In the 1980s and 1990s, the queer community colonized the area between 10th and 15th Street from Ocean Drive to Washington Avenue.
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When faced with adversity, LGBTQ Miamians always knows how to bounce back and keep the party going. This act of resistance is a shining example of Miami’s queer community. In spite of subsequent threats and police raids, La Paloma reopened with a new skit with performers in white robes openly mocking the terrorist organization. Everyone was forced to leave, and the owners were told to close up shop. On November 15th, nearly 200 members of the KKK stormed the bar in white hoods. It was also a vulnerable target for anti-gay extremists. La Paloma, known for female impersonators, lude comedy acts, and striptease performances was one of the earliest LGBTQ outposts in South Florida. It took place in 1937 at La Paloma, a nightclub in what is now Miami-Dade County. The city’s most exciting queer history predates all these landmark moments by decades. In 2015, Miami-Dade County became the first place in Florida to issue a same-sex marriage license. The city’s first sanctioned Pride parade happened in 2009. Gender identity discrimination finally followed in 2014. Miami banned discrimination based on sexual identity in 1998. In the late 1990s, things began looking up. Sadly, the coming AIDS epidemic would decimate their numbers along with the rest of Miami’s gay community. In 1980, The Mariel boatlift succeeded in bringing thousands of LGBTQ Cubans seeking asylum to the shores of Miami. She swayed public opinion to vote against LGBTQ anti-discrimination laws. Five years after the city’s first LGBTQ pride-related activities in 1972, local anti-gay activist Anita Bryant’s national “Save Our Children” campaign smeared homosexuals as a danger to children. Queer communities in the 1950s and 1960s found solace at bars and on beaches but were subject to frequent police raids and arrests. IT was one of the nicest gay bars anywhere at the time.The fight for LGBTQ equality in Miami has often mirrored the wild waves of hurricane season. Jan later went on to open a bigger place called Cheers in Tampa or Orlando I think. They eventually had a falling out and the club got closed by the courts I think. One of his partners was Don Embinder, who ran Blueboy Magazine and a bunch of other popular adult magazines at the time. I met Jan Harold about two months before he opened the club when he tried to pick me up at 13 Buttons! We ended up sharing a house in Coral Gables. It was a smash hit from the first day it opened. It had a huge wire sculpture of the Golden Gate Bridge hanging from the ceiling, a tiny dance floor, a kick ass sound system, and a winding staircase leading to the restaurant upstairs. I worked there from it's opening for about a year or so as the doorman and assistant manager. It was called the San Francisco Club, located just off the Dixie Highway at SW 27th I think. it was one of the best bars there in the 80s Can anyone tell me what the name of the bar in Coconut Grove, it was owned by Jan Harold.