Jackson Heights
overview
Jackson Heights, where the Queens Pride Parade takes place annually, has had a gay presence since it was developed in the 1920s. This collection highlights the neighborhood’s diverse LGBT history through bars and clubs (particularly significant to Latino New Yorkers) as well as sites of social gathering and political activism.
While much of New York City’s known LGBT history and life centers on Manhattan, we are currently working on adding more sites throughout Queens to our website. If you have a suggestion, please fill out our online form.
This theme was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and a grant from Con Edison.
Historic Sites in Jackson Heights
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
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
In 1990, Jackson Heights resident Julio Rivera was brutally attacked in the P.S. 69 schoolyard for being gay, and he soon after died at nearby Elmhurst Hospital. A month later,... Learn More
Friend’s Tavern (or Friend’s) in Jackson Heights is known as the oldest active gay bar in Queens and has been owned since 1989 by Eddie Valentin and Casimiro Villa, business... 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
The Love Boat was a popular gay Latino bar and dance space in Elmhurst, situated on the border of Jackson Heights. Drawing crowds of gay men with roots from countries... Learn More
From the early 1990s until its closure at the end of 2018, the Bum Bum Bar (pronounced “boom boom”) catered to a predominately Latina lesbian clientele in Queens. Located under... Learn More
Cartoonist Howard Cruse, credited as the “godfather of queer comics,” and leading community activist Ed Sedarbaum lived in this Jackson Heights apartment building from 1979 to 2002. During this period,... Learn More
