A Queer Oasis: The Modern-Day Fire Island Experience
Every year, more than 2.2 million people visit Fire Island. A thriving queer destination-community. Built on a thin barrier island off the coast of Long Island, New York. It is about 60 miles from New York City. Not that easy for city-dwellers who rely on public transit to get to.
From June to September, Fire Island becomes one of the most popular LGBTQ vacation spots in the country. It’s especially busy during July and August.
Is the Trip to Fire Island Worth It?
Many of these visitors are New Yorkers. They take the subway to the Long Island Railroad, then a shuttle-bus, and finally a ferry. Spending about $60 and traveling over two hours on average. They arrive at the docks of Pines and Cherry Grove, Fire Island’s main coastal piers. From there, they explore, have drinks, party at vacation homes, catch a show at the Cherry Grove Theater, or relax on the beach.
What draws the massive crowds of LGBTQ New Yorkers to this tiny island every year? Especially when even the trip there is over 2 hours one-way. Costing a total of about $60 for round-trips to and from the city. Never mind what it costs to rent a home there, or even stay at a nearby hotel for a night. Why, and frankly, HOW, did it become a nationally-known party spot for queers of all ages? When the queer night-life of the major cities surrounding it has also thrived for centuries, with hotspots that are much cheaper, closer by, and easier for most people to get to?
How Did Fire Island Become a Sanctuary for the Lgbtq Community?
The history of Long Island being an LGBTQ safe space dates back more than 100 years. Fire Island was known as a “safe haven” for gay men and lesbians. Even when being queer was still criminalized everywhere else in the United States. Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines are among the oldest queer community sites in the country. And have been known as such for several decades before the Stonewall Uprising of the 1960s. Outside Fire Island, gay and lesbian people faced harassment and police raids in New York’s queer bars. Fire Island, however, was a sanctuary where they felt safe and accepted, surrounded by their community.
Its LGBTQ popularity began in the 1920s, likely from artistic groups meeting at The Carrington House. This historical home was purchased in 1927 by Frank Carrington. Carrington, a respected theater director, had a large circle of artistic friends, many of whom were gay. They helped found the Arts Project of Cherry Grove. It’s also suggested that the LGBTQ interest in Fire Island grew partly because The Pines had a popular nude beach. This beach was especially popular with gay men.
Initially, locals and visitors were hostile toward each other. This changed after the Great Hurricane of 1938, which destroyed local properties and drove many residents away. Meanwhile, the gay community remained and established their first long-term settlement in Cherry Grove.
During the 1930s, it became a popular escape for the theatrical and creative communities. Its remote setting lets artistic queer people express themselves freely, away from persecution. For the first few decades, Fire Island’s LGBTQ communities lacked electricity and running water. Despite this, they thrived emotionally, living peacefully with their partners and chosen families.
Cultural Revolution: Fire Island’s Impact on Queer Expression
Fire Island became the foundation for major queer cultural and political movements. The Grove’s Community House and Theater popularized camp culture, leading to the rise of drag artistry. By the 1940s, LGBTQ people were the majority on Fire Island due to the expanding theatrical community. Cherry Grove was then recognized across the nation as the first gay town in the United States.
Literary Legends: Fire Island in the 1950s
The thriving performance scene inspired other creatives to move to the gay refuge. In the 1950s, it became the ideal destination for queer writers to compose, which led to Fire Island being known as the location of a significant emerging literary landscape. During this decade, Capote rented Carrington House, one of the first buildings in Cherry Grove, to write Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Other LGBTQ writers who stayed or lived in Fire Island during this era include Patricia Highsmith, Tennessee Williams, Frank O’Hara, and many more.
The Rise of The Pines: Fire Island in the 1960s
In the 1960s, Fire Island’s professional population grew beyond creatives, who were usually less wealthy. The influx of wealthy LGBTQ people came from new housing in The Pines, once conservative compared to Cherry Grove. This meant richer gay men began moving to the island and buying beautiful, impressive properties.
Owning or renting beach houses on Fire Island, many with ocean-view pools, became the ideal wealthy-gay vacation. 70 years later, you still know you’ve “made it” as a popular queer New Yorker when you’ve been invited to a fancy-yet-wild house party at The Pines.
The Disco Era: Fire Island in the 1970s
The 1970s was the Golden Era of Disco, and The Pines impacted the rise of dance music with its powerful clubbing scene. Tom Moulton, a famous Pines DJ, invented the first extended mix versions of songs. These mixes quickly became popular in gay bars and discos worldwide.
The same decade also exposed the rising classism of Fire Island, revealing that not all communities who lived there were in harmony. 1976 was the year of the first “Pines Invasion,” a 4th of July annual celebration that began because a drag queen wasn’t allowed to eat at a Pines restaurant. The drag queens and other residents of Cherry Grove arrived to The Pines on a water taxi. Protesting the poor treatment of a member of their own community throughout it. Today, Drag Queens still arrive to The Pines via water transit on July 4th to commemorate this historical, fabulous raid.
Fire Island in Crisis: The 1980s and 1990s AIDS Epidemic
The 1980s and ’90s were decades of crisis in the LGBTQ community because of the devastating AIDS epidemic. When bathhouses and gay hook-up spots closed nationwide, Fire Island remained a safe place for queer love. Despite the fear and grief from losing loved ones, it provided a refuge. It remained a crucial safe space, escaping the demonization of queer people by mainstream society.
What is Fire Island Like Today?
Today, Fire Island is different from previous eras due to increased mainstream LGBTQ acceptance. This includes rights to marry, adopt, and protection from workplace discrimination. Many citizens in the United States live without having to keep their love a secret anymore. This means that Fire Island is now becoming popular as a vacation spot for queer families with children, who rent vacation homes within walking distance of the wild parties and loud bar events along the piers of The Pines and Cherry Grove.
It’s not unusual to see kids walking through crowds of leather, drag, and, of course, tons of glitter, without being afraid or even at all phased by the still very “adults-only” environments of Fire Island. This is because their parents, or their parents’ friends, or extended family members (in general, people who they love and trust) are members of the LGBTQ community, and they belong there as much as the queer generations before them did.
Everyone who vacations or visits Fire Island belongs to a sacred and important historical landscape built on the foundation of LGBTQ love, which has strengthened and expanded to include yet more members of the queer community for over a century.
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