Women Both Gay and Straight Get a Warm Welcome in Palm Springs

One sunny morning this past January, my 75-year-old mother, my 11-year-old niece and I checked out cute little hotels in Palm Springs (because anything that has to do with travel interests Spano women).

We all liked the look (and name) of the Bee Charmer Inn on East Palm Canyon Drive. So we rang the bell, pleased by what we saw when the gate opened: a secluded enclave with 14 perfectly maintained guest rooms around a pretty turquoise pool. The manager showed us the facilities and explained that the name comes from the Fannie Flagg novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.” But then she paused and said seriously, “You know this place is for women.”

I looked at my mom and niece and giggled. “No,” I said, “but that’s OK. We like women.”

Of course, I knew that Palm Springs has become one of the leading gay resorts in the country. Thirty area hotels (clustered particularly in the Warm Sands Drive area near downtown) cater to gay men, and there are 11 gay bars, seven gay restaurants and a Desert Gay Tourism Guild that publishes its own free Gay Guide to Palm Springs, Cathedral City and the Coachella Valley. The Easter weekend White Party turns the town into a Fort Lauderdale for gay men, while every year lesbians from all over the world converge in the Coachella Valley for the Ladies’ Professional Golf Assn. Nabisco Dinah Shore Tournament, to be held this year March 22 to 28 at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

It’s just that up until that moment, I’d only seen Palm Springs as a sunny, green, easy-to-handle refuge for seniors. Then, too, the town seems completely comfortable with its gay visitors and residents, who don’t provoke much comment, except, perhaps, during the White Party and Dinah Shore weekend. According to Jim Suguitan, who edits the Bottom Line, a magazine for the desert area’s gay men and lesbians, “Without gay buyers, the real estate market would be flat.” And over the years, gays have gotten involved in civic affairs, with, as Suguitan says, 11 openly gay members on Palm Springs commissions such as the Historic Site Preservation Board.

Still, I wondered what first attracted gays to the Coachella Valley, why some hotels cater exclusively to gay men, others welcome gay men and lesbians, and just two (the Bee Charmer and Casitas Laquita, also on East Palm Canyon Drive) are favored by women. By state law, hotel proprietors can’t turn away guests on the basis of gender. How, then, do they make the sexual orientations of their guests clear to people who drop in unsuspecting? And how would I, a straight woman, feel staying at the Bee Charmer or Casitas Laquita?

Matthew Robinson, co-owner of the Triangle Inn, a nine-room hotel for gay men in the Warm Sands Drive neighborhood, says gays from the film industry found acceptance in Palm Springs as early as the 1930s, when they didn’t feel welcome in Hollywood. Why gay

men and lesbians don’t always favor the same hotels is a complex question, though according to almost everyone I spoke with, a big factor is nude sunbathing, common at gay hotels in Palm Springs.

Gay men who don’t mind relaxing in the raw with other men sometimes feel inhibited in the presence of women, and the same is true in reverse for gay women. At some of the bigger gay resorts friendly to both sexes, there are segregated sunbathing areas, and many men’s places become women’s enclaves during the Dinah Shore weekend. Nudity is prohibited at Casitas Laquita because co-owner Denise Roberson thinks it can make women uncomfortable. Tops are optional at the Bee Charmer, opened in 1993 by Judy Nelson and Denise Goolsby.

Interestingly, Nelson, who died in 1996, didn’t intend to run a hotel for lesbians. A real estate broker suggested that finding a market niche for the Bee Charmer would help it compete in a town with about 160 hotels. Indeed, lots of old mom-and-pop motels in the area survive because their owners have sought out gay travelers.

Discouraging guests who wouldn’t fit in poses no problem. According to John Williams, president of the Desert Gay Tourism Guide, the manager shows them around, and if they still don’t get it, tactfully suggests that they might be more comfortable elsewhere. But at Casitas Laquita, where I spent a night a few weeks ago, even this isn’t necessary, because the sweet, 12-room Mission-style inn isn’t just for lesbians, as Roberson says. She and her partner, Joanna Funaro, want their place to seem welcoming to all women.

And it is. My spotless double had tile floors, a plump queen bed, TV, private bath and kitchenette with coffee, milk, orange juice and a welcome basket. I spent the afternoon reading at the pool, surrounded by mature palms, flower beds and the stark San Jacinto Mountains. Another guest asked me to join her barbecuing at the gas grill right outside my room, and when darkness fell, stargazing was much more attractive than finishing my mystery.

I’m not sure how I’d have felt at the Bee Charmer or another gay-friendly hotel. But the next time I want to get away from it all, I wouldn’t hesitate to head for Casitas Laquita.

The 1999 Gay Guide to Palm Springs, Cathedral City and the Coachella Valley can be ordered over the phone, (888) 200-4469, or by e-mail: DGTG760@aol.com.

Bee Charmer Inn, 1600 E. Palm Canyon Drive; tel. (888) 321-5699; Internet https://www.beecharmer .com; $89 to $105 Sept. 2 to July 5, $70 to $85 July 6 to Sept. 1.

Casitas Laquita, 450 E. Palm Canyon Drive; tel. (760) 416-9999, fax (760) 416-5415; Internet https:// www.casitaslaquita.com; e-mail caslaquita@aol.com; $87 to $192; $67 to $172 July 24 to Sept. 4.

Both the Bee Charmer and Casitas Laquita are fully booked for the Dinah Shore weekend.