In the 1950s, Long Beach was known as “Iowa by the Sea,” thanks
to multitudes of Midwestern emigres who called the place home.
Last weekend, as thousands of delegates descended for the
California Democratic Party convention, the town had a decidedly different
buzz.
“Welcome to one of the gayest places in Long Beach!” shouted
Robert Garcia, the city’s gay mayor, to a packed convention fundraiser called
“Dems, Drinks, and Drag Queens” at Hamburger Mary’s, a genderfluid downtown
saloon.
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