48-523: The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project is a nonprofit cultural heritage initiative and resource documenting sites that have historic significance to the LGBT+ community in New York City. The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project is a nonprofit organization that highlights New York City LGBT community’s history in social justice, literature, community, and the arts. It currently lists over 350 locations across
96-580: A "fairie" or "androgyne", which to her meant an individual, as she said, "with male genitals", but whose "psychical constitution" and sexual life "approach the female type". Early 20th century Beginning in the late 1800s into the 20th century, people, typically young gay men, known as 'fairies,' were feminine-presenting sex workers. It was believed that sexuality was tied to behavior, and this ideology allowed for straight-identified men to have sex with fairies, but maintain their masculinity and heterosexuality. On February 21, 1903, New York police conducted
144-518: A homosexual man convicted for sodomy; a later study showed that he had mentally degenerated as a result of the lobotomy. In 1948, New York native Gore Vidal 's third novel, The City and the Pillar , was published by E. P. Dutton in New York. It was the first post-World War II novel whose openly gay and well-adjusted protagonist is not killed off at the end of the story for defying social norms. It
192-699: A public scandal with a young man in Cape Cod that forced him to leave the ministry, in 1866. In 1888, the Everard Baths , a Victorian Turkish bath , was opened, and would gain a growth in reputation among homosexual men. In 1895 a group of self-described androgynes in New York organized a club called the Cercle Hermaphroditos , based on their wish "to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution". The group included Jennie June (born in 1874 as Earl Lind ), who described herself as
240-493: A ruling in her favor by the New York Supreme Court . This was considered a landmark decision in favor of transgender rights. In circulation from 1977 to 1979, Gaysweek existed as the first openly LGBT weekly newspaper in New York. At the time, it was only one of three weekly LGBT publications in the world, and the first to be owned by an African-American. Late in 1979, a new religious revival ushered in
288-451: A sack and dunked into a river to drown, while the servant was flogged. This status quo of the death penalty for sodomy would remain unchanged after New Netherland was taken by the Duke of York in 1664, and " buggery " was retained as a capital offense. However, a portion of modern New York fell from 1674 to 1702 within the northern portion of Quaker-majority West Jersey , whose criminal code
336-437: A second offense of sodomy and sentenced him to death by strangulation; his body was then "burned to ashes". A second accused, Nicolas Hillebrant (or Hillebrantsen), was scheduled for a trial in 1658, but no further records indicate progress in the trial or an outcome; a third conviction in 1660, that of Jan Quisthout van der Linde (or Linden), who was accused of having had sex with his male servant, resulted in his being tied in
384-605: Is also home to the largest transgender population in the United States, estimated at 50,000 in 2018, concentrated in Manhattan and Queens . Albany , the state capital of New York, is also a progressive hub for the LGBTQ community. New York State possesses a long history of presence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people residing in, and often being convicted in, the state. Sexual relations between persons of
432-560: Is also recognized as one of the "definitive war-influenced gay novels", being one of the few books of its period dealing directly with male homosexuality. The book's publication caused a major literary scandal, with the New York Times refusing to publish it and Vidal's books being blacklisted from most major critical publications for the next six years, forcing Vidal to write and publish under pseudonyms until his reputation recovered. In 1950, New York made legal history when it became
480-544: Is now New York , sodomy was considered a capital offense. The New Netherland colony did not retain Dutch criminal law, but the West India Company , which was given legislative powers, gave the rulers of the colony powers to punish capital offenses, which may have included sodomy due to recorded punishments for the crime. In 1646, the first sodomy trial in the territory of New Netherland convicted Jan Creoli on
528-721: The 5 Boroughs of New York City . The organization is funded in part by the National Park Service Underrepresented Communities Grants, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, private, and corporate gifts. The initial report of LGBT history in New York City was prepared for The National Park Service and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation in 2018. The resources provided by
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#1732783239060576-650: The Upper West Side , as well as illegal, unlicensed places serving alcohol, such as the Stonewall Inn and the Snakepit, both in Greenwich Village. The Stonewall riots were a series of violent protests between gay men, drag queens, and lesbians against a police officer raid in New York City. The first night of rioting began on Friday, June 28, 1969, at about 1:20 am, when police raided
624-497: The anti-gay accommodation rules of the NY State Liquor Authority being overturned in subsequent court actions. These SLA provisions declared that it was illegal for homosexuals to congregate and be served alcoholic beverages in bars. An example of when these laws had been upheld is in 1940 when Gloria's, a bar that had been closed for such violations, fought the case in court and lost. Prior to this change in
672-509: The 1920s despite a lack of private rooms and seedy condition. The American composer Charles Griffes (1884–1920) wrote in his diaries about visits to the New York bathhouses and the YMCA . His biography states: "So great was his need to be with boys, that though his home contained two pianos, he chose to practice at an instrument at the Y, and his favorite time was when the players were coming and going from their games." A 1912 sterilization law
720-693: The 1930s had a reputation as "classiest, safest, and best known of the baths," eventually picking up the nickname, Everhard . On January 5, 1919, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice encouraged a police raid on the Everard Baths in which the manager and nine customers were arrested for lewd behavior. It was raided again in 1920 with 15 arrests. Also popular in the 1910s were the Produce Exchange Baths and
768-466: The 5-year minimum. The first reported sodomy case in the state's history, Lambertson v. People (1861), resulted in a conviction for buggery. An 1898 case was prosecuted by the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children , involving a man to allegedly assist another teenage boy to engage in sodomy with another teenage minor. Young Griffo , an Australian featherweight champion boxer,
816-487: The Lafayette Baths (403–405 Lafayette Street , which from 1916 was managed by Ira & George Gershwin ). American precisionist painter Charles Demuth used the Lafayette Baths as his favourite haunt. His 1918 homoerotic self-portrait set in a Turkish Bathhouse is likely to have been inspired by it. The Penn Post Baths in a hotel basement (The Penn Post Hotel, 304 West 31st Street) was a popular gay location in
864-688: The New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis September 20, 1958. The election of Mayor John Lindsay in 1965 signaled a major shift in city politics, and a new attitude toward sexual mores began changing the social atmosphere of New York. On April 21, 1966, Dick Leitsch , president of the New York Mattachine Society and two other members staged the Sip-in at the Julius bar on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village. This resulted in
912-725: The Pines Hotel (renamed the Fire Island Pines Botel) on Fire Island , helping to build up a significant LGBT tourist presence both at the resort and in the adjacent hamlet Cherry Grove, New York , over the subsequent decades. In 1966 bisexual activist Robert A. Martin (aka Donny the Punk) founded the Student Homophile League at Columbia University and New York University. In 1967 Columbia University officially recognized this group, thus making them
960-467: The Stonewall 50 / WorldPride events that is open to all. Additional commemorative arts, cultural, and educational programing to mark the 50th anniversary of the rebellion at the Stonewall Inn will be taking place throughout the city and the world ; it is believed that 2019 will be the largest international LGBT pride celebration held in history. From the time of the first European settlements in what
1008-549: The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar operating without a state license in Greenwich Village. Stonewall is considered a turning point for the modern gay rights movement worldwide. Newspaper coverage of the events was minor in the city, since, in the Sixties, huge marches and mass rioting had become commonplace and the Stonewall disturbances were relatively small. It was also after 1959 that former male model John B. Whyte bought
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#17327832390601056-526: The Stonewall events on the historical map and led to the modern-day pride marches. A new period of liberalism in the late 1960s began a new era of more social acceptance for homosexuality which lasted until the late 1970s. In the 1970s, the popularity of disco music and its culture in many ways made society more accepting of gays and lesbians. In 1971, the first version of the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act
1104-589: The author of Frommer's New York City from $ 90 a Day, wrote that New York City has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful" LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs , high-rises , and Broadway theatre ". LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". LGBT Americans in New York City constitute by significant margins
1152-502: The city limits of New York City. Eve's Hangout , also called Eve Addams' Tearoom, was an after-theater club run by Polish-Jewish lesbian émigré Eva Kotchever (Czlotcheber) from 1925 to 1926. It closed when she was convicted of obscenity and disorderly conduct, which resulted in her deportation. A 1942 medical journal article by the Journal of Criminal Psychopathology described the lobotomization , using only local anaesthetics, of
1200-408: The comradeship of his works and historians still debate whether he was a practicing homosexual, bisexual, etc. But this denouncement shows that homosexuality had become a public question by the end of the 19th century. Twenty years after Whitman came to New York, Horatio Alger continued the theme of manly love in his stories of the young Victorian self-made man . He came to New York fleeing from
1248-575: The conservatism that would reign in the United States during the 1980s and made life hard once again for LGBT people. The New York Court of Appeals case New York v. Onofre abolished most remaining laws regarding sodomy in New York. In 1983, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center was established in New York City . In 1985, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
1296-561: The docks, and some bars and dance halls. He kept records of the men and boys, usually noting age, physical characteristics, job, and origins. Dispersed in his praise of the city are moments of male admiration, such as in Calamus —"frequent and swift flash of eyes offering me robust, athletic love" or in poem Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, where he writes: Was call'd by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me / approaching or passing, / Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or
1344-403: The earliest bisexual newsletter. The Lesbian Herstory Archives were created in 1974. Conditions , a feminist magazine emphasizing writing by lesbians, was created in 1976, and continued until 1990, featuring writing by Audre Lorde , Jewelle Gomez , Paula Gunn Allen , and others. Also in 1977, Renee Richards , a transgender woman, was granted entry to the U.S. Open (in tennis) after
1392-540: The first " homophile " organizations in the 1950s and 1960s, although LGBT activism was propelled into a watershed moment in the 1969 Stonewall riots and the later protests against the apathy of civil and political institutions to the AIDS/HIV crisis. Various organizations were established for LGBT people to advocate for rights and provide human services, the impact of which was increasingly felt at state level. The most recent culminations of LGBT rights in New York include
1440-503: The first college in the United States to officially recognize a gay student group. Also in 1966, the first case to consider transsexualism in the US was heard, Mtr. of Anonymous v. Weiner, 50 Misc. 2d 380, 270 N.Y.S.2d 319 (1966) . The case concerned a transsexual person from New York City who had undergone sex reassignment surgery and wanted a change of name and sex on their birth certificate. The New York City Health Department refused to grant
1488-484: The first recorded vice raid on a gay bathhouse , the Ariston Hotel Baths . 26 men were arrested, and 12 brought to trial on sodomy charges; seven men received sentences ranging from four to 20 years in prison. The Everard Baths was patronized largely by homosexuals by the 1920s and became the community's preeminent social venue from the 1930s onward. It was patronized by gay men before the 1920s and by
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1536-551: The first state in the Union to reduce sodomy to a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of six months in prison. Nevertheless, anti-LGBT policies continued unabated, and residents in the gay villages of New York City began to increasingly become disenchanted with silent acceptance of police raids. The New York chapter of the Mattachine Society was established in 1955 (incorporated in 1961), and Barbara Gittings established
1584-523: The heels of this victory, the mayor cooperated in getting questions about homosexuality removed from NYC hiring practices. The police and fire departments resisted the new policy, however, and refused to cooperate. The result of these changes in the law, combined with the open social- and sexual-attitudes of the late Sixties, led to the increased visibility of gay life in New York. Several licensed gay bars were in operation in Greenwich Village and
1632-416: The largest international LGBT pride celebration in 2019, known as Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 , to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. In New York City, the Stonewall 50 - WorldPride NYC 2019 events produced by Heritage of Pride will be enhanced through a partnership made with the I LOVE NY program's LGBT division and shall include a welcome center during the weeks surrounding
1680-482: The largest self-identifying l esbian , g ay , b isexual , and t ransgender communities in the United States, and the 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village are widely considered to be the genesis of the modern gay rights movement . As of 2005, New York City was home to an estimated 272,493 self-identifying gay and bisexual individuals. The New York City metropolitan area had an estimated 568,903 self-identifying GLB residents. Meanwhile, New York City
1728-630: The late 1960s in New York, Mario Martino founded the Labyrinth Foundation Counseling Service, which was the first transgender community-based organization that specifically addressed the needs of female-to-male transsexuals. The commemorative march held one year after the riots, organized by the impetus of Craig Rodwell , owner of the Oscar Wilde Bookshop , drew 5,000 marchers up New York City's Sixth Avenue , which drew nationwide publicity and put
1776-477: The law, the business of running a gay bar had to involve paying bribes to the police and Mafia. As soon as the law was altered, the SLA ceased closing legally licensed gay bars and such bars could no longer be prosecuted for serving gays and lesbians. Mattachine pressed this advantage very quickly and Mayor Lindsay was confronted with the issue of police entrapment in gay bars, resulting in this practice being stopped. On
1824-604: The midnight orgies of young men / I pick out some low person for my dearest friend. He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate." Poems like these, Calamus (inspired by Whitman's treasured friends and possible lover, Fred Vaughan, who lived with the Whitman family in the 1850s) and the general theme of manly love functioned as a pseudonym for homosexuality. The developing sub-community had a coded voice to draw more gay and bisexual men to New York and other growing American urban centers. Whitman did, however, in 1890 denounce any sexuality in
1872-522: The negligent leaning of their flesh against me as / I sat, / Saw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly, yet never told them a / word, / Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing, sleeping, / Play'd the part that still looks back on the actor or actress, / The same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like, / Or as small as we like, or both great and small. Sometimes Whitman's writing verged on explicit, such as in his poem "Native Moments"—"I share
1920-671: The passage of the Marriage Equality Act in June 2011, granting the legalization of same-sex marriage to New York residents, and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the New York-originated landmark case United States v. Windsor to strike down key federal prohibitions against the recognition of lawful same-sex marriages throughout the United States. As of 2017, plans were advancing by the State of New York to host
1968-427: The population. New York's sodomy laws remained in flux, when an 1801 law raised the punishment to compulsory life imprisonment, with hard labor or solitary confinement as additional attachments; the law was reduced in 1828 to a maximum of 10 years and an expunging of the hard labor and solitude options. The law was again changed in 1881, with sodomy now limited to a maximum of 5–20 years. A revision in 1892 eliminated
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2016-518: The project support extending information and appreciation for many overlooked and nearly forgotten sites of historic significance to the LGBT community, as well as promoting tours and visits of them. LGBT history in New York New York state , a state in the northeastern United States , has one of the largest and the most prominent LGBTQ populations in the world. Brian Silverman,
2064-613: The request, and the court ruled that the New York City and New Jersey Health Code only permitted a change of sex on the birth certificate if an error was made recording it at birth, so the Health Department acted correctly. The decision of the court in Weiner was affirmed in Mtr. of Hartin v. Dir. of Bur. of Recs., 75 Misc. 2d 229, 232, 347 N.Y.S.2d 515 (1973) and Anonymous v. Mellon, 91 Misc. 2d 375, 383, 398 N.Y.S.2d 99 (1977) . In
2112-410: The same gender (variously described as "sodomy", "buggery" or "sins of carnal nature") was illegal for most of the history of New York from its days as a Dutch colony through its colonization and independence from British rule as a state in the Union, until such relations were legalized by judicial action in 1981. Activism for the rights of LGBT people in the state began with the rise of protest actions by
2160-481: Was accused in 1895 of " Oscar Wilde -ism" with a boy; he pleaded "not guilty" to the accusation, but no further information exists regarding the outcome of the trial. Continuing the theme of loving male friendship, the American poet Walt Whitman arrived in New York in 1841. He is widely believed to have been bisexual or gay, and was immediately drawn to young working-class men found in certain parks, public baths,
2208-681: Was enacted in order to allow asylums for the criminally insane to sterilize mostly female detainees who were perceived as potentially mothering of undesirable children. Used 42 times between 1912 and 1918, the law was struck down with harsh language by the Supreme Court of Albany County, a ruling which was confirmed by the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court and validated by a 1920 legislative repeal. A 1923 municipal law prohibited loitering for sodomy within
2256-546: Was introduced into both houses of the state legislature. In 1974, the Village of Alfred (pop. 1,000) became the first municipality in the state to pass a gay rights ordinance which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In 1972 bisexual activist Don Fass founded the National Bisexual Liberation Group in New York City, which issued The Bisexual Expression , most likely
2304-443: Was silent on sodomy. In 1796, the state's punishment for sodomy was reduced from death to a maximum of 14 years at either solitude or hard labor. The area comprising present-day New York City, as America's most populous urban center, nearly doubled its population during the first half of the 19th century (from 1800 to 1820 and again by 1840, to 300 000). The city saw the beginnings of a homosexual subculture concomitantly growing with
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