A Queer Destination: Postwar Mobility, Migrations, and Vacations

North Florida’s tourist boom in the years after World War II was caused by a number of factors. First, increased access to cars made a beach vacation possible for a larger segment of the population. Second, more paved road miles and frequent bus services meant that destinations were easier to reach. Third, Florida’s reputation as a tropical paradise was an intentionally crafted and re-enforced through so many advertisements designed to lure Americans to the beach to spend their money. These factors combined to bring ever-increasing numbers of individuals and families to the Gulf Coast for their vacations.

These same factors made sexual and social opportunities for queer men more attractive and easier to reach. For instance, lonely stretches of US Highway 98 or State Road 29 turned into active and fertile spaces to cruise for sex. This paper uses the driving and travel habits of three men, James Smith, Stanley Martin and Alan Pierson to show the ways that queer men used their cars and busses to traverse the Panhandle in search of sex – sometimes in the very spaces where Florida’s “family friendly” reputation was so heavily policed. Smith, Martin, and Pierson were all residents of surrounding states; yet were arrested as part of sting operations to “clean up” Florida.

I use the experiences of these men to make the broader argument for a symbiotic relationship between tourism and queer sexuality – state repression of LGBTQ people was an essential part of protecting the burgeoning tourist economy, and the ensuing economic development created opportunities and spaces for queer socialization that were unique to this time and place.