NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, New York, NY (2026)

10/12/2026

Explore the intersectional history of indigenous people in the LGBTQ community!

WeWah & BarCheeAmpe AT THE AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITY HOUSE
📍 404 Lafayette Street, Manhattan
Emerging from the American Indian Community House, WeWah & BarCheeAmpe was established in 1989 as the first Native American Two-Spirit (2S) organization in New York and the third in the United States. From 1989 until the mid-1990s, WeWah & BarCheeAmpe was involved with several educational, cultural, and activist initiatives that ultimately heightened Two-Spirits’ visibility in the larger Native American and LGBTQ communities.

MURIEL MIGUEL RESIDENCE & SPIDERWOMAN THEATER HEADQUARTERS
📍 333 Degraw Street, Brooklyn
Two-Spirit theater director, choreographer, actress, and educator Muriel Miguel was born and has lived much of her adult life at this residence, which has served as the headquarters for Spiderwoman Theater for most of the years since its founding in 1976. Combining Indigenous oral traditions with her experience in modern dance, avant-garde theater, and consciousness-raising, Miguel has confronted racist and sexist stereotypes, cultural appropriation and commodification, weight and age stigma, gender-based violence, classism, and taboos among le***ans.

MAURICE KENNY RESIDENCE
📍 62 Clark Street, Brooklyn
Poet Maurice Kenny, widely regarded as one of the first Native American writers to publish literature exploring Two-Spirit identity, rented a studio apartment this Brooklyn Heights address from 1967 to 1987. While living here, Kenny entered one of his most prolific and transformative periods as a writer, publishing his first poetry with overtly q***r and Native themes.

📸 1️⃣ & 3️⃣ Courtesy of the University of Winnipeg Archives, Albert McLeod fonds; 2️⃣ Exterior of 404 Lafayette Street; 4️⃣ Exterior of 333 Degraw Street; 5️⃣ Courtesy of Spiderwoman Theater; 6️⃣ Exterior of 62 Clark Street.

10/03/2026

"ONE MAN STOPPING GAY RIGHTS," proclaimed the flyer distributed by the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) in advance of a zap held October 3, 1971, to protest inaction by the City Council’s General Welfare Committee on Intro 475 (Clingan-Burden Bill), which proposed to prohibit discrimination in housing, public accommodation, or employment based on sexual orientation.

GAA zapped the residence of the Committee chair, Saul Sharison, at 70 East 10th Street, Manhattan (pictured) — the second in a week's time. A crowd of some 1,000 people marched to the building; police were waiting behind barricades, and a number of activists were clubbed. GAA’s Municipal Government Committee chair Marc Rubin and five others were invited into the lobby for a discussion with a representative of Mayor Lindsay. Rubin, Arthur Evans, Greg Francis, Lon Lowry, Pete Fisher, and Charlie Burch (dubbed the "Sharison 6") were arrested after refusing to leave the lobby. Shortly after, several GAA members were again clubbed by police, east of the building. This was the only known GAA zap captured on police surveillance tapes.

Sharison released Intro 475 five days later, and three hearings were held, but it died in his committee on January 27, 1972. The Sharison 6 were found guilty of unlawful trespassing and disturbing the peace. GAA lawyer Hal Weiner negotiated their conditional release, but Burch refused and was fined.

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/gay-activists-alliance-zaps-at-saul-sharison-residence/

📸 1️⃣ Marc Rubin and Peter Fisher in the lobby of Sharison's residence. Photo by Rich Wandel. Courtesy of The New York Library; 2️⃣ Source: Archives of Sexuality and Gender; 3️⃣ Exterior of 70 East 10th Street, Manhattan, via Streeteasy; 4️⃣ Published in the New York Times.

09/30/2026

September 30, 1989, Virgil Thomson, eminent composer and music critic of the 20th century, died in his suite at the Chelsea Hotel (222 West 23rd Street, Manhattan). He cumulatively lived in the Chelsea for over half of his life, in residence there from 1936 to 1938 and then from 1940 until his death.

Thomson served as the chief music critic of the New York Herald Tribune for 14 years and composed over 200 original works.

In 1943, he moved from a small rental room to suite 9C, where he would live until his death. The three-room suite, as described by one of Thomson’s mentees and his posthumous biographer, music critic Anthony Carl Tommasini, included a "spacious salon with rosewood paneling, a closetless bedroom, and a rectangular connecting room that functioned both as office and as dining area."

Although Thomson was incredibly private about identifying as q***r (the only term he ever used) — especially after being among those arrested in the 1942 scandal at Gustave Beekman’s gay brothel at 329 Pacific Street in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn — he surrounded himself with other LGBTQ individuals as friends, collaborators, mentees, and personal secretaries. In his apartment, Thomson regularly hosted legendary dinner parties for a predominantly gay coterie of notable figures in the arts.

READ MORE: https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/virgil-thomson-residence-at-the-chelsea-hotel/

📸 1️⃣ Exterior of the Chelsea Hotel, c. 2022; 2️⃣ Photo by David Gahr. Courtesy of the Estate of David Gahr; 3️⃣ & 4️⃣ Source: Steinway & Sons' "Listen: Life with Music & Culture."

09/29/2026

Throughout the 20th century, the city recurrently used raids, police sweeps, and other aggressive tactics to "clean up" Times Square, a red-light district and gay enclave that was increasingly viewed as seedy and tawdry. Amid these efforts, around 1980, Blue’s, a Black and Latino LGBTQ bar, opened in a single-story building at 264 West 43rd Street (now demolished).

September 29, 1982, at 11PM, around 40 uniformed officers entered Blue’s, locked the doors, and instructed patrons and employees to line up with their hands against the rear wall. Officers shouted homophobic and racist slurs, then proceeded to indiscriminately beat them — "the women the hardest, then the drag queens, then the more effeminate men," according to on-duty manager Lew Olive. In addition to hospitalizing 12 people, the police stole jewelry and money, destroyed IDs, and inflicted $40,000 in damage.

As news of the raid spread, in*******al LGBTQ groups met to plan a demonstration, which gained momentum after police raided Blue’s *again* on October 8 to allegedly search for a man with a gun. Groups involved included Black and White Men Together (now Men of All Colors Together); Coalition Against Racism, Anti-Semitism, Sexism, and Heterosexism (CRASH); D***s Against Racism Everywhere; El Comité Homosexual Latinoamericano; Harlem Metropolitan Community Church (HMCC); Le***an & Gay Youth; Metropolitan Community Church of New York; Salsa Soul Sisters; Third World Le***an and Gay Alliance; and LGBTQ caucuses of communist and socialist parties.

On the evening of October 15, 1982, around 1,500 protesters gathered and marched. Read more at nyclgbtsites.org.

📸 1️⃣ Photo by Betty Lane. Source: "The Connection," via the Archives of Sexuality and Gender; 2️⃣ through 4️⃣ Courtesy of the Le***an Herstory Archives; 5️⃣ Photo © Richard Wandel. Courtesy of The New York Public Library; 6️⃣ Photo © Dona Ann McAdams. Courtesy of Dona Ann McAdams.

09/29/2026

Sound like you? Then our upcoming walking tour is not to be missed!

WALKING TOUR of the LGBTQ East Village
Monday, Oct 5th, at 5:30 PM (90-minute tour)
$25 — limited tickets
Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/east-village-walking-tour-for-lgbtq-history-month-tickets-2002303990135?

Explore places and people that made this neighborhood a center of LGBTQ art, activism, nightlife, and counterculture. See if you can hear the echos of dance music as we stand outside the site of The Loft, where David Mancuso hosted egalitarian underground house parties that influenced the city’s club scene. Share memories as we arrive at the former locations of nightclubs The Saint, with its legendary interior dome, and Pyramid Cocktail Lounge, where LGBTQ performers included Andy Warhol, John Waters, performance artist Ethyl Eichelberger, and more.

📸 1️⃣ Under the dome at The Saint, 1988. Source: Tim Smith, The Saint Collection, Flickr; 2️⃣ Drag queens (left to right) Lady Bunny, Mistress Formika, and Sweetie in the Pyramid Club dressign room, 1992. Photo by and courtesy of Linda Simpson; 3️⃣ Poster featuring David Mancuso and the Loft phrase "Love Saves the Day," 2020. Credit: Erica Gunn; 4️⃣ Inside the former Pyramid Bar, 1985. Photo by and courtesy of Ken Schles, www.kenschles.com; 5️⃣ Under the dome inside The Saint. Source: The Saint At Large.

09/28/2026

In September 1957, "West Side Story" premiered at the Winter Garden Theater (1634 Broadway, Manhattan), featuring a creative team in which all of the major members were gay, le***an, or bisexual: Jerome Robbins, who directed and choreographed the show with Peter Gennaro (Best Choreography Tony Award); Leonard Bernstein, who wrote the music; Arthur Laurents, the librettist; Stephen Sondheim, the lyricist; Oliver Smith, the scenic designer (Best Scenic Design Tony Award); Irene Sharaff, the costume designer; and Jean Rosenthal, the lighting designer; the production also included actors Larry Kert, who was the male lead, Grover Dale and Tommy Abbott

Opened in 1911, the Winter Garden Theater has staged multiple productions involving major LGBTQ performers and creators. Learn more at www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/winter-garden-theatre.

📸 1️⃣ & 2️⃣ Promotional poster for "West Side Story," 1957; 3️⃣ Exterior of the Winter Garden Theater, c. 2022; 4️⃣ Courtesy of the New York Public Library, Billy Rose Theatre Division; 5️⃣ Source: Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts.

09/26/2026

WALKING TOUR for LGBTQ History Month
LGBTQ East Village — Explore places and people that made this neighborhood a center of LGBTQ art, activism, nightlife, and counterculture
Monday, Oct 5th, at 5:30 PM (90-minute tour)
$25 — limited tickets
REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/east-village-walking-tour-for-lgbtq-history-month-tickets-2002303990135?

Visit the former residences of poet Allen Ginsberg and le***an activists Ellen Broidy, co-planner of the first NYC Pride March (1970), and Ernestine Eckstein, who was active in the LGBTQ rights movement in the pre-Stonewall years. See if you can hear the echos of dance music as we stand outside the site of The Loft, where David Mancuso hosted egalitarian underground house parties that influenced the city’s club scene. Share memories as we arrive at the former locations of nightclubs The Saint, with its legendary interior dome, and Pyramid Cocktail Lounge, where LGBTQ performers included Andy Warhol, John Waters, performance artist Ethyl Eichelberger, and more.

Cover photo, under the dome inside The Saint. Source: The Saint At Large.

09/24/2026

Openly le***an Chinese American restaurateur and film director/actress Esther Eng was born September 24, 1914. Before becoming a restaurateur, Esther Eng (born Ng Kam-ha in San Francisco) was a pioneering figure in the American and Hong Kong film industries, beginning in the 1930s. Eng was Hong Kong’s first female film director and the first Chinese American female director to make a film in Hollywood. Openly le***an throughout her career in Hong Kong, Eng was often rumored to be in relationships with her leading ladies who Chinese columnists referred to as Eng’s "bosom friends" and "good sisters." Her sexuality was not known to have affected her career negatively; as S. Louisa Wei noted in her research on Eng, in 1938 the Hong Kong newspaper "Sing Tao Daily" remarked that she was “living proof of the possibility of same-sex love."

Eng’s next venture was as a New York restaurateur. After moving from San Francisco in 1950, Eng met an old friend, Bo Bo (a common Chinese nickname meaning "baby" or "darling"), who, along with his non-English speaking theater troupe, was unable to return to China after the Communist victory the year prior. Eng opened her first restaurant, Bo Bo, at 20½ Pell Street in Chinatown, to provide work to the troupe, and over time the restaurant became a refuge for out-of-work Chinese theater and film actors. According to Bruce Edward Hall’s 1998 memoir, Eng was an outspoken le***an during her career as a restaurateur. Hall wrote she maintained her masculine dress and haircuts, and her ex-girlfriends often managed her restaurants. Read more via link in bio and at nyclgbtsites.org.⁠
⁠
📸 1️⃣ Esther Eng in front of Bo Bo, 1950s. Source: New York Magazine; 2️⃣ Exterior of 20½ Pell Street, c. 2024; 3️⃣ Photo by Emile Bocian. Courtesy of the Museum of Chinese in America, Emile Bocian Collection; 4️⃣ Source: The New York Times.

09/22/2026

"When the boys poured in, you could actually hear the gasps of astonishment above the pounding music." — Mel Cheren, owner of the Paradise Garage, remembering the scene at The Saint's opening night, September 1980

Entrepreneur Bruce Mailman, in partnership with designer Charles Terrel, created The Saint which opened in September 1980. Mailman purchased an abandoned proscenium theater at 105 Second Avenue, Manhattan, because it could accommodate his vision of a multi-level extravagant club — including a planetarium, which became The Saint’s trademark.

Working from Mailman’s vision, Terrel designed a futuristic, elevated, 4,800-square-foot circular dance floor topped by an aluminum domed ceiling that served as a theatrical scrim hiding nearly 500 speakers. A star projector, known as "the tree of light," rose from the center with about 1,500 fixtures to create various light shows, including scenes of a nighttime sky, sunrise, or the cosmos. Above the dome was the original balcony; Mailman intended it to be a viewing deck to look down upon the dance floor but, instead, it became a main area for sexual activity.

The club’s architectural drawings often appeared in media coverage and came to symbolize The Saint as a visionary space. A 1981 issue of "After Dark," an entertainment magazine aimed at a gay audience, referred to it as the "Vatican of Disco."

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/the-saint/

📸 1️⃣ Under the dome at The Saint, 1988. Source: Time Smith, The Saint Collection, Flickr; 2️⃣ Source: "Letting Loose and Fighting Back" exhibition at the New-York Historical Society; 3️⃣ Exterior of 105 Second Avenue, Manhattan, c. 2017; 4️⃣ & 5️⃣ Source: "The Saint at Large" page.

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