As you drive into Laguna after miles of relatively flat coastline, you’re surprised to see tall hills dotted with houses looking out over the ocean. Incongruously, the Pacific Coast Highway runs directly through the town, bisecting the expensive hillside homes from the even more expensive beach-front mansions. But still, the town is eclectic and tiny cottages sit beside huge estates. While most of southern California is ruled by the automobile, in Laguna you can walk to a lot of venues and that’s a good thing because parking is pretty horrible and newcomers panic on the twisty roads and steep upslopes.
When you visit, you quickly find out that you never call any of the other towns in the area simply “Laguna”. Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, whatever are NOT Laguna. Only Laguna Beach is Laguna. Laguna is a bastion of extreme liberality in the midst of hugely conservative Orange County. For years it was the only city in the OC to vote Democratic. Today it’s been joined by a couple other cities but they maintain much smaller margins. It’s also one of the most gay friendly cities in America. At one time, Laguna had the largest percentage of gay population per capita of any city in the US. Today, some of the gay population has moved out to Palm Springs, but the city remains gay friendly. When the Mormon Church organized a huge rally down the coast of Orange County against gay marriage, they stopped their banner carriers at the city limits. They knew they weren’t welcome. In Laguna, people carried pro-gay banners.
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About the Author:
Adam James is so far in the closet he could find Narnia. But coming out would threaten all he’s built as the lead attorney for WMA Development, and the million dollars he can get when he finishes pushing a big land remediation project through the City Council. Then on an early morning scuba dive, Adam meets a tall, lean rebreather diver named Sky who makes him want to live a different life. But Adam’s dreams are shattered when he walks into the council meeting and finds the fire-breathing environmentalist who’s screwing up his chances of winning is none other than that same beautiful man. Sky Sea Mickeljohn doesn’t compromise, so how could he find himself lusting after a damned developer? And what happens when somebody open’s Adam’s closet door? These two better start telling the truth if they’re ever going to find world peace.
