overview

St. Joseph’s has long been one of the Roman Catholic parishes in New York City most welcoming to the LGBT community.

In 1982, the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL), which is still active, held its first meeting here.

Header Photo
Credit: Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, 2016.

History

St. Joseph’s was founded in 1829 as the sixth Roman Catholic church in Manhattan. For much of its history the church had a largely Irish immigrant congregation. As Greenwich Village evolved into one of New York City’s most progressive neighborhoods, with a substantial LGBT population, St. Joseph’s became an open and welcoming parish, with a strong focus on social justice issues. This has been one of the Catholic churches most welcoming to the city’s LGBT community. Every year during LGBT Pride Month in June the church holds a special mass in memory of those lost to AIDS.

In 1982, the first meeting of the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) was held in the basement of St. Joseph’s. The meeting, attended by eleven officers from the New York City Police Department (NYPD), was organized by Sergeant Charles H. Cochrane at a time when gay police officers did not feel comfortable coming out and when they suffered from discrimination and harassment. A year earlier, Cochrane testified in support of the City’s gay rights bill, which made him the first officer in the history of the NYPD to publicly announce that he was gay:

I am very proud of being a New York City policeman and I’m equally proud of being gay.

Sgt. Charles H. Cochrane, November 1981

Cochrane died of cancer in 2008. In his honor, the corner of Sixth Avenue and Washington Place, just outside of the church, was named “Sergeant Charles H. Cochrane Way” on June 17, 2016.

In 1980, the music director at St. Joseph’s, Vernon Kroening, was killed in a homophobic attack on the Ramrod bar on West Street.

The funeral of Charles Ludlam, founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, was held here in 1987. His New York Times obituary was the newspaper’s first mention of AIDS as the cause of death, rather than simply mentioning the related illness, such as pneumonia.

Entry by Andrew S. Dolkart, project director (March 2017).

NOTE: Names above in bold indicate LGBT people.

Building Information

  • Architect or Builder: John Doran
  • Year Built: 1833

Sources

  1. David W. Dunlap, “A Proper Farewell, Finally, for a Victim of an Anti-Gay Rampage in New York,” The New York Times, July 1, 2016.

  2. Michael Scotto, “Greenwich Village Street Named After Man Considered NYPD’s First Publicly Gay Officer,” The New York Times, June 17, 2016.

  3. Thomas J. Shelley, Greenwich Village Catholics: St. Joseph’s Church and the Evolution of an Urban Faith Community (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2003).

Do you have more information about this site?

This project is enriched by your participation! Do you have your own images of this site? Or a story to share? Would you like to suggest a different historic site?

Other Sites in the Neighborhood

171 West 12th Street
Marion Dickerman & Nancy Cook Residence / Molly Dewson & Polly Porter Residence
Residences
109 Bank Street
Jimmie Daniels & Rex Madsen Residence
Residences
70 East 10th Street
Gay Activists Alliance Zaps at Saul Sharison Residence
Residences