Below: This little gabled structure covers the entrance to the tunnel that used to run under the street from the beach to the entrance of the basement disco of the fabulously gay, infamously seedy, Marlin Beach Hotel, where many a "straight" spring-breaking frat boy would slip away from his Greek brothers, for some literal greeking, swimming the warm waters of sins of the flesh, rather than the still-icy waters of the Atlantic. The Marlin Beach's swimming pool had windows in the bottom, so that dancers could look up at all the pretty mer-boys. The Cortez Street entrance and the block of sand across from the Marlin Beach Hotel was the gay beach of South Florida for decades, popular even after the Marlin closed.
Below: A monstrosity called Beach Place now occupies the hallowed ground where the Marlin Beach staged its notorious daily t-dances in the poolside "Poop Deck" disco. Adding insult to travesty, there is a Hooters on the third floor. 
Below: Christmas cheer, Lauderdale beach style.
Below: Shortly after the opening of Beach Place, with its attached Marriott Hotel, the gay beach was overrun with tour groups of pale, overweight Europeans. Appalled, our boys snatched up their Ralph Lauren beach towels in disgust and relocated the gay beach to the Sebastian Street entrance, one block away, mostly because there's a parking lot across the street. But the parking lot is not large, you need a combination of patience and ruthlessness to score an afternoon spot.
Below: These two fellows gave me 'tude for taking this picture, probably thinking I was some old pervert collecting beefcake to post on the internet. Really, I only wanted a simple manscape of the gay beach, but rather than disappoint them....
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