Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender New York City History

Three years and two months before the Stonewall Rebellion, three young men set out to challenge a NYS Liquor Authority regulation prohibiting the sale of alcohol to homosexuals since they would be considered disorderly. They chose Julius’ Bar in Greenwich Village.

Three years later Stonewall happened which catalyzed increased demand for LGBT civil rights.

Members were inspired by sit-ins from the civil rights movement. Mattachine Thursday is a monthly party that meets at Julius’ to honor Dick and the brave individuals of the Mattachine Society.

"Today Julius' serves as a touchstone to older members of the gay community and as an inspiration for the younger LGBT community." - Tom Bernardin. 

S.T.A.R. helped homeless LGBT youth, particularly gender non-conforming individuals and transgender women of color.  S.T.A.R. had its first permanent home in a now-demolished East Village tenement at 213 East 2nd Street.

As long-time activists, Rivera and Johnson fought for important visibility and awareness around issues affecting those who identified as transgender or gender queer.

A dream born in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall uprising was fulfilled when The Center took title to 208 W 13 Street in December 1984. The December 1983 New York Times article about the sale, by David Dunlap, featured the headline “Sale of Site to Homosexuals Planned.”

The project has evolved over time to include a range of transgender-driven support, advocacy, education and economic stability initiatives.

GLAAD, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights organization, was founded in New York City in 1985. GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance.

As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love.

Vito Russo, a co-founder of GLAAD, is known for analyzing the way gay and lesbian individuals had been depicted in early cinema and film. Russo wanted to ensure that future depictions of LGBTQ people in the media would be fair.

As a result, ACT UP was formed a few days later. “Silence = Death” became its motto.

Her family’s home, Clear Comfort, now the museum, shaped Alice Austen’s experiences, served as her first studio space and darkroom, and opened up to her a world of subjects beyond her comfortable, upper-middle class suburban existence.

From Clear Comfort’s lawn, Austen witnessed many inspirational historic events, such as the construction of the Statue of Liberty, the last voyage of the Lusitania, and the massive waves of immigrants arriving in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Darned Club strikes a pose of girlish friendship on the Austen House's lawn, which overlooks the entrance to the New York Harbor.

Alice (left) and her three friends, Trudy Eccleston, Julia Marsh, and Sue Ripley, were called “The Darned Club” by a group of young men in the neighborhood, because the women’s social circle excluded men. (Alice’s photo of “The Darned Club” taken on October 29, 1891 at 3PM).

Alice used her surroundings as a backdrop to pose herself and her friends, staging her subjects, settings, and props to create a commentary on gender roles and social expectations for women of her era.

The Alice Austen House holds a collection of original Alice Austen photographs and artifacts, including: glass plate negatives, photographic prints, and photo albums compiled by Alice Austen.

The 1890s formal parlor and dining room have been recreated with both original objects belonging to the Austen family and period-pieces carefully selected based on the detailed photos taken by Alice Austen of each room in the house.

The most apt description of Alice Austen and Gertrude Tate’s relationship is “Boston Marriage.” In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term was used to describe two single women living together, independent of men.

Alice Austen was handed her first camera at age eleven. She learned the technical aspects of glass plate photography and set up a darkroom at Clear Comfort in a hallway closet. 

She was incredibly prolific, making about 8,000 photographs during her lifetime - thousands of her original glass plates and prints are located in the collection of Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island.

With her compact field camera, Austen frequently documented her own social circle. In some of these photographs, Austen mocked conventions of Victorian life by photographing herself and her friends cross-dressing and posing with each other in outlandish scenarios.

Alice Austen went to great lengths to capture her subjects. She transported up to fifty pounds of photography equipment, frequently travelling into Manhattan on her own to document the street life and working immigrants of New York City.

Founded in 1890, Judson Memorial Church (1892, McKim, Mead & White) is an open-and-affirming house of worship affiliated with United Church of Christ, American Baptist Church, and Alliance of Baptists.

In the 1960s, the Sanctuary was renamed to “Meeting Room” with a purposeful intent to evoke the Quaker principle of “gathering,” with its cross and pews intentionally removed to create an open and creative space that is welcoming of people from all faiths and walks of life.

The church continues to maintain close partnerships with many LGBTQ social justice organizations, including: New Alternatives, Ali Forney Center, the Third Wave Fund, GMAD, Queer Nation, Gays Against Guns, and many others.

In the 1960s-70s, the church was the site for lesbian and gay political gatherings. With the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s, Judson became one of New York’s first compassionate churches.

Designed by Herbert Adams, Judson’s baptisery was a 19th century marvel powered by indoor plumbing. Able to provide running water, Judson also featured a public fountain in its northeast corner to provide the community with a source of drinking water.

Throughout the 1960s-‘80s, Judson participated actively in the local and national movements for civil rights, peace, women’s rights, and gay rights.

During the 1980s, when Lee Hancock was associate minister (1980-85), Judson ran several health-care-related programs, and more notably, was one of the few churches to acknowledge the AIDS crisis, operating a support group for those with HIV-AIDS and their caregivers, and providing funerals for those who died of AIDS when other churches were turning them away.

Between 1957 and 1992 the church had a particularly progressive activist congregation and Judson became home to avant-garde arts.

In the 1950s-60s, it ran an Art Gallery at which several now-famous artists (Claes Oldenburg, Allen Kaprow, Yoko Ono etc.) found a place that would show their unconventional works. 

The Judson Loft became a home to Judson Poets' Theater, one of the earliest of the off-off-Broadway theater movements, and currently serves as the epicenter of Judson’s art programs. 

Judson also housed the Judson Dance Theater collective now recognized as the creators of post-modern dance.Judson continues to work extensively with queer artists, devoting much of their arts programming to LGBTQ art.

Judson Arts Wednesday (JAW) brings the community together weekly with free meals combined with avant-garde performances.

In 1966, a Greenwich Village protest arose against Mayor Lindsay administration’s “Operation New Broom” attempt to “clean up” the nearby Washington Square area by raiding gay bars, restaurants, and bookstores, and through entrapment of gay men.

Senior police officials attended a community meeting at Judson on March 31, 1966, which was attended by a number of members of the Mattachine Society, an early gay rights organization.

A confrontation between the police and activists created negative publicity, forcing the mayor to issue an order ending entrapment.

Judson’s construction was in tandem with that of the Washington Square Park Arch, with both projects led by the notable architect Stanford White. Interestingly, the Meeting Room’s archway design pattern echoes that of the archway pattern under the Arch.

Designed by stained-glass master John LaFarge between 1892 and 1910, Judson houses the country’s largest collection of LaFarge windows in a single location. 

It is believed LaFarge intentionally featured influential individuals from his life alongside biblical prophets in order to convey his belief in modern-day prophets.