A Letter to the Community

I have been coming to Rehoboth for nearly 20 years and you can feel it changing and maturing. We are still facing problems, but they are different than the ones we had years ago. At that time we as a GLBT community were fighting for acceptance. The Blue Moon was the only gay bar in Rehoboth and there were still the drive-by kids shouting faggot at the boys standing on the outside terrace. The conversation among the homeowners association was how to keep the queers out, and how to keep Rehoboth a family town.

The gay beach was mostly boys from DC and a few from Baltimore, kids drawn to the summer sun and sand and all so young, young, young, There were few lesbians coming to Rehoboth, and if they did they stayed pretty secluded.

What a difference the years have made. Today we can take our choice of numerous bars and restaurants, all catering to the GLBT clientele and many owned by gays or lesbians. We take over the Convention Center a few times a summer for our big events and advertise them on the new electronic billboard for all who enter town to see. We have a gay commissioner and gays on the Board of the homeowners association. We have events like the Follies that attract hundreds of gays, lesbians and straights to come together and enjoy a social evening. Some would say we have arrived.

But there is still much to be done to make sure that we keep our community special as we integrate into the rest of the Rehoboth community. I would say that the average age of the gay person in Rehoboth has gone up every year. Whereas the average age of the GLBT community in Rehoboth including the summer influx back in 1983 may have been in the late 20s, today it may be in the early late 30s or even early 40s. It is definitely a maturing community. We have more money and heaven knows you need it to live in Rehoboth.

With the cost of homes in the area, it’s no wonder that younger gays can’t afford the town. We see fewer names in the Beach Book and more gray hair in the bars. The running debate now is whether that is good for the GLBT community in Rehoboth.

I think we need to strike a balance and make sure that we can still attract the younger crowd. We want those east coast guys to see Rehoboth as their summer playground, and as they grow older, make it their second home. To do that we will need to continue to provide places where young guys can have a good time. With the closing of the Renegade, one of the attractions for the younger crowd has gone. Bars in Rehoboth close at 1:00 a.m. and no new dance clubs are allowed. Those guys in their twenties and early thirties, and even many of our intrepid elders, want places to dance after 1:00 a.m. I want young people to come to town because as much as I love the Blue Moon, I don’t want it filled only with all older people like myself.

I think our community still has issues and often jealousies, that we must come to grips with and work out together.

I think the place to do that is through CAMP Rehoboth. It’s time to stop the backbiting and get together. Steve Elkins and Murray Archibald, through the hard work they have done in creating and building CAMP, have made Rehoboth more livable for all of us. Through CAMP they have ensured that the police have diversity training, the business community respects us, and the City invites us to live and play. They are now leading the effort to build a community center and they have worked hard, and I believe successfully, to bring together the gay and lesbian communities. I know there are some who believe Steve and Murray are getting rich off all the fundraisers for, and donations to, CAMP. I wish those people would take a look at the recent 990 tax filing printed in Letters to see that’s not true. They are the longest-term residents in Rehoboth I know, who don’t own their own home. They pay rent to CAMP for their small apartment.

Our community often tends to let jealousy rule our thinking. We often see someone succeeding as taking away something from us or getting something they shouldn’t have. I recently read an article in the Cape Gazette that was critical of Rob Dick and his partners in the venture they began called AM. I know, and Rob has admitted, they made lots of mistakes and most likely moved ahead too quickly, in their efforts to have the place open. But they did so in an effort to provide a late night dance bar so that we can keep attracting the younger crowd to Rehoboth and give many of those residents and visitors now there, something they clearly asked for. They were the ones who worked—20 hours a day—to open a club. Now CAMP Rehoboth and SCAC have been criticized for trying to help them get started by allowing them the ability—on a limited basis—to use their permits for temporary liquor sales.

Most likely, Rob and his partners will lose money on AM this summer, and CAMP and SCAC will together receive about $4,000 they otherwise wouldn’t have had. On the 4th of July, our fellow GLBT community members danced the night away, thrilled that they had a place to go.

They weren’t concerned that Rob might be losing money or that a non-profit organization was benefitting from the bar sales. They were just happy that they had a place to go.

I love Rehoboth. I will retire here when I am ready, and want it to be the best place it can be. I want CAMP to succeed, and I want to be able to go to the new community center. I want to be able to go to the Blue Moon and the other great bars, including AM and other clubs that open, and see a mix of young and old and gay and lesbian. I want those places to be owned by entrepreneurial gays and lesbians whom we support in every way we can. Let’s continue to build our community together and stop the backbiting that really only hurts us all.

Sincerely,
Peter Rosenstein