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Pride Month Series · June 2026
Properly South Florida Presents

South Florida Pride Month Quiz:
How Much Do You Really Know?

June 1 – 30Series Runs
5 StoriesOriginal Research
Stonewall PrideJune 20 Anchor

Take the Quiz and Celebrate Pride

Five stories. All of June. The LGBTQ+ history of South Florida, told the way it was lived: complicated, defiant, and completely its own.

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Welcome to the unofficial field guide to South Florida’s past and present. We dig into river lore, bootleg whispers, beach-town weirdness, civic glow-ups, and the kind of characters who make “local color” feel like an understatement.

The Gay Mecca That Wasn’t Always: How Wilton Manors Became WilMa

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Enhance lighting, sharpness, and natural color balance

BLK Magazine and the Archive on Sistrunk Boulevard

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Fort Lauderdale’s Open Secret: The Beach That Built the Scene

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AI-generated black and white illustration depicting protesters outside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York, during the 1969 Stonewall uprising. Crowd holds signs reading "No More Raids, Gay Power" and "Stonewall Is Fighting Back" while confronting police officers in riot gear. Note: This is an AI-generated illustration, not a historical photograph.

Stonewall Came to Wilton Drive: South Florida’s Pride Roots

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The Pirate Anchorage: Fort Lauderdale’s Most Repeated Lie (That Might Be True)

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The Fort Lauderdale Land Boom That Ate Itself: 1920s Real Estate Fever on the New River

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Smugglers Coast

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Rumrunners, river kings, and the infrastructure of “don’t ask.”
Aerial view overlooking a section of Ft. Lauderdale Beach near SE 5th Street 1983

The Cocaine Cowboys Who Built (and Bled) South Florida

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Before the luxury towers. Before the rooftop bars. Before the influencers and the Art Basel crowds and the $22 cocktails on Las Olas,

Rumrunners & River Kings: How Prohibition Put Broward on the Map

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Strange Secrets

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1732_Herman_Moll_Map_of_the_West_Indies_and_Caribbean_-_Geographicus_-_WestIndies-moll-1732

The Pirate Anchorage: Fort Lauderdale’s Most Repeated Lie (That Might Be True)

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Local legend says pirates anchored off what is now Fort Lauderdale Beach. We investigated the folklore, and found coordinates, oral histories, and no definitive answer.

Rumrunners & River Kings: How Prohibition Put Broward on the Map

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The New River Knows Things: How Water Shaped Power in Fort Lauderdale

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The guy behind this site...

Hi! I am John Palmer Payne!

I am a local business owner in South Florida who has a nerdy interest in history.

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Rumor vs Record

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Some stories are documented. Some are repeated like prayers at a dock bar. We label what’s verified, what’s rumored, and what’s still in the “somebody’s uncle swears” stage.
Aerial view overlooking a section of Ft. Lauderdale Beach near SE 5th Street 1983

The Cocaine Cowboys Who Built (and Bled) South Florida

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On:

Before the luxury towers. Before the rooftop bars. Before the influencers and the Art Basel crowds and the $22

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Rumrunners & River Kings: How Prohibition Put Broward on the Map

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Prohibition didn’t make Americans stop drinking.It made them better planners. When the Volstead Act went into effect in 1920,

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Travel Diaries

Stay tuned for personal events, meetings, and tours. Coming Soon!

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