited to get in.

Eventually, Kessinger opened Alibis in St. Petersburg and Palm Springs, Calif. Five years ago, he sold the Wilton Manors location to life partners Jackson Padgett and Mark Negrete, who also own a gay bar across the street, Bill’s Filling Station.

Wilton Manors’ gay community first gained national attention after the 2000 Census, when it was determined that between 11 percent and 17 percent of couples sharing homes were "unmarried partners" of the same sex.

Same-sex couples in Florida and most of the United States can’t legally marry. But last year for the first time, the Census actively encouraged gay and lesbian couples to identify themselves as married or domestic partners, said Gary Gates, a demographer at The Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California, Los Angeles, law school.

In the 2010 Census, 65,601 same-sex couples in Florida identified themselves. Just more than half (53 percent) are female couples, and 18 percent of the couples are raising children, according to The Williams Institute.

Nationally, 901,997 same-sex couples identified themselves, 7.7 couples per 1,000. The actual number of gay people throughout the United States is unknown. The Census did not count gays and lesbians who are single, and it is likely that many gay couples did not identify themselves as such, Gates said.

In 2010, 871 same-sex couples reported living in Wilton Manors, about 14 percent of all households in the city.

The high number of same-sex couples is the reason Wilton Manors Elementary School must be filled with students from outside the city, Commissioner Newton said.

The school has 596 pupils this year; only 270 are Wilton Manors residents. “It’s a magnet school, so a lot of them come from the outside,” Newton said.

Gays and lesbians have fully integrated within Wilton Manors business, civic and political circles. Many community leaders, including Mayor Gary Resnick, are gay.

The city’s first gay mayor, John Fiore, was elected in 2000. He was succeeded two years later by another gay man, Jim Stork. At the time, Wilton Manors had the only gay-majority commission in the eastern United States.

Sometimes, there is political conflict. Days after he spoke against gays openly serving in the military, conservative U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, canceled a speaking appearance at the private Wilton Manors Business Association after local gay activists threatened a kiss-in protest.

Still, most everyone, gay and straight, gets along in Wilton Manors, according to Newton, who says he often parties at Alibi, The Manor — “even Full Moon,” the lesbian bar.

Years ago, he took his son Patrick, then age 6 or 7, to a gay restaurant in town. “Some of the men were dressed up in drag, short sleeves with hairy arms,” Newton said.

Patrick said, “Daddy, that’s a man in a dress.”

“We had a good laugh,” Newton recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah, some men wear dresses around here,’ and we moved on.”

Other top South Florida rankings for same-sex couples: Oakland Park (981 couples or 5.6 percent); Miami Shores (177 couples, or 4.9 percent); Fort Lauderdale (2,677 couples, or 3.6 percent); Key West (375 couples or 3.4 percent); Monroe County (710 couples or 2.2 percent); Broward County (9,660 couples or 1.4 percent); and Hollywood (710 couples or 1.2 percent).

September 08, 2011 in Bisexual, Business, Census, Current Affairs, Florida, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Palm Beach County, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Transgender, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (27) | TrackBack (0)

U.S. Census show number of Florida same-sex households on the rise

Census numbers show same-sex couples now willing to be counted, indicating a trend of greater social acceptance.

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI, [email protected]

The 2010 Census counted some 65,000 same-sex households across Florida, many of them raising children, data released Thursday shows.

The number of people reporting on their Census forms that they are in same-sex relationships represents a tiny percentage of the state’s 7.4 million households, the data shows. About 46 percent of state households are made up of husband-wife couples, according to the data, part of a massive release of statistical tables compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau based on last year’s decennial count.

The Census Bureau and some experts released statements warning that the same-sex numbers may be erroneous, however. The bureau said it will issue a revised table at a later date.

The same-sex household numbers have been among the most eagerly awaited of the 2010 Census, in part because for the first time they reflect how many gay couples are raising children. Later this year, the Census Bureau will report another first -- how many same-sex couples report being married. This is the third Census in which the bureau has enumerated same-sex couples, but the first since a few states - not including Florida - began allowing gay couples to legally wed.

Some same-sex couples in Florida got married in other states.

The uncertainly over the numbers’ significance underscores the pitfalls involved in the government’s efforts to count a social minority that until relatively recently was widely stigmatized and largely unacknowledged.

Despite the statistical issues, however, experts who have followed the state-by-state releases over the past several weeks say they have seen a clear trend: increases of around 50 percent since the 2000 Census in reported same-sex households virtually everywhere. On a broad scale, they say, that doesn’t represent an increase in the number of same-sex households so much as a greater willingness by gay couples to report accurately to the government.

That willingness, in turn, reflects a greater social acceptance of same-sex couples across the country, said Gary Gates, distinguished scholar at the UCLA law school’s Williams Institute, which focuses on legal issues related to sexual orientation. Some of the biggest jumps in reported same-sex households since 2000 came in conservative areas and states like Montana, he said.

Florida saw a jump from some 40,000 reported same-sex households in 2000, an increase of more than 50 percent. Though Gates cautioned that the precise numbers may be inaccurate, he said statistical errors alone cannot account for the significant rise. In fact, he says annual Census Bureau estimates already suggest the greatest increases in reported same-sex couples in the state to be in areas of largely conservative Northern Florida where social stigma previously kept many gays in the closet.

“These data are showing that throughout the country there is greater, broad social acceptance of same-sex couples,’’ said Gates, who is analyzing state-by-state numbers as they are released. “The data undermine the stereotype of same-sex couples as largely white and urban, and emphasize that same-sex couples do in fact live every where in the country, including rural areas and in racial and ethnic minority communities.’’

Some of the increase in same-sex couples in Florida may also simply reflect the state’s continuing population growth, Gates said. Cities in some other states that are draws for retirees, including New Hope, Pa., Gates said, have seen increases in same-sex couples that likely reflect real growth as gay couples move to them after retiring.

Not unexpectedly, many of the state’s same-sex couples reside in South Florida, with slightly more than 9,000 in Broward County and around 7,400 in Miami-Dade, with an additional 600 or so living in Monroe. Male couples outnumber female couples across the board, in a few places like Fort Lauderdale by huge numbers.

About a fifth of the state’s same-sex couples are raising children.

Gates and the Census Bureau believe the overall numbers may be at least somewhat inflated, however, in part because an analysis of the data suggested some members of heterosexual households appear to have erroneously checked a box indicating they were a same-sex couple.

Gates, however, says that at the same time independent surveys taken after the 2010 Census suggest that as many as 15 percent of same-sex couples did not report their status accurately to the government. That would have led to a likely undercount of same-sex households that would largely cancel out the errors by heterosexual couples, he said.

“What it says to me is how big this phenomenon of people hiding they are in a same-sex couple still is,’’ Gates said. “But it’s hard to quantify people who don’t want to be counted. That’s the whole point of being in the closet.’’

August 18, 2011 in Bisexual, Business, Census, Current Affairs, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Palm Beach County, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Transgender, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Read the top stories: Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida now available by email in free newsletter

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida is now conveniently available in a free Miami Herald newsletter emailed at least twice weekly.

Just enter your email address in the sign-up field on the left rail with my photo, just below the Facebook icon. Thanks and enjoy!

August 04, 2011 in AIDS and Health, Arts, Bisexual, Books, Bullying, Business, Census, Crime, Current Affairs, Fashion, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Immigration, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Military, Music, Obituary, Palm Beach County, Pets, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Read the top stories: Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida now available by email in free newsletter

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida is now conveniently available in a free Miami Herald newsletter emailed at least twice weekly.

Just enter your email address in the sign-up field on the left rail with my photo, just below the Facebook icon. Thanks and enjoy!

July 22, 2011 in AIDS and Health, Arts, Bisexual, Books, Bullying, Business, Census, Crime, Current Affairs, Fashion, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Immigration, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Military, Music, Obituary, Palm Beach County, Pets, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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