Gay and on vacay? Website touts OBX.

If you welcome them, they will come to the Outer Banks, said a creator of a new gay tourism website.

"The response has been tremendous from locals and people who have stumbled on it," said David Miller, a freelance lighting designer from Manteo who helped design the site.

On the East Coast, vacationing gay people flock to Provincetown, Rehoboth Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Key West, Miller said.

"Why not have them come here and spend their money here?" he said.

Designed with retro postcard art, TheGayOBX.com, has recently begun promoting entertainment offerings it is sponsoring that it says appeal to gay and straight crowds.

Miller said that they are taking care to be discreet.

"What we need is for the community to trust us," he said. "We're not out to do anything bad."

Upcoming bookings on the Outer Banks include Virginia Beach's Randy Roberts, a female impersonator who performs in Las Vegas and other locales; Hedda Lettuce, a cross-dressing comedian; and RuPaul, a well-known drag-queen performer.

Miller, 47, said that he and his business partner decided last summer that the Outer Banks had a lot to gain by being more gay-friendly. Since the website was launched in November, there have been more than 10,000 hits, he said. The majority of inquiries have come from the Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh areas.

Lee Nettles, the managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, said that as far as he knows there has not been a concerted outreach by the bureau to the gay tourist.

But he said that the Outer Banks appeals to many niches, and he welcomes Miller's effort to promote the destination to gays.

"I know that from things I've read in the industry, it's a lucrative demographic," Nettles said. "Gay visitors are frequent travelers."

A few Outer Banks businesses have begun sponsoring gay-friendly cruises, kayak trips and movie nights, and Miller said he is confident that business support will continue to grow. TheGayOBX also sponsored its first nightclub entertainment event last month in Nags Head at Kelly's Outer Banks Restaurant & Tavern, the "Sinfully Delicious Sundae Show."

For years, the only organized social gathering for gay people was a Sunday party at Coquina Beach in the summer months, started by some cast members of "The Lost Colony" outdoor drama, Miller said.

In 2005, Kelly's started hosting a "gay night" every third Sunday, owner Mike Kelly said. The entertainment, a female impersonator, had regularly attracted about 75 to 100 people, he said. The venue offers a variety of live entertainment and will continue to host the new acts TheGayOBX has booked, he said, though it is not a gay bar. The new professional acts coming this summer, he said, will be a fresh addition to gay entertainment on the Outer Banks.

"I think what they're doing is very entrepreneurial," Kelly said about TheGayOBX. "It's a niche market that will probably do very well. You don't know what kind of doors it will open in the future."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com