Activism Outside Manhattan
overview
While much of the narrative of LGBT activism and liberation has long been focused on Manhattan, the other four boroughs also have important sites that help contextualize the broader movement for LGBT rights in New York City.
Activists living in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island formed community groups and organized pride marches and protests to counter homophobia and related hate crimes in their neighborhoods as well as instill pride in LGBT people to live openly in their home boroughs and not just in the more gay-tolerant Manhattan.
This curated theme features the residences of LGBT activists, from community organizers, such as Bronx resident Ronald I. Jacobowitz and trans activists Rusty Mae Moore and Chelsea Goodwin in Brooklyn, to nationally-renowned figures, such as Queens-born Frank Kameny and long-time Staten Island resident Audre Lorde. It also includes sites connected to community groups, commemorative street signs, and public demonstrations and marches.
Historic Sites in Activism Outside Manhattan
Acclaimed Black lesbian feminist, writer, and activist Audre Lorde lived here with her partner, Frances Clayton, and two children from 1972 to 1987. While here, Lorde was a prolific writer... Learn More
On January 22, 1990, Vietnam War veteran Jimmy Zappalorti was murdered near his home on the South Shore of Staten Island because he was gay. The highly publicized murder became... Learn More
In June 1969, a week before the Stonewall uprising, a group of local Queens residents formed a “vigilante committee” to harass gay men cruising in a nearby Flushing Meadows-Corona Park... Learn More
In 1972, Queens schoolteacher Jeanne Manford publicly spoke out in support of her gay son Morty at a time when homosexuality was still classified as a mental disorder by the... Learn More
This street sign in Jackson Heights commemorates Julio Rivera, a gay Puerto Rican man who in 1990 was brutally attacked by three skinheads in the nearby schoolyard and soon after... Learn More
In 2000, the inaugural St. Pat’s for All Parade took place in the historically Irish neighborhoods of Sunnyside and Woodside, Queens. The event, which still runs, was founded by LGBT... Learn More
In 1993, the inaugural Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival took place in the historically gay neighborhood of Jackson Heights and was the first such event to be organized in... Learn More
Guillermo Vasquez was a leading gay rights, AIDS, and Latino community activist in Queens who emigrated from Colombia in 1972. Seventeen years after his 1996 death from AIDS-related complications, this... Learn More
On March 13, 1993, the March for Truth was organized by the Anti-Violence Project and Queens Gays and Lesbians United, along Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens (District 24), to counter... Learn More
Renowned gay rights pioneer Franklin (“Frank”) E. Kameny grew up in this semi-detached brick house from 1925 to 1948. Kameny, who frequently visited his parents’ house until 1979, became a... Learn More
This Jackson Heights church, opened in 1923, became an important hub for diverse community groups, including LGBT groups, beginning in the mid-1970s. During the 1990s, it was the meeting location... Learn More
The Gay Alliance of Brooklyn was one of the first gay civil rights organizations established in New York City outside of Manhattan. The group, which was active from 1971 to... Learn More
The Gay Activists Alliance zapped the Board of Examiners, the agency responsible for the licensing of teachers, in downtown Brooklyn on April 13, 1971. This was GAA’s second zap focusing... Learn More
The Gay Activists Alliance held a zap at the Board of Education headquarters in downtown Brooklyn on January 25, 1971, over the issue of discrimination faced by LGBT teachers getting... Learn More
Pre-Stonewall gay rights activists Renée Vera Cafiero and Nancy Garden moved to an apartment in this building in December 1964, shortly after participating in the very first public demonstration for... Learn More
The first Brooklyn Pride Parade took place on Saturday, June 14, 1997, becoming the third such march to be organized in New York City after those in Manhattan and Queens.... Learn More
In July 1966, the homophobic policies of The Brooklyn Heights Press, then headquartered in this building, were the focus of a successful protest by the Brooklyn Heights Chapter of the Mattachine... Learn More
Lesbian activists Connie Kurtz and Ruthie Berman lived in this house in the Marine Park neighborhood of Brooklyn from 1979 to 2003. During those years they successfully sued the New... Learn More
From 1947 to 1960, the prominent Black civil rights attorney and author Pauli Murray lived in an apartment on the top floor of this building. During those years she compiled... Learn More
Transy House was a transgender collective operated by Rusty Mae Moore and Chelsea Goodwin from 1995 to 2008. It provided shelter for trans, gender variant, and non-binary people in need,... Learn More
The groundbreaking Audre Lorde Project (ALP), founded in 1994, has been located in the parish house of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, since 1996. Credited as the... Learn More
Mabel Hampton was an African-American performer during the Harlem Renaissance and, in the 1970s and 1980s, a key member of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. An icon of the New York... Learn More
Gay rights activist Ron Jacobowitz, who lived in this apartment building from 1986 to 1994, co-founded Gay Men of the Bronx as well as Bronx Lesbian and Gay Men United... Learn More
The award-winning Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) was founded by dancer/choreographer Arthur Avilés and writer/activist Charles Rice-González, Bronx residents of Puerto Rican descent. Home to the Arthur Avilés... Learn More
