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.

Header Photo
Members of Las Buenas Amigas on the corner of 84th Street and 37th Avenue, third annual Queens Pride Parade, June 4, 1995 (cropped). Photo by and courtesy of Richard Shpuntoff.

Historic Sites in Jackson Heights

89th Street & 37th Avenue

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

Public Spaces
81-10 35th Avenue

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

Organization & Community Spaces
78th Street & 37th Avenue

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

Public Spaces
78-11 Roosevelt Avenue

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

Bars, Clubs & Restaurants
77th Street & Broadway

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

Public Spaces
77-02 Broadway

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

Bars, Clubs & Restaurants
63-14 Roosevelt Avenue

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

Bars, Clubs & Restaurants
88-11 34th Avenue

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

Residences

Other Curated Themes

Transgender History

Gay-Owned Businesses

Communities of Color

Activism Outside Manhattan

Literary New York

Downtown Arts Scene

City of Immigrants

1970s Lesbian Activism & Community

The Bronx

Brooklyn Heights

Staten Island

Why We March

Village Pride Tour

Gay Activists Alliance

The Harlem Renaissance

Jewish New York

Pre-20th Century History

Bars & Nightlife

Activism Before Stonewall

Homophobia & Transphobia

Broadway Theater District

Influential Black New Yorkers

Early Community Centers

Lesbian Life Before Stonewall

The AIDS Crisis

LGBT-Named Public Schools

Art & Architecture

National Register Listings

Spotlight on the Theater