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Of course, Key West retains a gay sensibility. "Actually, I wouldn't say it's gay unfriendly. He took a sip from his Skyy and Coke and contemplated the impact of his words. Gearhart was sitting at the Atlantic Shores pool bar, an iconic gay hangout that plans to close next year. "I'd say Key West is less gay friendly than it was 10 years ago," said Gregory Gearhart, a hairdresser from Fort Lauderdale who visits three times a year. On a sultry evening in late September, a cover band at Sloppy Joe's plowed through Tommy Tutone's lone hit, "Jenny (867-5309)." At Irish Kevin's, a troubadour was convincing his audience of fraternity brothers to sing along to Bon Jovi.Ĭould Key West, the place that Readers of OutTraveler magazine named the second best resort town in the world (behind Provincetown), be going straight? Meanwhile Duval Street, the main commercial street of Old Town, continues to evolve into a strip of Hard Rock Cafes and Margaritavilles. It started welcoming straight visitors to its 16 rooms in August. And it's obvious clear across Old Town at the Heron House Court, formerly known as the Fleur de Key and long one of the premier gay-only guesthouses on the island. You can feel the change at the Lighthouse Court, a popular - some would say notorious - gay-only Whitehead Street guesthouse that recently went "all welcome," the local euphemism for accepting heterosexual guests as well as gays. a place where drag shows, all-male guest houses (complete with communal hot tubs) and a spirit of unbridled hedonism attracted everyone from closeted Midwest accountants to Tennessee Williams.īut recently, soaring real estate prices and the popularity of events like Fantasy Fest - an annual bacchanal of of parades, masquerade balls and celebrity look-alike contests that began as an AIDS fundraiser in 1979 and has since evolved into a drunken open-air party that would be right at home on fraternity row - have begun to attract a more heterogenous crowd, one that can at times make Key West look like any other tourist town getting ready for Spring Break. FOR decades, the remote Florida town of Key West has been a refuge for gay tourists, a kind of Southern bookend to Provincetown, Mass.