NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project The first initiative to comprehensively document historic sites associated with New York City's le***an, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

Through his poetry, Maurice Kenny — widely regarded as one of the first Native American writers to publish literature ex...
08/20/2026

Through his poetry, Maurice Kenny — widely regarded as one of the first Native American writers to publish literature exploring Two-Spirit identity — explored themes of homosexual love, desire, and intimacy, weaving together his personal experiences and cultural heritage to explore the complexities of being a gay Native American in a society that marginalized both identities.

Kenny (who was born August 16, 1929) rented a studio apartment on the top floor of 62 Clark Street (pictured) Brooklyn Heights from 1967 to 1987. While living here, Kenny entered one of his most prolific and transformative periods as a writer, galvanized by the Occupation of Alcatraz in 1969, the Wounded Knee Occupation in 1973, and the time he spent in San Francisco with Gay American Indians co-founders Barbara May Cameron (Lakota) and Randy Burns (Paiute). These poems were included in many of the publications that proliferated during the post-Stonewall gay cultural renaissance and the concurrent Native American Renaissance.

In 1976, Gay Sunshine published Kenny’s "Tinseled Bucks: A Historical Study of Indian Homosexuality." In the "silence-shattering article," Kenny reclaimed the power Two-Spirits had historically held, outlining how settler colonialism repressed knowledge of their existence and perpetuated homophobia in Native communities. Its poetic counterpart was "Winkte" (the Lakota term for Two-Spirit people), first published in ManRoot in 1977.

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/maurice-kenny-residence/

📸 1️⃣ Exterior of 62 Clark Street, Brooklyn, c. 2023; 2️⃣ Maurice Kenny on the cover of "Gay Community News," 1980. Source: "Maurice Kenny, 1977-1980," Randy Burns Papers, Box 1, Folder 26.

"All le***ans, each and every one of us, are hurt by hate-mongering anywhere. MEGA-KQ’s hate is not a Latino-only proble...
08/18/2026

"All le***ans, each and every one of us, are hurt by hate-mongering anywhere. MEGA-KQ’s hate is not a Latino-only problem; it’s a New York City problem; it’s a le***an problem." — joint statement from Le***an Avengers, Las Buenas Amigas, and African Ancestral Le***ans United for Societal Change

In 1994, activist Ana María Simo of the Le***an Avengers led an effort to mobilize immigrant, Latina, and working-class le***ans against the hate-mongering tactics of Spanish radio station La Mega 97.9 and its parent company, the Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), which began leasing 26 West 56th Street (pictured) as its headquarters and studios in 1988. The hosts of El Vacilón de la Mañana, La Mega’s morning show, regularly insulted and propagated stereotypes about LGBTQ, Asian, Black, and Jewish peoples, and joked about the r**e and domestic abuse of women. In response, the Le***an Avengers, Las Buenas Amigas, and African Ancestral Le***ans United for Societal Change (formerly Salsa Soul Sisters) formed a coalition and staged multiple demonstrations.

In August 1994, seven coalition members disrupted the show’s broadcast by invading the two studios on the fifth floor and seizing the hosts’ microphones to yell, "Enough! Hate is not funny! Basta ya! Con el odio no se juega!" Meanwhile, over 20 other members demonstrated outside, distributing flyers and chanting "Boycott La Mega!" "MEGA KQ is hate radio!" and "MEGA KQ es Mega Ca Ca!" in Spanish and English. The hosts denied any wrongdoing yet swiftly reverted to their bigoted tactics, so the coalition returned for another picket two weeks later, initiated a city-wide wheat pasting campaign, amended La Mega’s subway advertisements with stickers, and incessantly sent letters to the station’s president and sponsors. READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/stop-the-hate-radio-actions-at-the-spanish-broadcasting-system-headquarters/

📸 1️⃣ Las Buenas Amigas members protesting against Mega-KQ. Photo © Morgan Gwenwald. Source: Le***an Avengers Documentary Project; 2️⃣ & 3️⃣ Flyers for the march against La Mega. Courtesy of the Le***an Herstory Archives; 4️⃣ Exterior of 26 West 56th Street, Manhattan, c. 2016.

Nightclub > theater > cabaret! August 13, 1963, The New York Times reported that the former Diamond Horseshoe Nightclu...
08/13/2026

Nightclub > theater > cabaret! August 13, 1963, The New York Times reported that the former Diamond Horseshoe Nightclub, opened by entertainment impresario Billy Rose in 1938 at 235 West 46th Street in Manhattan (pictured) and converted to a theater in 1961, was to be re-converted back to a cabaret. Owner Irving Maidman is quoted as observing that, two years after purchasing and reimagining the venue as the Mayfair Theater, there were "too many such houses to make the Mayfair operation profitable." So, back to a cabaret!

One early LGBTQ-associated show was "Hang Down Your Head and Die" (1964), a r***e about capital punishment, with actors Remak Ramsay, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni; the latter two would go on to write the musical "Hair" (1967). The Mayfair was later the location of the Broadway production of the play "Tubstrip" (1974), a comedy set in a gay bathhouse, which ran for five weeks and was the most popular and successful of the post-Stonewall plays that have been dubbed "gay erotic theater" from 1969 to 1974. It premiered in 1973 at two Off-Broadway theaters, then toured in eight cities over nine months, before opening at the Mayfair. Read more via link in bio and at nyclgbtsites.org.

📸 1️⃣ Exterior of 235 West 46th Street, c. 2022; 2️⃣ Photo by Look Magazine. Courtesy of the Museum of the Cit of New York.

"Everything I paint is within four blocks of where I live and the people are the people I know and see all the time." — ...
08/12/2026

"Everything I paint is within four blocks of where I live and the people are the people I know and see all the time." — Martin Wong, referring to his apartment at 141 Ridge Street

Martin Wong, who was openly gay, was an influential figure in the 1980s and early 1990s downtown arts scene, befriending the likes of artists David Wojnarowicz and Keith Haring.

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/martin-wong-residence-studio/

Perhaps Wong’s most important friendship was with Miguel Piñero, writer and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, who Wong credited with helping him develop a strong tie to the Puerto Rican community of "Loisaida" (Spanglish for "Lower East Side"). Wong and Piñero were also frequent artistic collaborators and were briefly lovers.

Wong moved to 141 Ridge Street, apartment 9 (which he also used as his studio) in 1982. During his time here, Wong's paintings most often took inspiration from San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood, where he was raised, and Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Chinatown. Wong created a series of paintings that focused on the displacement of neighborhood residents in the face of gentrification. Brickwork and American Sign Language featured regularly in his work. Throughout the 1980s, Wong amassed a pioneering collection of graffiti art and graffiti-related publications, at a time when graffiti was not highly regarded in the art world. In 1994, when he returned to San Francisco to be under his parents’ care following his AIDS diagnosis, he donated his entire collection of over 300 objects to the Museum of the City of New York.

Wong died of AIDS-related complications August 12, 1999, at the age of 53. In New York, his work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the New-York Historical Society.

📸 1️⃣ Martin Wong in his Ridge Street apartment, early 1990s. Source: Charlie Ahearn, "Martin Wong portrait 1998," Vimeo; 2️⃣ Exterior of Wong's former residence and studio at 141 Ridge Street, Manhattan. Photo c. 2018.

In 1969, a gay cruising area in the southwestern section of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park became the target of local Quee...
08/10/2026

In 1969, a gay cruising area in the southwestern section of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park became the target of local Queens residents. According to witnesses, at least 30 trees in a grove along Grand Central Parkway, at 78th Avenue, in Kew Gardens (see map), were chopped down on the nights of June 18, 19, and 20 to prevent gay men from congregating there; a local resident saw 20 men cutting down trees on one of the nights. The incidents were reported multiple times to the police, who either claimed not to notice or were seen chatting with the vandals before leaving the scene. No arrests were made. The story made the front page of the New York Times on July 1 ("Trees in a Queens Park Cut Down as Vigilantes Harass Homosexuals.")

Myles Tashman, a lawyer living across from the tree grove, said he and a group of men from his apartment building were "concerned for the safety of the women and children" and formed a "vigilante committee" a month before the tree cutting incident. About 30 to 40 men went to the park each night with flashlights and walkie-talkies looking for gay men to harass and tell to leave. Tashman said the group, while admittedly acting against the law, had police consent. The more drastic action to cut down trees, which no one directly admitted to doing, was reportedly taken after gay men told the vigilante group that they had a right to be on public land.

August 10, 1969, the Mattachine Society of New York, the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, and other groups and allies wore lavender armbands and marched with signs for nearly an hour at the site of the former tree grove. Mattachine’s September 1969 newsletter noted that the demonstration was held there "to let the women and children see the 'menaces' their husbands were 'protecting' them from and to show that homosexuals intend to go anywhere they choose." Read more via link in bio and at nyclgbtsites.org.

📸 1️⃣ Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Tree Grove, located atGrand Central Parkway & 78th Avenue, Queens, c. 2017; 2️⃣ Photograph by Lee Romero for "The New York Times"; 3️⃣ Source: Google Maps.

Little known today, John Latouche (who died August 7, 1956) was considered an entertainment wunderkind when he lived i...
08/07/2026

Little known today, John Latouche (who died August 7, 1956) was considered an entertainment wunderkind when he lived in the five-room apartment on the lower floors of 12 Minetta Street (pictured) from late 1939 to 1941.

Latouche attended Columbia College for two years before dropping out in 1935 to pursue a career in show business. During the next few years he wrote songs for the le***an cabaret performers Madame Spivy LeVoe and Hope Emerson. Early in 1938 he began working for the Federal Theater Project as a performer and songwriter. Paul Robeson’s version of Latouche’s patriotic cantata "Ballad for Americans" gained enormous acclaim in November 1939, and the cantata remained popular into the early 1940s.

With this success, during the winter of 1939-40, Latouche moved to Minetta Street with a roommate, writer-editor Robert Faulkner, who Latouche’s biographer suggests was also his lover. Latouche was asked by his friend, composer Vernon Duke, to write the lyrics for the all-Black musical "Cabin in the Sky," starring Ethel Waters. "Taking a Chance on Love" became a signature song for Waters, the most popular song Latouche ever wrote, and one of Duke’s greatest hits. The show garnered rave reviews, had a modest Broadway run, a very successful national tour, and in 1943 became an MGM musical starring Waters.

For Latouche, who had moved frequently during the 1930s, often bunking with friends or renting rooms in cheap hotels, this apartment offered his first opportunity to entertain on a large scale.

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/john-latouche-residence/

📸 1️⃣ Exterior of 12 Minetta Street, Manhattan, c. 2024; 2️⃣ Photo by George Karger for "Collier's."

August 6, 1971, Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) held at zap* at the West Side YMCA (pictured) to protest the Y's discrimi...
08/06/2026

August 6, 1971, Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) held at zap* at the West Side YMCA (pictured) to protest the Y's discriminatory policies against gay men.

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/gay-activists-alliance-zap-at-the-west-side-ymca/

The West Side YMCA, like many other YMCAs nationally, had a reputation as a popular lodging and recreation option for gay men. The facility’s director, however, announced in 1971 a policy of rejecting patrons there for "homosexual practices." This Y instituted regular room checks and residents were evicted if gay literature or other "evidence" was found. The number of visitors per room was monitored, and a rule was adopted that a resident’s door must be kept open if he had a visitor after 9PM. This Y also employed informers and installed two-way mirrors in the basement bathroom.

After receiving complaints about the West Side YMCA, the GAA planned a zap for Friday, August 6, 1971, to protest the discrimination on the premises, with the goal of getting the YMCA to change its policies. The zap began with five GAA members checking into the Y in the afternoon. At 6PM, about 75 to 80 GAA members gathered on Central Park West with picket signs and leaflets. At 6:30PM, Morty Manford and Bob Ruecker requested a double room, and the Y employees, apparently knowing of GAA’s action, allowed them to register. GAA president Jim Owles then arrived at the registration desk, announced who he was and that he intended to register, and was accepted. The crowd outside then descended into the Y’s cafeteria and announced that the building was officially liberated.

* A "zap" was a direct, surprise public confrontation with political figures and corporate and governmental entities regarding gay rights and discrimination, designed to gain gay and straight media attention.

📸 1️⃣ Exterior of the West Side YMCA, 5 West 63rd Street, Manhattan, c. 2020; 2️⃣ Photo by Rich Wandel. Courtesy of The New York Public Library; 3️⃣ Photo by Rich Wandel. Source: "GAY" magazine, September 13, 1971.

Fashion designer Arnold Scaasi, is best known for his evening wear designs worn by first ladies, socialites, and celeb...
08/03/2026

Fashion designer Arnold Scaasi, is best known for his evening wear designs worn by first ladies, socialites, and celebrities primarily during the 1960s through 1980s, died.

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/arnold-scaasi-residence-showrooms-design-studio/

Before Scaasi was 30, he won the prestigious Coty Fashion Critic’s Award for best designer of the year and his designs were covered in "Vogue" and "Harper’s Bazaar." In 1954 he reversed the spelling of his Jewish last name (Isaacs) to give it a more European flair, which was better for business in the 1950s, and two years later launched his own ready-to-wear house garnering immediate notice.

In 1959, Scaasi began showing his extravagant and influential ready-to-wear collections at his residence at 26 West 56th Street (pictured). The lavishly redecorated rooms were styled by fashionable interior designer Valerian Rybar. "The New York Times" reported that the lush interior included "velvet-pillowed divans, velvet dr**eries and even velvet-covered bannisters in terra cotta tone…Chandeliers sparkle in the room."

Scaasi gained worldwide attention in 1969 when Barbra Streisand wore one of his most infamous designs — a Peter Pan-collared sheer pantsuit with bell bottoms — to the Oscars and picked up her best lead actress award for "Funny Girl." In 1996, Scaasi was given the Lifetime Achievement award by the Fashion Council of America.

📸 1️⃣ Arnold Scaasi, c. 1950s; 2️⃣ Exterior of 26 West 56th Street.

July 31, 1994, a demonstration by the Le***an Avengers, an activist organization, was organized at the Alice Austen Ho...
07/31/2026

July 31, 1994, a demonstration by the Le***an Avengers, an activist organization, was organized at the Alice Austen House (2 Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island). The group marched around the grounds calling it a "National Historic Le***an Landmark" and passed out pamphlets advocating that Austen's same-sex relationship with Gertrude Tate be acknowledged. This came to fruition as the house museum staff and board worked to incorporate the couple’s story by bringing in LGBTQ scholars and, beginning in 2016, participating in the LGBTQ Pride March.

In June 2017, through the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project’s extensive research and writing, the 1970 nomination of the Alice Austen House to the National Register of Historic Places was amended to include its significance to LGBTQ history. This followed the Project’s amendment to the site’s New York State Register of Historic Places listing.

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/alice-austen-house/

Alice Austen was one of the first notable women photographers in America. She was introduced to photography as a child and her images — chronicling Staten Island, New York City, and other places, and particularly focusing on the life of her friends and social circle — are considered among the finest produced in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Austen met Gertrude Tate, a kindergarten teacher and professional dancing instructor from Brooklyn, during an excursion to the Catskills in 1897. They then began an intimate relationship that would last until Austen’s death 55 years later. Tate moved into Austen's home, Clear Comfort, in 1917 despite her mother and sister’s disapproval of her "wrong devotion" to Austen.

📸 1️⃣ Exterior of Clear Comfort, the Alice Austen House. Photo by and courtesy of the Alice Austen House; 2️⃣ & 3️⃣ Members of Le***an Avengers during the 1994 protest at the Alice Austen House. Photos by Saskia Scheffer; 4️⃣ Photo courtesy of the Alice Austen House.

Guillermo Vasquez immigrated to the U.S. in 1972 to study international law and political science at Pace and Columbia u...
07/27/2026

Guillermo Vasquez immigrated to the U.S. in 1972 to study international law and political science at Pace and Columbia universities. A long-time resident of Jackson Heights, Queens, Vasquez was a leading advocate for the borough’s Latino community and helped new immigrants, particularly those from his native Colombia, acclimate to life in New York City. He was a founding member and president of the Queens Hispanic Coalition, a founding member of the Latin American Cultural Center of Queens, and a member of the Colombian American National Coalition.

READ MORE: www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/guillermo-vasquez-corner/

Vasquez was also instrumental in pushing for LGBTQ visibility in Queens and raising awareness— especially among Latinos — about the AIDS epidemic. City Councilmember Daniel Dromm recalled that Vasquez was "a fierce soldier in the battle against HIV/AIDS and a bridge between Latino activists and other movements for social justice."

During the early years of the AIDS crisis, the NYC Department of Health cited Jackson Heights as the neighborhood with the greatest concentration of at-risk gay Latinos. In order to spread awareness to this community, Vasquez founded the Latino Commission on AIDS and the U.S. Colombian SIDA/AIDS Foundation. He was also the coordinator of community outreach for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) and spent many evenings educating people about HIV/AIDS, most often at a gay Latino bar called the Love Boat at the corner of 77th Street and Broadway in Elmhurst. In 2013, seventeen years after Vasquez’s death from AIDS-related complications, Nayibe Nunez-Berger, a fellow Latino community activist, chose this location for the Guillermo Vasquez Corner street sign because of its proximity to the bar where she and Vasquez engaged with the community.

📸 1️⃣ Guillermo Vasquez Corner signage. Photo by Amanda Davis/NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, 2018; 2️⃣ Guillermo Vasquez.

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