Editing Asbury Park, New Jersey (section)

==LGBTQ+ community==
[[File:Florine Stettheimer. Asbury Park South, 1920.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|''Asbury Park South'', a 1920 illustration by [[Jazz Age]] artist [[Florine Stettheimer]] depicting a summer crowd and sign for [[Enrico Caruso]] live. The artist is under a green parasol and her friends also appear. Artist [[Marcel Duchamp]] (in pink) is with actress [[Fania Marinoff]]. [[Carl Van Vechten]] stands upper left (black suit), [[Avery Hopwood]] (white suit) talks with a woman in yellow, and the Swiss painter Paul Thévanaz (red) bends over a camera.<ref>Henry, McBride, [http://moma.org/d/c/exhibition_catalogues/W1siZiIsIjMwMDA5OTM2MSJdLFsicCIsImVuY292ZXIiLCJ3d3cubW9tYS5vcmcvY2FsZW5kYXIvZXhoaWJpdGlvbnMvMzE5OSIsImh0dHA6Ly9tb21hLm9yZy9jYWxlbmRhci9leGhpYml0aW9ucy8zMTk5P2xvY2FsZT1lbiJdXQ.pdf?sha=67b1e55b38d2d2d3 ''Florine Stettheimer''], The Museum of Modern Art 1946.</ref>]]
Asbury Park has been a "hub of gay life" for decades.<ref name=NYT2021/> On the first Sunday of every June, [[Jersey Pride]], the state's largest and oldest gay [[pride parade|pride]] festival and parade, draws hundreds of thousands of people to this [[gay village|LGBT destination]].

In the 1930s, Greenwich Village bohemian poet Tiny Tim (Timothy Felter), a friend of Asbury Park poet [[Margaret Widdemer]], opened a short-lived gay-friendly tearoom on Bond Street.<ref>Helen-Chantal Pike Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort - Page 98 (2005).</ref><ref>Hagen, Charles. [https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/02/arts/photography-review-village-bohemians-from-another-era.html "PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW; Village Bohemians From Another Era"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', September 2, 1994. Accessed September 12, 2023.</ref> Since the 1950s at least, Asbury Park's LGBT community has continued to grow.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/06/nyregion/move-over-fire-island-here-comes-asbury-park-urban-gays-lead-way-reviving-this.html|title=Move Over, Fire Island, Here Comes Asbury Park; Urban Gays Lead Way in Reviving This Run-Down Resort|first=Jill P.|last=Capuzzo|work=The New York Times |date=August 6, 2000|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/06/travel/havens-glory-days-gay-pioneers-muscle-in-on-springsteen-s-turf.html|title=HAVENS; Glory Days? Gay Pioneers Muscle In on Springsteen's Turf|first=Denny|last=Lee|work=The New York Times |date=September 6, 2002|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> Mid-century Asbury Park gay bars like the Paddock Bar,<ref>The Paddock Bar lost their license in 1956 after state officials said they had “become a nuisance” by allowing female impersonators “and persons who appeared to be homosexuals.” [https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/appellate-division-published/1957/46-n-j-super-405-0.html Paddock Bar, Inc., v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 46 NJ Super. 405 (App. Div. 1957)] ("[T]hey had the conspicuous guise, demeanor, carriage, and appearance of such personalities. It is often in the plumage that we identify the bird.”)</ref> the Blue Note,<ref>{{cite web |url= https://hdl.handle.net/10929/54062    |title= Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control - Bulletin - Blue Note  |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= May 23, 1966|website= |publisher= |hdl= 10929/54062 |access-date= |quote=}}</ref> and lesbian bar Chez-L<ref>{{cite web |url= https://hdl.handle.net/10929/52649   |title= Disciplinary Proceedings - Nuisance (Apparent Homosexuals) - Chez L  |last= Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control     |date=March 27, 1967 |website= |publisher= |hdl= 10929/52649 |access-date= |quote=}}</ref> were targets of anti-gay enforcement by the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.njstatelib.org/spotlight_items/new-jersey-lgbt-bars-1930s-1960s-in-abc-bulletins/|title=New Jersey LGBT Bars 1930s-1960s in ABC Bulletins|first=H.|last=Husted|date=June 2, 2021|website=New Jersey State Library|access-date=June 16, 2023|archive-date=June 16, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230616075446/https://www.njstatelib.org/spotlight_items/new-jersey-lgbt-bars-1930s-1960s-in-abc-bulletins/|url-status=dead}}</ref> 
[[File:Georgies sign.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Sign outside [[Georgies]]]]
In later decades, other well-known now-defunct clubs and bars oriented to gay men included Archie's Bar, [[Down the Street]] (so named because it was located down the street from other 1970s and 1980s-era gay clubs), Odyssey, and M&K. After property values plummeted locally in Asbury Park in the 1970s, gays from [[New York City]] purchased and restored Victorian homes, leading to a rejuvenation of parts of the city.<ref>Kuhr, Fred. [https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-118955846 "There goes the gayborhood: the urban renewal of Asbury Park, N.J., renews the debate: can gay men and lesbians single-handedly transform bad neighborhoods?"], ''[[The Advocate (LGBT magazine)|The Advocate]]'', July 6, 2004. Accessed June 2, 2011.</ref>
In the 1980s, locals recalled, Asbury Park had ten to twelve gay bars.<ref>Makris, Molly Vollman, and Gatta, Mary. Gentrification Down the Shore. United States, Rutgers University Press, 2020.</ref>

[[Garden State Equality]], the LGBTQ+ rights organization, is headquartered on Main Street. In 2021, the LGBTQ+ community center QSpot relocated back to the west side of Asbury Park, having been established there in 2005.<ref>Biese, Alex. [https://www.app.com/story/life/2021/06/07/qspot-lgbt-community-center-asbury-park-nj/7530771002/ "'Like coming home': QSpot LGBT Community Center moving to Asbury Park"], ''[[Asbury Park Press]]'', June 7, 2021. Accessed October 22, 2021. "QSpot LGBT Community Center, previously housed in the Jersey Shore Arts Center in the Ocean Grove section of Neptune, will relocate to 1601 Asbury Ave., Asbury Park, this summer. Founded in Asbury Park in 2005, QSpot will host a Grand HOPEning celebration at its new home Saturday, July 31."</ref> The center opened the QSpot Café,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/QSpot+Caf%C3%A9/@40.2234604,-74.0258098,19z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c227d16d86672b:0xc6b0e27ec9fbf5b3!8m2!3d40.223441!4d-74.025268?shorturl=1|title=QSpot Café · 1601 Asbury Ave, Asbury Park, NJ 07712|website=QSpot Café · 1601 Asbury Ave, Asbury Park, NJ 07712}}</ref> a gay-centered coffeehouse open on weekends only. Another notable establishment is [[Georgies]] (formerly the Fifth Avenue Tavern).

Project R.E.A.L. is a community organization for young LGBTQ+ socializing in Asbury Park.

The LGBTQ-centered St. Laurent Social Club on Seventh Avenue first opened as the woman-owned St. Laurent Hotel in 1885.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehoteltides.com/about|title=Hotel Tides - About Us|website=hotel-tides|access-date=April 13, 2022|archive-date=May 17, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517011117/https://www.thehoteltides.com/about|url-status=dead}}</ref> It eventually became the iconic Jersey Shore LGBTQ mainstay Hotel Tides,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/inside-the-jersey-shores-best-new-restaurant-where-pressure-ignites-perfection/ar-AAZUMhu|title=Inside the Jersey Shore's best new restaurant, where pressure ignites perfection|website=MSN}}</ref> and reopened again as the St. Laurent in 2022 following a sale.<ref>Schneider, Jeremy. [https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2021/09/iconic-jersey-shore-hotel-and-restaurant-lgbtq-landmark-to-close-before-sale.html "Iconic Jersey Shore hotel, LGBTQ landmark to close before sale"], NJ Advance Media for [[NJ.com]], September 13, 2021. Accessed September 12, 2023.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://instinctmagazine.com/asbury-parks-st-laurent-social-club-gets-reimagined-for-2022/|title=Asbury Park's St Laurent Social Club Gets Reimagined For 2022 • Instinct Magazine|date=April 2, 2022|website=Instinct Magazine}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://outinjersey.net/hotel-tides-in-asbury-park-and-the-changing-of-the-guard/|title=Hotel Tides in Asbury Park and the changing of the guard|first=Lana|last=Leonard|date=March 17, 2022}}</ref>

Multiple restaurants in city are LGBTQ+-owned.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2022/06/15-lgbtq-owned-nj-restaurants-bars-and-businesses-you-need-to-check-out.html|title=15 LGBTQ-owned N.J. restaurants, bars, and businesses you need to check out|first=Lauren Musni &#124; NJ Advance Media for|last=NJ.com|date=June 15, 2022|website=nj}}</ref>

[[File:Paradise pool summer.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|alt=Photo of a swimming pool on a sunny day, with many people in and around the water|The swimming pool at [[Paradise (nightclub)|Paradise]], August 2020]]
In 1999, [[Madonna]] producer [[Shep Pettibone]] opened [[Paradise (nightclub)|Paradise]], a gay [[discotheque]] near the ocean. He has since also opened the [[The Empress Hotel (New Jersey)|Empress Hotel]], one of the state's only gay-oriented hotels.

One subset of the LGBTQ+ community is the lesbian community<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.outtraveler.com/print-issue/2022/4/05/new-jersey-shore-more-just-pride|title=Why Lesbians Are Flocking to New Jersey Shore|website=www.outtraveler.com}}</ref> of Asbury Park, a city with a tradition of [[lesbian bar]]s stretching back to the 1930s.<ref>How the LGBT community saved Asbury Park by Alex Biese. Asbury Park Press. Did the LGBT community save Asbury Park? (app.com)</ref> In the late 1930s, 208 Bond Street was the location of a women's bar.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Biese |first1=Alex |title=How the LGBT community saved Asbury Park |url=https://www.app.com/story/entertainment/nightlife/2017/09/24/lgbt-community-always-heart-asbury-park/690173001/ |work=Asbury Park Press |date=September 24, 2017}}</ref> In 1965, former nun Margaret "Maggie the Cat" Hogan opened the groundbreaking [[lesbian bar|lesbian club]] Chez Elle (French for "her house"), also known as the Chez-L Lounge, and eventually joined a lawsuit that defeated efforts to discriminate against gay patrons at New Jersey nightclubs.<ref name="McDonaldM">{{cite web|last1=McDonald |first1=Mark |title=Asbury Park: A Gay History |url=https://mag.gayasburyguide.com/post/63960306261/asbury-park-a-gay-history-a-brief-chronology-of |website=Gay Asbury Guide |date=October 13, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Pike |first1=Helen-Chantal |title=Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort |date=2005 |edition=1st |pages=105–106 |chapter=4: The Entertainment Circuits |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |isbn=0813535476 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaT7Ip9RXZ8C&q=maggie+hogan}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Gladden |first1=Michelle |title=Asbury Angels To Honor Iconic Music Scene Contributors |url=http://asburyparksun.com/asbury-angels-to-honor-iconic-music-scene-contributors/ |work=Asbury Park Sun |date=September 12, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=A 'Monumental' Campaign to Preserve & Protect (noting that Chez-L "was part of a landmark court case in the 1960s....") |url=https://www.aphistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/APHS-Newsletter-Fall-17.pdf |website=Asbury Park Historical Society |date=Fall 2017}}</ref>

The Bond Street Bar was a lesbian joint in the 1970s, and the third floor of the M&K nightclub, a gay disco at Monroe and Cookman Avenue, was for lesbians.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Walter |first1=Kate |title=Back to my roots: Queer Asbury Park, then and now |url=https://www.amny.com/news/back-to-my-roots-queer-asbury-park-then-and-now/ |work=[[AM New York Metro|amNY]] |date=June 17, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Cook |first1=Michael |title=We're Coming Out-The LGBT Community Of Asbury Park N.J. Prepares For A Pride Season Reopening |url=https://instinctmagazine.com/were-coming-out-the-lgbt-community-of-asbury-park-n-j-prepares-for-a-pride-season-reopening/ |website=[[Instinct (magazine)|Instinct]] |date=June 1, 2020}}</ref>
The M&K was located in the large now-demolished [[Charms Candy Company|Charms building]]  at 401 Monroe Avenue, which was built in 1914 as an [[Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks|Elks club]] and served as a candy factory in the 1940s<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pixels.com/featured/abandoned-liquor-store-on-cookman-avenue-john-rizzuto.html?product=wood-print|title=Abandoned Liquor Store on Cookman Avenue Wood Print by John Rizzuto|website=Pixels}}</ref>
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PikAAOSwnTtkBj0Q/s-l1600.png|title=eBay Image of Charms / Elks building|accessdate=February 16, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thecoaster.net/2017/04/07/elks-installation-makes-history/|title=Elks Installation Makes History|first=The Coaster Editorial|last=Staff|date=April 7, 2017|accessdate=February 16, 2024}}</ref> "One activist remembers, 'Bond Street used to be [a] lesbian bar--you would knock, and there was a peephole, and they would verify you were a lesbian and let you in.'"<ref>Makris, Molly Vollman, and Gatta, Mary. Gentrification Down the Shore. United States, Rutgers University Press, 2020.</ref>The 1980s lesbian resort, the Key West Hotel, was a large source of community for New Jersey women during that decade, as were lesbian venues like the Owl and the Pussycat, which relocated to the Key West.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Post |first1=Patricia A. |title=Jersey Girls |url=http://www.carolandmickey.com/keywesthotelarticle.html |website=carolandmickey.com |date=June 2011}} (originally published in ''[[Curve (magazine)|Curve]]'' magazine)</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Staff |title=A Reunion Of The Heart, Asbury Park Style |url=https://www.curvemag.com/blog/social/a-reunion-of-the-heart-asbury-park-style/ |magazine=[[Curve (magazine)|Curve]] |date=June 6, 2016}}</ref><ref name=Maffucci>{{cite web|last1=Maffucci |first1=Phyllis |title=The Rainbow Room |url=https://asburyinsider.com/the-rainbow-room/ |website=Asbury Insider |date=April 5, 2017}}</ref> A Key West Hotel reunion in 2016 drew 400 people.<ref name=NYT2021>Tully, Tracey. [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/nyregion/nj-gay-bars-liquor-laws-.html "Liquor Laws Once Targeted Gay Bars. Now, One State Is Apologizing.; New Jersey's attorney general apologized for decades-old state policies that shuttered bars for allowing gay patrons to congregate."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 29, 2021. Accessed October 22, 2021. "And in 1956 in Asbury Park, which was then, as it is today, a hub of gay life on the Jersey Shore, a bar was cited for serving men who 'rocked and swayed their posteriors in a maidenly fashion.'"</ref>

The Asbury Park Women's Convention is held annually, typically during March, with a focus on women-led workshops, musical performances, comedy sets, guest speakers, spoken word and other performing arts including poetry and artwork featured in a number of female-operated businesses in the Asbury area.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://943thepoint.com/asbury-park-womens-convention/|title=Asbury Park Women's Convention|first=Gino|last=D|website=94.3 The Point|date=March 8, 2020 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/feminist-halloween/ "Feminist Halloween"], Insider NJ, September 24, 2018. Accessed October 22, 2021.</ref>

The inaugural Asbury Park [[Dyke March]] was held in October 2020.<ref>Biese, Alex. [https://www.app.com/story/entertainment/events/2020/10/09/asbury-park-dyke-march-happening-sunday/5940439002/ "Asbury Park Dyke March happening Sunday: 'We're still here. We’ve survived.'"], ''[[Asbury Park Press]]'' October 9, 2020. Accessed October 22, 2021. "Sunday is the 32nd annual National Coming Out Day, an occasion which will be marked in the city by the inaugural Asbury Park Dyke March."</ref>