Where the Boys Are, Part 2

Joseph Gallegos, city manager of Wilton Manors, concurred. "We have a lot of families and other folks who have been here for a long time, and they all seem to mix well with the gays and lesbians," he said. "The acceptance is pretty amazing."

At the Grand Resort and Spa, a small upscale hotel in the Beach Area, the hot tub and pool attracted a variety of guests on a balmy April evening. Seth, a fiftysomething business consultant from Boston, chatted about two female friends back home who had recently taken advantage of a Massachusetts statute allowing same-sex couples to marry. Ray, a Florida real estate developer in his forties, spoke of a recent home sale that netted him a hefty profit. All in all, much like cocktail party chatter anywhere.

There is a broad range of gay-friendly dining options in the area, including Galanga Thai Kitchen & Sushi Bar, a gay-owned restaurant a 15-minute drive away in Wilton Manors. When I visited, soft light, candles and a fully stocked aquarium made for a relaxing mood. The service was affable, and most of the tables were taken by same-sex couples out for a romantic evening. But it is the cuisine -- thoughtfully prepared pad thai, green curry and other original takes on Thai specialties -- that makes the place memorable. Zach Green, a 62-year-old gay retiree at the next table, said he had been there two nights before and had been thinking about the food ever since. "I'm leaving town in two days, but I had to come back here first," he said.

Georgie's Alibi, a five-minute walk down the street, is the kind of casual, low-key hangout where people drop in for a beer or two on a weekend evening, but head elsewhere for more action. When I stopped in, most of the patrons were casually dressed men in their thirties and forties. The music videos, featuring Cher, Madonna, Annie Lennox and other artists of their generation, were geared to fans weaned on 1980s and '90s pop hits.

And that, I discovered, was typical of Fort Lauderdale and its inclusiveness of gays in all age brackets. For many locals and visitors, that is the one aspect that sets the city apart from other locales popular among gays.

To Mubarak Dahir, editor of the city's gay weekly newspaper, the Express, Lauderdale is remarkably welcoming to gays and lesbians who are middle-aged. "Unlike South Beach, [New York's] Chelsea or just about any other gay scene I know, this one isn't obsessed with youthful glitz," he said. "In any of those places, a guy in his forties who shows up in a club feels like an intruder. Here he's perfectly accepted."

Many patrons at Georgie's praised this corner of Florida for its easygoing, unpretentious style. Zach Baylor, a 42-year-old visitor from New Jersey and self-proclaimed Georgie's regular, sounded a typical note. "I spent five years in Hollywood and two in South Beach and didn't make a single friend," he said. "Here I have made a half-dozen in a year. What does that tell you?"

At Boom, a club a few doors away comprising two cavernous rooms, the energy level was higher. The age of the crowd ranged from early twenties to sixties, and the place pulsed with lively dance music as lights glimmered across the dance floor. Drag queens sashayed through the room. Around midnight, with the help of Aguilera's passionate lyrics, the place began to rock. It became the kind of scene where a guy could easily linger until early morning. Gays up early enough (or still awake) at breakfast time on Sundays flock to the Floridian. Perched on a corner downtown, it's decorated with formica furniture and peeling autographed pictures along the walls. The pancakes and eggs are easily a couple of cuts above regular diner fare, I would soon find. But it's the chance to gab that has made this the place to be. From same-sex couples with kids to young guys with pierced noses and that up-all-night look, the crowd, which included many straights, could not have been more diverse.

From the Floridian, it's a 10-minute drive to the three-block-long stretch of beach favored by gays, around the corner of the A1A highway and Sebastian Street. Here, too, the mellow mood contrasts with the daily muscle-and-skin show in Miami's South Beach.

This was more like an adult sandbox. A heavyset man dragged his skinny partner into the chilly water and chased him around. Two fathers taught their toddler to swim. A couple of women rested arm in arm on an oversize pink beach towel.

People-watchers wouldn't strain their eyes much here. A group of elderly men on chaise longues flipped through copies of Better Homes & Gardens and other magazines. A middle-aged guy in a Panama hat yakked on a cell phone. When a guy in a red Speedo showed up with pectoral muscles that could have been sculpted by Michelangelo, the codgers dropped their magazines, the telephone guy cut his call short and silence fell from the highway to the ocean. But when the hunk wandered away, everybody breathed again and carried on playing in the sand.

But in this tourist mecca, it's not all about the beach. Non-sandy venues include the downtown Museum of Art, whose world-class exhibitions include "Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," set to open in December. Butterfly World, 10 minutes north of downtown, features thousands of rainbow-hued creatures fluttering across 10 acres. Sawgrass Mills, 20 minutes west of downtown, is one of the biggest discount shopping complexes in the country, with Nieman Marcus Last Call, Nordstrom Rack and other well-known stores.