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While Wilton Manors certainly has its fair share of rowdy bars and multi-level nightclubs, for the most part, Island City eschews the over-the-top flashiness that characterizes neighboring LGBTQ+ bastions like South Beach. You can support those businesses by going thrifting, grabbing a coffee, shooting some pool, even getting your eyes examined here, queerness is baked into the fabric of everyday life. Today, “The Drive” boasts an extraordinarily dense roster of over 40 independent LGBTQ+ owned businesses, from sushi shops to retro candy stores and even a bakery opened by one of Wilton Manors’ gay ex-mayors. Wilton Manors has flourished as a hub for queer entrepreneurship anchored by its main drag, Wilton Drive. A decade later, Wilton Manors became the first municipality in Florida (and the second nationwide after Palm Springs) to elect an all-LGBTQ city commission. Nicknamed “Island City” (it’s surrounded by canals on all sides), Wilton Manors has been an LGBTQ+ stronghold for decades back in 1988, its denizens elected the very first openly gay official serving in Broward County. Home to about 13,000 residents, this gayborhood resets the bar for inclusivity. Drive forty minutes north of Miami, and just outside Fort Lauderdale you’ll encounter the ultra-progressive, culture-packed town of Wilton Manors-a tight-knit community driven by its unabashed embrace of all expressions of queerness. “Whether I’m managing, or washing dishes, or DJing, and everybody’s singing along, and dancing, and the dancers are having a good time, and the customers, that is my favorite part, 100%.There’s a tiny town in South Florida that might be the most LGBTQ+ friendly place in America. Īnd when you’re in LeBoy, you never know where you’ll spot him. You can follow the happenings at LeBoy through their website, and follow Drew on Instagram. We’re looking for the opportunity to grow with Wilton Manors and Fort Lauderdale in the LGBT community.” “Whether it be hosting events, or sponsoring events, I want to stress that whether it be a basket or anything, we want to be involved. Despite being away from The Drive, he believes out of sight shouldn’t mean out of mind. If you’re not here for the dancers then you can come and have a cocktail and not be bombarded by massages and stuff like that.”ĭrew also wants to get LeBoy more involved with the LGBTQA+ community. The idea behind it now is to be a bar for everyone. “ LeBoy has always had one direction, as far as – it was a bar for twinks to dance at, and the men that like twinks. He says there will still be dancers but now people can come, enjoy a drink, and not be bombarded with massages. Drew wants to expand the bar’s vision and customers. “I’m really trying to take it in a crazy direction,” Drew said.
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My days off, Saturday and Sunday, are the only days I get a full amount of sleep.”ĭespite all that, Drew is determined to transform LeBoy in appearance and attitude. “I’d rather work hard now, and play hard later. Between insurance, and managing LeBoy, Drew works up to 90 hours a week. Insurance agent by day, club manager by night sounds like the most fun superhero ever. When ( LeBoy reopened) they said they needed another manager.” He ended up with day and night jobs that are as different as night and day.
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I was over it.” He went to manage a corporate restaurant but when the pandemic hit Drew once again looked for a career change. “When Rumors sold I decided I wasn’t gonna’ do gay bars anymore. I listen to it all.”Įventually Drew found himself looking for a new challenge. “I listen to everything from country, to EDM, to classic house. When I asked him which music genre is his favorite, he couldn’t pick one. It’s this red turntable, and I fell in love with it.” He began DJing at straight bars, then spinning at bars on The Drive including The Manor, then as part of his job at Southern Nights and Rumors. I got a Christmas present, the iDJ3 or something like that.
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“I learned how to DJ when I was 13 years old. Those gigs also let Drew cultivate his DJ skills. “My first job was Southern Nights, doing the lights when they promoted me to manager. “I started coming to the gayborhood when I was 18,” he told me when we met up recently at LeBoy. He’s LeBoy’s General Manager, but that’s only one of the things that make him one of the most fascinating people to follow in South Florida’s gay scene.ĭespite being only 23 years old he’s a familiar face up and down Wilton Drive. The man at the center of it all is Drew Segura. LeBoy is one of South Florida’s hottest party places. The boys dance, the bartenders pour, the DJs spin.