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Atlantic City just got gayer thanks to that seaside gambling resort’s first openly gay Mayor Don Guardian, who recently declared one of the region's beaches to be "gay-friendly".
Guardian has obviously taken a chapter out of the book on “How to Restore the New Jersey Shore Beach Communities”. The gay community in New Jersey has already helped to bolster the once dilapidated Asbury Park Beach resort just north of Atlantic City and Atlantic City is hoping to mirror those results.
His city has also managed to lure away the state’s gay pride event, Sandblast Weekend, from Asbury Park. Sandblast Weekend is expected to attract several thousand people to the gambling resort 18 to 20 July.
Atlantic City is a town that has seen a 44 percent decline in casino revenue since its 2006 while it could lose a quarter of its casinos by year's end.
“I’m so glad to be the mayor of Atlantic City where we don’t just love diversity we embrace it,” Guardian announced last month.
In March 2014 Caesars Atlantic City was offering one gay or lesbian couple $50,000 for their dream wedding.
There is also New Jersey's first LGBT expo. Hailed as a gay business-to-business networking weekend scheduled 26 to 28 September, the StandOut expo will bring together LGBT-owned and allied businesses together under one roof for networking and partying.
Atlantic City was one of the first true gay communities before Provincetown and Stonewall in New York.
‘Atlantic City is getting ready for a new kind of renaissance,’ added Jeff Guaracino, spokesman for the Atlantic City Alliance.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
