For decades, tourists flocking to New York for Pride every June have found plenty of crowded bars and good-time parties, but no easy way to connect with the city's rich LGBTQ history.
Even in Sheridan Square, the epicenter where the 1969 Stonewall Uprising sparked the gay liberation movement, there was little to see for anyone interested in the gay past.
“When guests get here, what they experience is a bar, benches and a park,” says Ross Levy, director and deputy executive director of the New York State Tourism Board. “That doesn't do much for people who come during the day when the bars are closed. And it doesn't do much for people who want to bring their kids and have them learn about the history of the area.”
The building that houses the new center is next door to the current Stonewall Inn Bar, which opened in the early 1990s. But in the late 1960s, a bar of the same name occupied both spaces and was connected by an interior doorway. Shortly after the riots, the original Stonewall Inn went out of business and the connection was bricked up.
The current storefront next door to the Stonewall Inn was vacant when Diana Rodriguez, CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group Pride Live, took over in 2022. Nail salon chairs from the previous tenant still lined the walls.
Rodriguez has raised more than $3 million, much of it from businesses, to build the visitor's center, which her organization will manage. The center will provide a much-needed roof for National Park Service rangers working at the monument (who are currently forced to use bathrooms at local businesses) and offer visitors of all ages a place to learn about the monument's history through a series of exhibits (admission is free).
“I hope people come here and learn more about Stonewall,” Rodriguez said, “and then by the end of their time here, I hope they feel compelled to take action.”
Manhattan's new visitor's center is just one example of where you can get a glimpse into New York City's queer history; here we profile four more, one in each of the other boroughs.
Staten Island
In 1994, activist group The Lesbian Avengers marched to a charming white cottage on the east shore of Staten Island, chanting, “Alice was a lesbian, and always will be a lesbian.” Built in 1690, the house was the property of Alice Austen, a groundbreaking documentary photographer who captured the rapidly changing New York City of the early 20th century. After her death in 1952, it became a museum.
What the Avengers were protesting was the institution's refusal to acknowledge that Austin had lived there with his partner, Gertrude Tate, for 30 years and had used the building as a studio for taking many photographs of the couple's non-traditional group of friends.
“We felt it was really important for the museum to have lesbians leading the interpretation,” said Victoria Munro, who became the museum's director in 2017 and has spearheaded efforts to highlight Austin's contributions to LGBTQ history.
Now, visitors (for a suggested $5 admission fee) can view more than 7,000 of Austin's works, including photos that challenge gender and sexuality norms, as well as photography exhibitions, often by queer artists, and a garden that celebrates the gender fluidity of plants. The Lesbian Avengers are also back: photographer Saskia Schaefer's photos of the 1994 protests will be on display on the house's lawn through at least the end of the summer.
Queens
For decades, People's Beach, a corner of Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula, has been a place where queer New Yorkers could shed their layers and inhibitions without unwelcome stares, huddled so close together that it was hard to see the sand between the colorful towels and sunshades. (Admission is free; parking is $20 a day.)
“It's a very welcoming place, a real community,” says Timothy Leonard, Northeast program manager for the advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association, who learned to ride a bike on Leith's trails and later found a sense of belonging on the beach as a teenager struggling with his gay identity. “It's a place of true celebration.”
In recent years, the beach, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, has undergone major changes.
After being closed for decades, the 1932 Jacob Riis Baths is set to reopen next summer after a major $50 million development project is completed. The Art Deco building's exterior and interior tiling are being restored, and new amenities will include hotel rooms, a bar, a courtyard pool and lounge area, and a rooftop restaurant.
Severe erosion has forced parts of the beach to be closed this summer, but that won't dampen the queer-friendly spirit, even if parties have had to move across the sand.
Brooklyn
Marsha P. Johnson, the activist and transgender icon who died in 1992, is not known for spending time on the Williamsburg waterfront. But she made history there in 2020 when the seven-acre East River State Park was renamed in her honor, making it the first New York state park to honor an openly LGBTQ person.
“The renaming paves the way for us to reimagine the park,” said Leslie Wright, New York City Parks Regional Director. The park is not only being remodeled to be more resilient to climate change, but also to honor Johnson's legacy with input from the local and LGBTQ communities, Johnson's family, and public art consultants.
The park's entrance now features a colorfully decorated gate reminiscent of the flower crown Johnson once wore, along with the phrase “Never Mind,” a favorite response from Johnson to judges who asked him what his middle initial meant, and signs about transgender history and awareness line the walkway.
Marsha P. Johnson State Park offers great views of the Manhattan skyline, and is also home to Brooklyn's popular outdoor food festival, Smorgasburg, on Saturday, as well as a variety of LGBTQ-centric events during Pride Month.
Bronx
Among the many notable New Yorkers interred among Woodlawn Cemetery's 400 acres of rolling hills, a National Historic Landmark, are those who contributed to LGBTQ history, such as poet Countee Cullen, who was a mentor to openly gay author James Baldwin; Herman Melville, whose works, such as “Moby Dick” and “Billy Budd,” are filled with homosexuality; and suffragettes Carrie Chapman Catt and Mary Garrett Hay, life partners for decades and buried side by side.
“It's inspiring to know that there were brave and heroic people in the past,” said Ken Lustbader, co-founder of the New York City LGBT Heritage Project. “Although the support systems we have today don't exist, through their actions they paved the way for the visibility and allies we have today.”
Every year during Pride, his group hosts trolley tours of the cemetery and highlights the stories behind some of the burial sites, placing rainbow flags next to them to make them more visible.
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