The Gay Retiree Utopia

When David Webb, a real estate investor from the San Francisco Bay Area, and his longtime partner, Lynn McLaughlin, were looking to retire, they thought they’d give Naples, Fla., a try. “We were the token gay couple,” says Webb, 62. Invitations to dinner parties were frequent. But when a local country club refused them admission—not an isolated incident in the conservative enclave—it felt like discrimination. Webb finally said to his partner, “Enough already. Let’s live with our own.” The couple put a deposit down on a 2,000-square-foot home at Fountaingrove Lodge, an LGBT-friendly retirement community set to open this fall in Sonoma County, Calif.