Rainbow gay bar atlantic city

InAtlantic City was booming. Gambling had been approved a few years earlier and the city 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 like 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 atlantic 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 City High School and began learning my new life in this small but burgeoning seaside city. You had to apply to attend, and I was lucky enough to get in.

It gay engaging and fun and one of the few classes I enjoyed. Mostly because, by now, everyone had pretty much figured out I was gay and I was bar bullied nearly every day at school. I dreaded walking the halls between classes. It was a gauntlet of teasing and intimidation. But this class was special and I enjoyed losing myself in the discussions and forgetting for a short time what was waiting for me outside the classroom door.

One day, during our round table conversation, the city of homosexuality came up and I remember very clearly putting my guard up. I knew this was one subject that could make my life a lot more miserable at school than it already was. I wanted to pepper him with questions: What do you mean?

There are gay rainbow right here in the city? Is that where they live? How do you know? What do they do on New York Avenue?

Atlantic City Opening First LGBTQ+ Bar and Restaurant in Over 20 Years

I was consumed with curiosity, my entire focus was now on the end of the school day and getting on that jitney bus. New York Avenue was only six blocks from where I lived. How did I not know? I lived so close all this time. Today was the day I was going to meet my people!

My sense of wonderment began almost immediately. Even before I walked a few yards down the street, I could see that the people here were not the same as the rest of the city.