At the legendary Labor Day drag volleyball competition, panty-hosed athletes spike, then sashay. Emissaries traverse the sand with leaflets hawking tea dances and celebrity DJs at the eclectic Frogg Pond or Cafe Zeus. Products of the "gayby boom" and leashed pooches are welcome in most places too. Sunbathers of all body types, ages, and personalities generously commingle. As I lay frying (which, in a shameless plug, is the name of my recently published Rehoboth Beach memoir) at Gordon's Pond women's beach or mostly male Poodle Beach, I hold a book but never finish a page of text-too much eye candy. Summer mornings before hitting the beach, my partner, Bonnie, and I sip java at the women-owned Coffee Mill off very gay Baltimore Avenue. And a stroll along Rehoboth Avenue reveals progress on an $11 million revitalization project that promises to satisfy aesthetic tastes just as the requisite hot dogs, saltwater taffy, and funnel cakes satisfy seaside junk-food cravings.
Lodging includes upscale hotels, a breadth of rental cottages, and Victorian and beach-chic B&Bs (like BEDazzled, a luscious Hollywood tribute, and Bewitched, honoring lesbian icon Agnes Moorhead).Įxceptional gay-owned and gay-friendly shops (like Elegant Slumming for hot home furnishings or Rock Creek for cool clothing) lure diverse visitors from metro Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and beyond. The town's boardwalk connects 75 eateries and gourmet restaurants (many gay-owned), including the pioneering Back Porch Care, which welcomed a gay incursion back in 1974. I arrived by powerboat from Washington, D.C., for a weekend in '94 and never really left, morphing from visitor to second-home owner to "don't hassle me, I'm local" status in a whirl. Retrieved from Īlong the Atlantic coast in oft-overlooked Delaware sits gay-gracious Rehoboth Beach-one square mile of cottages, grand mansions, and sparkling sands.
senators as an easy escape from sweltering D.C., this seaside slice of Delaware is bolstering its claim as the all-American gay getaway. APA style: Rehoboth Beach: long known by U.S.senators as an easy escape from sweltering D.C., this seaside slice of Delaware is bolstering its claim as the all-American gay getaway." Retrieved from
senators as an easy escape from sweltering D.C., this seaside slice of Delaware is bolstering its claim as the all-American gay getaway." The Free Library. MLA style: "Rehoboth Beach: long known by U.S.