Gay community: Lynn a more welcome place

LYNN – Some Lynn residents who are part of the city’s burgeoning gay community say they moved to Lynn because it has the potential to become a revitalized, urban and hip city.”It’s pre-South End,” said Lynn resident Tony Orlina, referencing the once-crime ridden, now trendy and gay-friendly neighborhood in Boston. “That’s what I’d claim it as. You need to invest now.”Orlina moved to a downtown loft in 2005 with his then-husband because he said the two were ready to settle down and purchase a place, but that they couldn’t afford prices in Boston.They ended up buying a 1,500-square-foot loft within walking distance to the commuter rail for $320,000, and despite a perception of Lynn as a bad place to live, Orlina said he couldn’t be happier with his home.He can run everyday on the ocean, he’s made friends with many of the young professionals in lofts nearby and “it’s one of the few places I could casually meet the mayor,” he said.”I enjoy where I live and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Orlina said.Orlina is one of many young, gay professionals with disposable income to spend who are choosing to make Lynn their home, said Kevin Sampson, also a Lynn resident and one of the founders of a new gay-activist organization called Lynn Out Loud.”They come to Lynn (because) it offers them the urban lifestyle they want at a much more affordable price,” he said.And, he said, “gay and lesbian people often by choice do not have children, so they tend to have more disposable income that can impact a business community.”Sampson is trying to capitalize on the gay community in Lynn – he estimated that roughly about 10 percent of downtown residents are gay – by organizing gay-oriented events in Lynn. On June 16 he helped put together Lynn’s first gay pride event at the Lynn Museum, which more than 100 people attended. And Lynn Out Loud held its first event Friday night at Tatiana’s Restaurant on Market Street.Sampson said events like those bring an influx of patrons to Lynn’s local businesses, especially those that sell products or cater events related to the gay community.”(Gay residents) can help improve not only the cultural diversity of Lynn, but they have a direct impact on the economy of Lynn,” he said.The economic future is bright for at least one longtime bar in downtown Lynn open to the gay community.Cirque @ 47 Central renovated its space in October in anticipation of more patrons, said one of the bar’s consultants, Fred Balboni.Balboni said the cultural landscape of Lynn today is a far cry from when the bar opened 25 years ago, and many of its founders were married with children, coming in secret.”Now, more and more people can be gay,” he said. And many of those openly gay people are bringing their straight friends to bars like Cirque, he said.”I see it becoming more diversified, and it doesn’t really matter who you are,” he said.A gay pride parade being held today in Salem will celebrate just that, said Hope Watt-Bucci, one of the parade’s organizers and co-founder of the nonprofit North Shore Pride Inc., which is based in Salem.Watt-Bucci said the mayors of Lynn, Newburyport and Gloucester will attend the parade, in a sign that the region is more accepting of some of its newest members.”We’ve had a remarkable response,” she said of the parade.Sampson, of Lynn, said it’s important to note that the gay community is one niche of an already diverse city and region.”We’re not trying to turn Lynn into a gay city,” he said. “We’re just trying to say that we have a presence in the city.”Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].