Fire Island National Sea Shore

Hidden gem — I can’t believe we’ve been out in LI all this time and only just discovered it! Super sad that the summer season is ending and it doesn’t look like we’ll get to go back to Fire Island :(

Fire island is full of personality. Only 3 other beach communities in New York have any character. They are Brigthon beach, Coney Island and Montauk.
Frank Perry’s Last Summer (1969), adapted by Eleanor Perry from Evan Hunter’s novel about a summer of sexual discovery on Fire Island, brought an Oscar nomination for actress Catherine Burns
Garbo Talks (1984) has scenes of the Fire Island ferry. Longtime Companion (1990) is a drama that recreates chronologically the spread of AIDS during the 1980s. Returning Mickey Stern (2003) was shot almost entirely in Seaview and Ocean Beach; the entire cast and crew were housed on Fire Island.
The Post Office scene in Men in Black II was shot outside the Fire Island Lighthouse. The mockumentary Beach Comber[22] was filmed on Fire Island in 2004. ABC’s reality show One Ocean View (2006) was shot on Fire Island. Fire Island is also the setting of Terrence McNally’s play Lips Together, Teeth Apart.
The Village People included a song titled «Fire Island» on their 1977 debut album, Village People. In the song, they refer to the island as «a funky weekend» and mention several locations on the island such as the Ice Palace, the Monster, the Blue Whale, and the Sandpiper. The song also includes the warning «Don’t go in the bushes» because «someone might grab ya» or «someone might stab ya.»
In the 2008 movie, The Wackness, the Squires family have a beach house on Fire Island that is used in at least two scenes.
Fire Island is featured prominently in Ann Brashares’s 2008 novel The Last Summer (of You and Me), about two sisters and a friend who grow up together, vacationing on the island every summer.
Fire Island is repeatedly referenced on the NBC sitcom Will and Grace. Many references are made to the adventures had by Will Truman and Jack McFarland during their vacations on Fire Island. The impression given in the references is that gay people are welcome and there is a loosening of one’s inhibitions when there.
Fire Island serves dual meanings as both a vacation destination and a homoerotic euphemism in «Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim» by David Sedaris. In the story «Blood Work,» David describes an instance in which he is mistaken for an erotic housekeeper and his would-​be John makes frequent and emphatic mention of FIRE ISLAND as a secret code. Ignoring the awkward advances and a travel brochure featuring scantily clad men, David’s only response is to ask «do you bring your Mother to Fire Island?»
Fire Island is the location of Burt Hirschfeld’s 1970s best-​selling novel entitled «Fire Island». It is the story of some show-​business and television people who spend their summers among with their families in the island.
Fire Island villages are accessible by shuttle ferries departing from Patchogue, Sayville, and Bay Shore in Long Island, NY. In addition, Fire Island beaches are reachable by water taxi and private boat.
At
they say they consider Fire island to be the best gay beach community in the country.
A bit of personal trivia, when I was much younger I had an innocent girlish crush on an older gay man. He spent most of his summers in Fire Island which is what made me curious about going there.
I went there maybe hoping I might run into him and who knows? :) It was really an innocent crush and he knew it and he also knew just about every other girl who knew him had a crush on him. I knew in my head he was gay but my heart didn’t want to know it.
But this was my introduction to Fire Island. Well he broke my heart and started to summer in the South of France. I don’t know where he is now. But when I think of Fire island I always think of him.