Drinkin’ and Carryin’ On in Search of Community
Before market forces created recognizable sites of gay and lesbian community, some queer Floridians leveraged their race and class privileges to create or gain access to spaces in order to find others like themselves. This chapter uses bars, “gay parties,” and friendship networks to show the ways that postwar mobility shaped queer socializing through complex negotiations of desire and access. In Tallahassee, the Cypress Lounge at the Floridan Hotel became an unofficial gay bar, while Florida’s powerbrokers schmoozed and facilitated connections to national identity-based rights discourses. Others used their private homes to host networks of gay and lesbian friends from around the panhandle. In Pensacola, Trader Jon’s and the Hi-Ho Five O’Clock Club were queered by sexually and gender non-conforming individuals.