Atlantique with the family on the boat--begging my older sisters to take me to the "ocean side" of the island with them.

Covering the 2004 Republican National Convention left me yearning to find a gay-affirming beach to which I could take a day trip. I "followed the gays" to Sayville on a Sunday morning, and boarded the ferry to Cherry Grove. Once I saw the beach—and those who summer on it—I was instantly hooked.

I fell in love, and then I fell in love with Fire Island.

My father's grandparents used to own a small house on West Island where he would spend summers as a child running barefoot on the beaches of the South Shore while watching the majestic sunsets over the Great South Bay.

I started by dating a local. I dropped him, but kept the beach!

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