from Gay City News

One by one, LGBTQ New Yorkers and elected officials spoke up during Manhattan Community Board 5’s meeting at Xavier High School on April 11 to urge its members to formally condemn an anti-trans sports resolution approved by Community Education Council District 2 (CEC2) last month.

The meeting represented the latest development in the aftermath of CEC2’s widely-criticized March 20 resolution, which called for a new committee that could review and potentially oppose trans inclusion in school sports. The resolution was non-binding and New York education officials have reaffirmed that students can play sports in accordance with their gender identity, but the vote nonetheless sparked concern that the national backlash against trans athletes could gain steam in New York — especially after Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman fueled outrage with an executive order barring trans athletes from using sports facilities in the county.

Read the full article from Gay City News.

PRESS CONTACT
Ken Lustbader, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
(917) 848-1776 / [email protected]

RESEARCH TO DOCUMENT LGBT HISTORY OF NYC’S HOTEL CHELSEA RECEIVES AWARD FROM NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Architectural historians and scholars from the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project receive $25,000 to fund amendment to National Register of Historic Places

NEW YORK, NY—Wednesday, April 10, 2024—The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, an award-winning initiative committed to documenting and presenting historic sites connected to the LGBT community throughout New York City, has been awarded $25,000 by the National Park Service as part of its initiative to increase LGBT diversity on the National Register of Historic Places.

Under the auspices of its fiscal sponsor, the Fund for the City of New York, the Project will undertake research to amend the existing National Register of Historic Places nomination for New York City’s Hotel Chelsea to add the LGBT social history to its understanding and appreciation as a nationally-significant historic site.

“We are honored to have the National Park Service continue to support our work to increase LGBT diversity on the National Register of Historic Places. Now more than ever, as the teaching of queer history faces pushbacks across the country, sites like the famed Hotel Chelsea serve as important reminders of the contributions that LGBT people have made to American history and culture. This amendment will officially recognize these contributions by documenting, to date, over 80 notable LGBT artists, writers, musicians, and activists who helped turn the Hotel Chelsea into an internationally recognized icon of New York City.” —Amanda Davis, project manager of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

From the existing entry for the Hotel Chelsea, located at 222 West 23rd Street, at www.nyclgbtsites.org:

The Hotel Chelsea, the storied residence hotel on 23rd Street, has played host to a succession of countercultures throughout the 20th century, serving as a hub and inspiration for the Beat Generation, Postmodern artists, rock and punk musicians, drag performers, and the Club Kids. Until 2011, when new developers evicted many long-term residents and began controversial decade-long renovations, the Chelsea was a creative sanctuary that fostered collaboration among numerous LGBT writers, musicians, artists, designers, filmmakers, and actors such as:

• Stormé DeLarverie, a biracial singer, male impersonator, activist, and bouncer
• Charles James, widely regarded as the first American couturier and one of the most influential women’s fashion designers of the 20th century
• Lance Loud, a TV personality, journalist, and punk rock musician who emerged as a public gay figure after his momentous coming out on America’s first reality television series, An American Family, in 1973
• Ching Ho Cheng, an openly gay Chinese-American artist who depicted his rooms at the Chelsea in a series of gouache still-life paintings
• Sarah Bernhardt, a 19th century French actress, fashion icon, and businesswoman who was one of the world’s first celebrities
• Robert Mapplethorpe, a highly influential photographer of the late 20th century
• Virgil Thomson, an eminent composer and music critic of the 20th century
• Simone de Beauvoir, a French author and feminist who is best known for her treatise, The Second Sex (1949), a classic of feminist literature
• Zaldy Goco, a Filipino-American fashion designer and model
• Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist best known for her portraits depicting the human body, identity, and deat

Funding comes through the National Park Service’s Underrepresented Communities grant program, which began in 2014 and has provided $7 million to State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and Certified Local Governments to work towards diversifying the National Register of Historic Places through surveys and nominations.  The Underrepresented Communities grant program is one element of the Historic Preservation Fund, which uses revenue from federal oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf to assist with a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars, with the intent to mitigate the loss of a nonrenewable resource to benefit the preservation of other irreplaceable resources. Established in 1977, the HPF is authorized at $150 million per year through 2023 and has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to states, Tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations. Administered by the NPS, HPF funds may be appropriated by Congress to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation’s diverse cultural resources. For more information about NPS historic preservation programs and grants, please visit go.nps.gov/grants.

About the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, launched in 2015 by preservation professionals, is an award-winning cultural heritage initiative and educational resource documenting and presenting historic sites connected to the LGBT community throughout New York City. Its website, including an interactive map, features 450 diverse places from the 17th century to 2000 that are important to LGBT history and illustrate the community’s influence on NYC and American culture.

The project researches and nominates LGBT sites to the National Register, advocates for the official recognition of LGBT historic sites, provides walking tours, presents lectures, engages the community through events, develops educational programs for New York City public school students, and disseminates its content through robust social media channels. Its goal is to make an invisible history visible while fostering pride and awareness.

Web: www.nyclgbtsites.org
Instagram: @nyclgbtsites
Twitter: @nyclgbtsites
Facebook: /nyclgbtsites

About the National Park Service
More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 428 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.

from AMNewYork

This Sunday, March 31 marks the 16th annual International Transgender Day of Visibility. In celebration, New York City Transit, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project and the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center joined forces to create a new awareness campaign: “InTransit: Guiding 2.4 million daily riders to respect trans people.”

The initiative will run for a week at the Christopher Street-Sheridan Square train station and features posters directing riders to intransit.nyc. Once on the site, straphangers can learn about trans people in the Big Apple dating back to the 17th Century via the fictitious “T Line.”

The project highlights the stories of 17 NYC landmarks throughout trans history, like the Stonewall monument in Christopher Park and the drag balls at the Imperial Lodge of Elks in Harlem.

“Trans stories existed way before this has become the issue du jour,” said Ken Lustbader, co-director of the NYC LGBT historic sites project. “New York City has been a melting pot of trans lives and we’ve documented that, so there’s no way that that history can be erased.”

Riders can also tune in to the new podcast mini-series, “InTransit” hosted by the “voice of the subway,” Bernie Wagenblast. The name may not ring a bell, but the voice will as Wagenblast is better known from her booming and ominous announcements warning people to “please stand away from the platform edge.”

Wagenblast came out as transgender on Jan. 1, 2023 and sits down with several guests on the seven-episode podcast to discuss issues trans people face as well as where they can find resources to live happy and healthy lives.

“Visibility is so important because when people see someone that’s different, they come to understand the person — not some stereotype,” Wagenblast told amNewYork Metro. “Hopefully I can increase that visibility.”

Read the full story from AM New York.

Featured thumbnail photo of Bernie Wagenblast posing with a fan at the launch of the new awareness campaign at the Christopher Street-Sheridan Square train station. Photo ET Rodriguez.

from Gay City News

Millions of subway riders have heard Bernie Wagenblast’s voice, but only a small fraction of straphangers know who she is. That’s all about to change!

Wagenblast, who is known as the “voice of the subway” and came out as transgender last year, is stepping into the spotlight for a new transgender awareness campaign that will feature a podcast mini-series, hosted by Wagenblast herself, called “InTransit.”

The new campaign was announced on March 29 — just in time for International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 — at the Christopher Street-Sheridan Square subway station, where the installation includes posters and digital billboards to spread trans-inclusive messages and inform riders about the forthcoming podcast. The podcast — which already has two episodes on Spotify — aims to educate members of the public about gender identity, appropriate language, and more.

Wagenblast joined stakeholders at the Christopher Street-Sheridan Square station on March 29 to roll out the campaign. AREA 23, a healthcare marketing agency, created the campaign with support from Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.

Ken Lustbader, who is the co-director of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, acknowledged that the announcement coincided with International Transgender Day of Visibility.

“As we recognize Transgender Day of Visibility, it’s crucial to also understand that trans people have always existed, making their own history as they pursue healthy, safe, and joyful lives,” Lustbader said in a written statement. “‘In Transit’ and the T Line have the power to introduce large numbers of New Yorkers to place-based trans history, right here in their own city. From the 19th century residence of Murray Hall to medical offices where ground-breaking care was provided as early as the 1940s, these extant sites allow for a visceral connection to an often overlooked history.”

Read the full story from Gay City News here.

Featured thumbnail, from left to right: Ken Lustbader of the LGBT Historic Sites Project; Finn Brigham and Patrick McGovern of Callen-Lorde Community Health Center; and Bernie Wagenblast at the Christopher Street-Sheridan Square station. Photo by DONNA ACETO.