For more than 50 years, including more than 25 on the FIPPOA Board, Jay Pagano helped move the Pines forward. Through good times and bad, he worked tirelessly to ensure it remained a place of freedom, beauty, connection and love. His example, and the values he embodies, will stand among his most enduring legacies to a community he loves dearly. 

Today, Fire Island Pines is known as a Gay Mecca. LGBTQ+ people from around the world flock to enjoy its beaches, homes and entertainment in the full knowledge they can safely be their authentic selves here. But it wasn’t always that way. In a previous article Keeping The Gays Out: The Pines in the Late 1950s FIPPOA Board member and long time Pines resident Gary Clinton described the extensive efforts taken by some community members to keep gay people out of the Pines. As he noted, those efforts died down in 1959 after the largely gay population in Cherry Grove flocked to help the Pines fight the Memorial Day fire that destroyed the Botel. In this article, Gary describes when the shift occurred in the Pines and gays came to be in the majority.

Alice Thorpe was more than an early settler of Fire Island Pines—she was one of its founding spirits. A fierce lover of nature, she was a pioneer in environmental protection. Alice helped shape the Pines into the vibrant, inclusive, and environmentally conscious community it is today.

What began as a radical idea around a pool in Fire Island Pines, Lambda Legal is now the nation’s most influential LGBTQ+ legal organization. It continues to have deep roots in the Pines, with its annual fundraiser, Lambda in the Pines, being the country’s longest-running queer fundraiser.

 It is a shining example of the ingenuity, dedication, persistence and resilience of the Pines Community in support of the rights of LGBTQ+ people across the country.

The Fire Island Dance Festival is a benefit for Dancers Responding to AIDS that showcases performances from world-renowned and emerging choreographers and companies in a stunning waterfront setting. It is one of the most eagerly anticipated and celebrated events of the Pines summer season.

Finding Fire Island: Our Legacy is a vital initiative to document and share the rich legacy of Fire Island Pines—not only for its current residents but for LGBTQ+ people everywhere. This project seeks to professionally record and amplify the stories of our legendary community, ensuring they are preserved and made widely accessible.

R. Scott Bromley is an architect, visionary, and ongoing creative force. His contributions over the past six decades have played a huge role in shaping the landscape and culture of the Pines and the LGBTQ+ community. From the legendary Studio 54 to the beach houses across Fire Island to the legendary Pines Party, his story is about what happens when talent meets inspiration in a place of love.

There are many homes in the Pines of notoriety, with shapes from octagon to pyramid by important architects. However there is one that has become a favorite for its unique shape and history called the TV House…