Brighton, England: the historically gay U.K. seaside resort is one of the queerest sports in Europe.

"Brighton," one of my students in Essex sneered when I told him I was moving here. "Isn't that the gay capital of England?" A mere 50 miles due south of London, Brighton has always been a convenient seaside resort for libertines. As far back as the Napoleonic Wars era, queers from London would leave their closeted lives to romp with the legions of soldiers billeted here. In 1823, Brighton's notoriety was sealed when George IV's enormous (and very camp) Royal Pavilion was completed, a palace that would become an accessible love nest for his innumerable trysts with both men and women. It's now lit with bright pink spotlights during Brighton's annual pride festival (the largest free pride event in Great Britain--last year it drew a crowd of over 100,000 people).

Virginia Woolf wrote Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando in the nearby town of Lewes. Terence Rattigan, the queer playwright, owned Bedford House here. Oscar Wilde frequented the Royal Albion Hotel--often with Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas--and wrote The Importance of Being Earnest in nearby Worthing. Brighton was so well known as a Victorian homo haven that, to quote just one report of the day, citizens were aghast at "the improper characters in the habit of coming to Brighton to indulge in unmentionable crimes."

Even today Brighton is an odd outpost of tolerance and free-for-all-dom in country where emotional reserve is still held at a premium. This is a city known for its flair and its inclusiveness. "You can walk down the street in pink pajamas and no one will bat an eye," said Andy, who works at Synergy, a restaurant and gallery run by Kitty Litter, a preeminent Brighton drag queen.

Brighton feels like San Francisco circa 1973: gleefully naughty yet optimistically innocent. There are two liberal universities, a thriving underground music scene, dozens of jazz venues, an iconoclastic art community, and exquisite boutiques ranging from pre-Georgian cobblestone-alley shops to Haight Ashbury-ish stores that sell Che Guevara beach towels. There's a leather bar (Schwarz bar), a bear bar (the Bulldog), several lesbian bars (the Marlborough, the Candy Bar), a bar attracting over-the-hill drag queens and rough trade (Harlequin), multiple bath-houses, and innumerable cafes. There are gay real estate agencies, and a men's beauty salon called the Pink Pamper. And you can drink past 11 P.M. thanks to the Booze Brothers, who tour around in their van and deliver until the wee hours of the morning.

Brighton is "also a place where celebrities live: Cate Blanchett, Paul McCartney, Nick Cave, and Fatboy Slim to name a few. It was at the Brighton Dome that ABBA was introduced to the world when they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. This is city where the famous British class system has been vanquished. Stars shop and mingle comfortably with poncho-wearing neohippies, and both politicians and activists drink Fair Trade coffee on their way to the gargantuan Victorian pleasure pier. This is a city with more tattoo parlors than dentist offices, a city where men and men and women and women feel comfortable walking down crowded sidewalks hand in hand--you don't even see much of that in London outside of Soho. "It is magnetic," Alan, who runs Dorothy's Drag Emporium (motto: "Discover the hidden diva within you"), told me. "No two weekends are ever the same."