The (almost) lost gay history of Brooklyn, om Hart Crane cisg at the St. Gee to male bety ntts on Coney Island. “On the (Queer) Wateront,” will be on display at the Brooklyn Historil Society through Augt 4.
Contents:
THE (ALMOST) LOST GAY HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
* gay coney island *
When I ask why they e here, they all giggle before one of them tells me, “The gays. “Queers always exist at the margs, ” one of them says wryly; the gay part of the beach technilly li at the eastern edge of Riis Park, ont of the s of a tuberculosis sanatorium.
“It feels like a gem the sense that I don’t particularly thk the beach is the prettit, but I thk the people are, ” says Abi Benez, -founr of Gayletter and a equent visor.
By 1963, the New York Tim was regnizg Riis as a place “the New York homosexual” uld fd iends of “his kd, ” and a lol guibook was llg “one of the bt Gay Rivieras the world … so crowd, nus go unnoticed. ” After Stonewall, Riis beme a se of polil participatn where gay activists uld hold voter-registratn driv on the sand.
GAY CONEY ISLAND (KGS COUNTY, NEW YORK)
Baldg gay guys wh matchg potbelli eat guamole unr a circle of Life Is Good umbrellas; others throw back tall boys unr a shady tent. Manhattan was known for s thrivg populatns of urban gay men, documented by the historian Gee Chncey 1994’s Gay New York.