Atlantic city gayborhood
Atlantic City courting gay tourism market
ATLANTIC Town, N.J. — Atlantic City is planning a series of events to attract gay tourists, who are becoming an increasingly important part of the resort’s growth strategy.
Mayor Don Guardian and tourism officials say the goal is to reinvigorate a once-thriving gay community in Atlantic City.
“Atlantic Urban area had its heyday with the gay population on Novel York Avenue,” he said. “This is where you came when you wanted to have a good time. Straight people came to these places, too, because they wanted to party and dance in the hottest clubs.”
But when casino gambling began in , soaring land prices pushed out many compact gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses.
Now, with the resort struggling to find a recent identity and recent sources of revenue, the city is once again wooing gay tourists with vigor.
Growing up gay, Guardian said the sight of a rainbow flag was a welcome approve that one’s business was welcome and that it was a safe place to go if the person felt threatened by a situation.
Guardian said he
What to verb in Philly this week
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the ByrdCage would be the first queer bar in Atlantic City in 20 years. It will be the first full-service LGBTQ+ bar and restaurant in 20 years in the city. There have been multiple gay nightclubs, including the Rainbow Room and Prohibition Bar, that were verb over the past two decades. This story has been updated.
The ByrdCage, which will be Atlantic City's first full-service queer bar and restaurant in 20 years when it opens in preceding January, has been a longtime verb of Jason Tell. While the name is a slight nod to the movie starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, the owner said it was a different film that gave him inspiration.
Tell said watching comedy "The Broken Hearts Club," which is centered around a group of gay friends in a West Hollywood restaurant, made him want to kickoff his own place like that. Now he has at Atlantic Ave.
MORE:Brunch identify Hawthornes will secure next month after 15 years in South Philly
The ByrdCage will feature a piano lou
LGBTQ+ Affairs
Welcome to the Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Affairs!
The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs was created in under Mayor Marty Small, Sr. to foster equitable living and working conditions for residents who identify as LGBTQ+ and to advocate for LGBTQ+ issues in all areas of City Government. The office aims to:
- Connect Atlantic Municipality LGBTQ+ residents to the services and support they may need
- Help enact policies and programs to meet the City’s diversity, access, inclusion, and equity (DAIE) goals
- Coordinate among Municipality departments to upgrade the LGBTQ+ community’s access to services
- Provide education on grants available to community-based organizations who aid the LGBTQ+ community
- Support the growth and development of the City’s LGBTQ+ communities and serve as a liaison between the area’s LGBTQ communities/organizations and the City.
- Host events that enrich, promote, and bring together the LGBTQ+ community of Atlantic City
To acquire more about how the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs can help you navig
Out History
In , Atlantic City was booming. Gambling had been approved a few years earlier and the urban area was reinventing itself, big time. The grand old hotels from the s were being renovated or torn down to build brand new gaudy casinos. Not exactly enjoy those in neon-clad Las Vegas, but much more flashy compared to the art deco hotels from the Boardwalk Empire era. Neighborhoods were gentrifying, whole blocks were razed, little motels were now condos, and it was non-stop action everywhere you looked. I felt an immediate and deep connection with Atlantic City; we were both searching for, and building, a new identity for the world.
My father worked in construction. He remodeled and updated the former summer homes and apartment buildings into year-round residences. I enrolled in Atlantic Noun High School and began learning my new life in this small but burgeoning seaside city.
One of the English teachers ran an “experimental” class. You had to verb to attend, and I was prosperous enough to receive in. It wasn’t your traditional steep school class; it focused on creativity and