Special Edition.........Beach Babes

Landmark Gay Bar Might Close in Laguna Beach



The Boom Boom Room, Laguna Beach's longstanding gay bar, is scheduled to close next month to make way for an upscale hotel and restaurant.
"This is the heart of the gay community," Richard Barry told The Los Angeles Times on a recent night out at the club on South Coast Highway. "The other gay bars are starting points, but this is where we end up."

The news is being met with anger by those who see more than just a bar closing. Some say it symbolizes the gradual shrinking of Laguna Beach's gay community -- thanks largely to skyrocketing housing prices.

Now an aging building, the Boom Boom Room was where Rock Hudson once partied.



Gay cruising

British naturists claim their rights are being stripped after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) closed a nudist beach area in Cornwall because it was allegedly attracting gay sex near the military training camp.

The MoD along with the Perranzabuloe parish council and Haven Holiday Park decided to close the area claiming it had no problem with homosexuality but wanted to eliminate the “bad elements.”
The complaints regarded reports of cottaging in the area close to where children were playing and training
“The "ban" has arisen since the MOD run a training camp at Penhale Sands, just behind the beach and young cadets have recently been approached in inappropriate ways by naked people as well as observing sexual activity - and therefore nothing to do with the genuine naturist users of the beach who merely wish to relax in the sun.



When gay culture goes mainstream

Provincetown is looking for answers. Once among the handful of places where gays could vacation and be comfortable, the bohemian beach resort is worrying that its core market may dwindle as gay travelers discover new destinations.

As a result, the town is quietly promoting another side of itself. It is trying to reach gay families and straight audiences, playing up historical attractions and plentiful family-oriented activities.

``As gay civil rights advance, Provincetown's exclusivity as a gay destination probably loses on the other end," said Patrick Patrick, president of the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce, who said his group ``has been asking them to do that for years, to push more broad-based marketing."