Best Place to be Gay and Gray

Location – Location – Location is more than a real estate mantra. It’s what every prospective retiree thinks about as the day to collect the crystal bowl or silver gavel marking the end of a career approaches. But location includes more than mere geography. It also includes can I afford it? Will I be safe? Are there good doctors and hospitals nearby? And are there cultural and leisure-time activities to enjoy? Often weather is also a part of the mix. Will my retirement home be in a tornado tunnel, on an earthquake fault line or along hurricane alley? And for gay men and lesbian women there’s the added question of, “Where can I live comfortably and know that my life-style will be respected?”
In answering these important questions, few communities can compete with Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, frequently on the “Best Of” lists produced by organizations such as the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). They named Rehoboth Beach as one of five dream towns in their Best Places to Retire List in the July 2006 issue of the AARP Magazine.
Anthony Kulp Broker/Owner of Beach to Bay Real Estate Center, the largest gay owned and operated agency, sees the Rehoboth / Lewes Beach and surrounding areas as a lifetime investment for both full time and part time residents, particularly for gay and lesbian retirees. Many developments already have high percentages of gay and lesbian retirees and future retirees. Where else can you breathe salt air, enjoy the outdoors, have cocktails with your gay and lesbian neighbors and know that the investment in your home is growing.
What makes Rehoboth special is the beauty of the foam capped waves massaging the broad sand beaches and the tidal estuaries and bays providing a home to myriads of migrating birds. Add to that the mile long Boardwalk where bikers and hikers get their morning rush, the ocean-side gazebo band stand, which would make Norman Rockwell proud, and Rehoboth Avenue, a kaleidoscope of interesting boutiques and unique restaurants. Before the swoop of summer sun-seekers, the town is resplendent in the brilliant reds, yellows and violets of Spring, and in Fall the smell of smoke from a nearby hearth permeates the gentle fog that occasionally envelops the Boardwalk as the seasons change.
But in addition to this list of touchy-feely attributes there are practical financial reasons that draw retirees to Rehoboth Beach. Delaware has no sales tax on goods, food or entertainment and Social Security, railroad retirements and out-of-state pensions are exempt from income tax. Taxpayers 60 and older can exclude up to $12,500 of investment and qualified pension income.
Since Rehoboth Beach is small, approximately one square mile, housing prices in town for a single family home start in the $500s and condos in the $300s. County taxes on a $400,000 property will be approximately $1200 – and that’s per year, not per month. Beyond the town limits, in surrounding communities like Lewes, Milton, and Millsboro, or in the many beautiful communities that have sprung up in the corn fields reminiscent of Rehoboth’s more rural past, housing is much less expensive (Single Family homes start in the Low $200s and Condos in the low $100s) and all the advantages of Rehoboth and Lewes are still only a short drive away. Auto insurance and property insurance also reflect Rehoboth’s rural roots and are lower than in metropolitan areas.
Residents love, and strive to preserve, the small town feel that allows them to greet store owners and postal clerks by name. Instead of a New Year’s or Thanksgiving Day Parade, Rehoboth thrives on their Seawitch Halloween Parade, Christmas Parade, Chocolate Festival, Jazz Festival and Film Festival along with special events presented by the Henlopen Theater Project, the Rehoboth Art League and the Sussex County Library. The Possum Point Players stage major theatrical events in nearby Georgetown and in Milton, a neighboring small town known for its Victoriana, seminars, classic movies and plays are featured at their newly restored theater.
Hospitals in nearby Lewes and in Seaford Delaware, as well as in Salisbury, Maryland provide excellent medical care with a wide variety of specialists and primary care physicians. Personal safety, as well as personal health, is well cared for in Rehoboth with crime statistics well below the national average and below all major metropolitan areas.
Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City are all within a few hours drive of Rehoboth and many residents avail themselves of community sponsored bus trips in order to enjoy theater, opera, musical events and museums. For the stay-at-homers, in addition to the lure of salt-water fishing, there are a dozen golf courses in the area, indoor and outdoor year-round tennis, and several nearby state parks which provide hiking and biking trails, canoe and kayak access and overnight camping.
For gays and lesbians and their friends there are a host of special events which bring the whole community together - the annual Labor Day Sundance, the drag volley-ball game on the beach, Love Dance on the Fourth of July weekend, the Black and White Ball, to name a few. Like any gay destination the bar scene changes from time to time but places like Blue Moon, Cloud 9, Double L Bar, Iguana Grill and Purple Parrot have been long term survivors offering food and drink to weekend and holiday escapees from Washington, Philly and Baltimore for many years.
Perhaps it was predestined for Rehoboth Beach to play an important role in our nation’s gay life. When the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed from the Atlantic through the inlet into what is now known as Rehoboth Bay, he chose the Biblical name Rehoboth, meaning “room for all.” Presumably, he was grateful that there was room for all his ships. But it seems somehow symbolic that after its start as a Methodist campground in 1873 and its first somewhat secretive gay bar in the ‘50s that Rehoboth now is a community with room for all and all are welcome.
Camp Rehoboth, a nonprofit gay and lesbian community service organization, has worked diligently for more than a decade to help insure that Rehoboth is a community with room for all. With more than 1.3 million dollars in pledges and cash, Camp Rehoboth is in the process of building a Community Center in the heart of the town. Their periodical, Letters From Camp Rehoboth, serves as a guidebook to residents and visitors, gay and straight.
In his introduction to Rehoboth Beach Memoirs, James Meehan put it this way.
Rehoboth Beach “… has that indefinable magic quality that makes certain places special. It’s sophisticated but friendly; exciting but not intimidating; relaxing but never boring.
Simply put, you might find Rehoboth Beach a pretty special kind of place to retiree.”