Key West’s 1970s Renaissance Owes Much to LGBT Care
Few people realize the impact the LGBT community had on Key West beginning in the 1970s, when many gay men and lesbians “discovered” the island city.
Few people realize the impact the LGBT community had on Key West beginning in the 1970s, when many gay men and lesbians “discovered” the island city.
More than 2,100 people submitted stories to the Florida Keys Flash Fiction Contest, competing to work in Ernest Hemingway’s former Key West writing studio. But none of them could outshine “Wallpaper” by Ireland’s Denyse Woods.
Visitors can enjoy the indigenous flavors of the Florida Keys, and take home tasty edible “souvenirs” to help sustain them until their next vacation escape. The Keys are home to artisan food crafters including a master chocolatier, beekeepers and even a saltmaker.
Get ready for more exhilarating fun and challenges than ever at Key West Pride 2016 — a definite must-do event to kick off the summer. As always, the annual festival, set for June 8-12, salutes diversity on the island that’s deservedly world-renowned as a leading LGBT getaway spot.
Twenty-five years ago, on May 18, 1991, two queens met on a remote island 70 miles west of Key West. Okay, actually there was only one genuine queen present at Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortugas National Park. But the other was certainly a queen to me, and to the citizens of the Conch Republic (a/k/a the Florida Keys & Key West).
In the Florida Keys, where the day-to-day business of living is easy, extraordinary creativity thrives. You'll find scores of freethinking spirits who, in the island chain’s nurturing atmosphere, indulge their talent for crafting wares as individualistic as they are.
A comprehensive photo shoot that's wrapping up in Key West captures images of members of the local LGBT community — real people, not professional models — enjoying life in the subtropical island paradise.
Journalist Robert Silk has a great love for the Florida Keys’ natural world. Recently his outdoor outlook inspired him to write “An Eco-Tourist’s Guide to the Everglades & the Florida Keys,” and here he offers insights into his favorite activities and places in the region’s fascinating natural environment.
If one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, then the late Key Largo resident Stanley Papio was a treasure hunter extraordinaire. And ultimately, he became a treasure creator — crafting some of the edgiest and most eclectic metal sculptures of his generation.
High heels instead of high octane powered the 12 contestants in Key West’s Great Conch Republic Drag Race, a madcap marathon for female impersonators that took place April 23.