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On display behind glass on either side of the doorway are mannequins adorning vintage dresses. A bright green neon light shaped into the name “La France” rests above the door. Wax’s shop is located just east of Centro Ybor plaza on Seventh Avenue. “And then throughout the last 40 years, it morphed into a more upbeat but still historical area that caters to all groups.” “When I moved here in the ‘70s it was more of a metropolitan area of different nationalities,” she says. Wax and her colorful vintage shop has been a fixture of Ybor for more than 40 years, so she witnessed the transformation of the area. “If anything it makes people aware that the person who owns this business believes in equal rights to everybody.” I try not to be a judgmental person,” says the owner of La France vintage store, Jill Wax.
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“I joined the coalition because I’ve always been open to anybody. Increasing business is a major goal for the organization, but it’s not the only reason why businesses join the coalition. Absolutely the members of the coalition get business from being part of the coalition,” says Eary. “Most of the members are business people, whether they are gay or not. In exchange for their support for the LGBT community and a membership fee of $75 per year, businesses get the chance to be promoted in LGBT publications, advertised on the coalition website and get an increase in foot traffic to their establishment. At the time many gay bars started coming to the area and the founders felt that these establishments needed to be represented too. The coalition was formed in 2007 by a group of local businesspeople who realized that the LGBT community in Ybor made up a large demographic of their customers.
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We just put up our new website that’s full of information now about things to do in Ybor and in Tampa,” says the organization’s president, Mary Eary. “Our main goal is to bring tourism to the area. The Gaybor District Coalition is a not-for-profit organization based in the historic Ybor City district of Tampa whose purpose is to encourage lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transexuals (known as the LGBT community) that Ybor is a safe, open-minded community to visit and to draw consumers to the businesses in the area. Scattered throughout Ybor and the rest of the Tampa Bay area are more than 250 businesses and individuals that all stand together as members of the Gaybor District Coalition. On Seventh Avenue alone are 29 businesses, restaurants, offices, and shops that are members of the coalition. Six of these nighttime dancing hot spots bear the Gaybor District Coalition sticker in their windows. Nobody turns an eye to the two women kissing passionately against a street light or to the man wearing a bunny suit with a blue plaid kilt. Couples of all sexualities make their way, hand-in-hand, to their club of choice. Men, from teenagers to middle age, swagger along, eyes flicking between the women. Young women in skin-tight dresses and false lashes totter down the sidewalk in five inch heels high heels. People stand in long lines outside the entrances of the nightclubs that are sprinkled all along the avenue. Families and couples mosey down the sidewalks, popping into the different shops or stopping to dine at any of the dozens of eating establishments.ĭuring the day it is easy to overlook the locked doors of the many nightclubs that call Seventh Avenue their home.īy nightfall, the street is anything but quaint. Nestled along the street on either side of Centro Ybor are mom-and-pop shops and even more restaurants. Many of Centro Ybor’s residents, like the Muvico, Hamburger Mary’s, ChappellRoberts advertising agency and Jimmy John’s, are all members of the coalition.
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The plaza is full of restaurants, offices and the Muvico movie theater. Second story balconies overlook the courtyard. It consists of two-story brick buildings that surround an open pavered courtyard decorated with palm trees, shrubs and a handful of black picnic benches. Take a stroll down Ybor’s famous Seventh Avenue by day and you’ll be greeted a quaint red brick street lined with storefronts, boutiques and cafes, many of which have the rainbow Gaybor District Coalition sticker pasted to their windows.Ĭentro Ybor Plaza is the anchor of the street. Though the Gaybor District Coalition only started six years ago, it has already taken over Ybor.