Searching for a Gay Getaway (Not Fire Island)

I get it: Fire Island is historic and means so much (to some people) that it has its own new rom-com. I know some gay people who think its bucolic beaches and party atmosphere are paradise.

But I am not one of them. I have no interest in schlepping by train, bus and ferry to stand in the corner at a gay beach party that I feel I’m supposed to like because I’m gay and live in New York. Not interested. We exist.

That’s why earlier this month I headed in the opposite direction of Fire Island, geographically and experientially. My destination was New Hope, Pa., and Lambertville, N.J., waterside towns separated by a bridge and a state line, but joined by reputations as L.G.B.T.Q.-friendly spots. In March, Time Out named New Hope one of the country’s “best L.G.B.T.Q.+-friendly small towns.”

About a two-hour car ride from Manhattan (you can also get there by bus), New Hope has a rich history, dating to the early- to mid-20th century, as a welcoming place for visual artists, writers and theater people, including queer folks. In 2020, Bucks County, the home of New Hope, welcomed 6.36 million people, according to Paul Bencivengo, the president of Visit Bucks County, the county’s official tourism agency.

His organization doesn’t keep track of the number of L.G.B.T.Q. visitors. But he told me “the gay community has been part of the fabric of New Hope for a long time,” and that no matter where I went in town, I would be welcomed.

And, on an early June weekend, rainbow flags and Pride this-and-that drenched New Hope’s busy Main Street, from Dunkin’ Donuts to the Pork Shack in the bustling Ferry Market food hall.

But the Pride ornamentation seemingly outnumbered actual queer people — it was like walking the streets of Provincetown when most of the gays decided to stay home. (To be fair, the weekend I visited, there were also Pride events in Philadelphia and Asbury Park, N.J.) And there are no gay bars or clubs, and no more Raven, a popular gay bar-resort that went nevermore in 2019.

Yet during my visit — it was me, my partner and a friend — I found New Hope and Lambertville to be chill, culture-forward and vibrant towns for three gay men who wanted a weekend getaway.

If New Hope isn’t as gay “as the hem of Patti LuPone’s skirt,” as Philip Kain told me, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a gay jewel worth visiting. He should know: Under the pen name Philip William Stover, he wrote two steamy gay romance novels set in New Hope, near where he…