In 1967 there was a well publicized Grand Jury investigation about crime and homosexuality in Broward. In the 1954 when Miami went through a brief period of “moral panic” about the city’s gay bars, public officials in Fort Lauderdale assured the citizens that there were no threats and they had the situation under control. And gay owned local businesses like photographers, printing shops and restaurants began to to advertise openly.įor the most part the emerging gay presence was ignored by the larger heterosexual community. Bars such as Tacky’s and the Everglades provided popular social meeting places.
Organizations like the Metropolitan Community Church provided one of the earliest gathering places where lesbians and gay men could come together and worship. Riverside and Sailboat Bend, with its Key West ambiance, were the first neighborhoods with sizable concentrations of lesbians and gay men.
Although the LGBT community has been a part of the Fort Lauderdale even before it became a place on the map, it was only in the 1970s that it emerged as a visible community.
