Out of the Broom Closet: Gay Activist & Village Wicn Leo Martello - Village Prervatn

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF GREENWICH VILLAGE’S GAY STREET
• GREENWICH VILLAGE, STORIED HOME OF BOHEMIA AND GAY HISTORY
• GAYLY SERVING OUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1969!
• MOVG TO LGBT NEW YORK CY, NEW YORK? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
• OUT OF THE BROOM CLOSET: GAY ACTIVIST & VILLAGE WICN LEO MARTELLO
• GAY PRI
• DEMOLN OF HISTORIC GAY STREET BUILDG PROMPTS PUBLIC OUTCRY
• LOT OF MOLISHED LANDMARK ON GAY STREET GREENWICH VILLAGE LISTS FOR $4.5M
• Y, THERE’S A NEW GAY BAR GREENWICH VILLAGE

THE HISTORY OF GREENWICH VILLAGE’S GAY STREET

It is bee of this associatn, that people like to assume ’s named after Sydney Howard Gay, the edor of The Natnal Anti-Slavery Standard and a key figure the Unrground Railroad.

Its entanglements of wdg streets, fyg the cy grid, clu remnants of w paths and property l om when the area was a sprawl of Dutch, then English, Village as a historilly gay neighborhood has long been a source of lol pri, but seemed mostly unremarkable to me and to my childhood iends who were native Villagers bee was simply another fact of daily life. By the 1970s, the neighborhood’s gay epicenter had shifted toward Christopher Street, the olst street the Village, s irregular route tracg the borr of what had been the Brish admiral Peter Warren’s Colonial-era long ago I asked Andrew Dolkart, an archectural historian at Columbia Universy, to nstct an L.

MICHAEL KIMMELMAN Andrew, durg the summer of 1969, police raid a bar at 51-53 Christopher Street lled the Stonewall DOLKART In the 1960s, the Stonewall Inn was a Mafia-ntrolled bar, as were almost all gay and lbian bars, bee the State Liquor Authory creed that the mere prence of a homosexual a bar nstuted disorrly nduct. That’s why the Natnal Register listg clus the Stonewall buildg, Christopher Park, and all of the streets around , as far east as Sixth register a sense nods to the Village at large as a gay gay history go back at least to the early 20th century, when Greenwich Village was beg a bohemian pal. When we advoted for the cy to signate Stonewall a landmark, I remember a guy speakg up at a public hearg, sayg he was favor of signatn, but that we should not fet that Stonewall was fact a dreary as Lillian Farman, a historian of lbian history, has put , Stonewall “sound the rally for the movement, ” leadg to the foundg of anizatns like the Gay Liberatn Front, the Gay Activists Alliance, and the Radilbians.

GREENWICH VILLAGE, STORIED HOME OF BOHEMIA AND GAY HISTORY

The Christopher Street Liberatn Day march, on the one-year anniversary of Stonewall, beme the annual Pri Para, which now happens dozens of wt of Stonewall, I also want to pot out 59 Christopher Street, a buildg that hoed the last headquarters of the New York Cy chapter of the Mattache Society, an early natnal gay rights anizatn — at the time the phrase was “homophile anizatn” — found Los Angel 1950. Alison Bechl said that she me to the shop as a young lbian, not sure what she wanted to do wh her life, and saw all the gay and lbian ic books, and that spired her to bee a graphic novelist.

GAYLY SERVING OUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1969!

ImageJuli’, at the rner of Waverly and Wt 10th Street, is one of the olst gay bars the DeZonOne of the olst gay bars New the mid-60s the Mattache Society cid to challenge the New York State Liquor Authory policy that a bar uld be closed down if knowgly served a homosexual. Dick Lesch, the Mattache Society print; Rodwell, the bookstore owner, who was s vice print; and John Timmons, another society member, cid to go to bars along wh newspaper reporters, announce they were gay, ask for a drk, and wa to be nied. Stewart’s was a popular cha of the era and this branch beme a famo hnt for a flamboyantly gay and lbian crowd, performg for tourists who would sometim stand three or four people ep, starg through the wdows.

ImageThe narrowt hoe the Village, 75 1/2 Bedford, center, is jt about ne feet DeZonAnd around the rner om 75½ Bedford is the Cherry Lane Theater, a former brewery on Commerce Street, which over the years beme closely associated wh gay playwrights like Edward Albee. ImageThe Cherry Lane Theater, which occupi a former brewery on Commerce Street, is associated wh gay playwrights like Edward DeZonYou said you wanted to talk about all those vtigial triangl and other remnants along Seventh Avenue were created when the avenue was cut through the neighborhood, exposg the rear fas of buildgs like 70 Bedford Street, whose back beme 54 Seventh Avenue South.

Durg the AIDS epimic, lbians also really stepped up — Crazy Nanny’s was a prime example — ways that helped brg the gay and lbian muni, may I ask, do you have a Village story of your own? The first meetg of what me to be the anizatn now known as PFLAG — Parents, Fai, and Friends of Lbians and Gays — took place at what is now known as the Church of the Village, at 13th Street and 7th Avenue, then known as the Metropolan-Duane Uned Methodist Church. In June of 1972, Jeanne Manford, a schoolteacher om Queens, marched the Christopher Street Liberatn March, the precursor of today’s LGBT Pri Para, wh her gay son Morty to show support for her child.

MOVG TO LGBT NEW YORK CY, NEW YORK? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

So many people me up to Jeanne and asked her to speak to their parents that she cid to hold a meetg for parents stgglg wh acceptg and supportg their gay children.

OUT OF THE BROOM CLOSET: GAY ACTIVIST & VILLAGE WICN LEO MARTELLO

That meetg took place on March 26, 1973, and eventually led to the foundg of PFLAG, which now has 400 chapters natnally and 200, 000 members, provis rourc and support to the fai of Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr people, and lobbi for greater unrstandg and equal treatment of LGBT people. But In 1982, the first meetg of the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL)–now a 2, 000 member anizatn wh 36 chapters across the untry reprentg LGBTQ persons law enforcement and crimal jtice profsns–was held the basement.

By 1982, the church had bee known as one of the most welg and acceptg Catholic church the cy for gay ngregants, and to this day the church holds a special mass durg LGBT Pri Month June to memorate those lost to AIDS.

GAY PRI

In 1981, Cochrane beme the first NYPD officer to publicly reveal that he was gay when he ttified ont of the New York Cy Council support of the gay rights bill. Cochrane’s public claratn was historic and directly followed ttimony by the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Associatn opposg the legislatn, which clud the assertn that there were no gay police officers the NYPD.

Though Cochrane’s ttimony received a standg ovatn om supporters and he reportedly receivg a posive rponse om fellow officers to his g out, the gay rights bill was feated and did not bee law until 1986. The empty firehoe soon beme the home of boistero parti, meetgs, and polil anizg when the Gay Activists Alliance, one of the most highly fluential LGBT groups of the post-Stonewall era, took over the space 1971. Other anizatns that have been loted here (or got their start here) clu SAGE (Senr Actn a Gay Environment), the Metropolan Communy Church (an LGBT ngregatn), the AIDS activist group ACT UP, and GLAAD (Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn).

DEMOLN OF HISTORIC GAY STREET BUILDG PROMPTS PUBLIC OUTCRY

Among s early acplishments, the Task Force helped get the feral ernment to drop s ban on employg gay people, helped get the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn to drop homosexualy om s list of mental illns, and arranged the first meetg between a stg U. The Osr Wil Bookshop origally opened 1967 at 291 Mercer Street as the first gay bookstore the world (that buildg has sce been molished), a full two years before the Stonewall Rts. Sce s closg, the Osr Wil Bookshop has been lled “clearly pneerg” as monstrated for the first time that was possible to own a bookstore, however small, that tered to a gay clientele.

One of the most shockg and visible maniftatns of the backlash agast creased gay visibily the 1980s was the btal shootg and massacre that took place outsi the Ramrod Bar on November 19, 1980. The gay prs reported at the time “there were few, if any, lls for the blood of Ronald Cmpley… Anger was directed at the system which treats gay people as a subhuman speci.

LOT OF MOLISHED LANDMARK ON GAY STREET GREENWICH VILLAGE LISTS FOR $4.5M

The Ramrod was one of the dozens of bars, clubs, and other tablishments that tered to LGBT people the Wt Village the heyday of gay life Greenwich Village between the Stonewall Rts and the onset of the AIDS crisis the 1980s. Jam Baldw was born Harlem 1924 and beme a celebrated wrer and social cric his lifetime, explorg plited issu such as racial, sexual, and class tensns, as a gay Ain-Amerin man.

Hoed a buildg which dat to 1826 and a space that has served as a bar sce the Civil War, Juli’ has been servg a predomantly gay clientele sce at least the 1950s, makg currently the cy’s olst gay bar. In 1966, the Mattache Society, an early LGBT rights anizatn, set about to challenge New York State regulatns allowg bars to be closed for servg alhol to gay people or allowg same-sex kissg or hand-holdg.

On April 21, the activists went to Juli’ Bar, which was popular among gay people but, like many “gay bars” at the time, required a level of secrecy by gay patrons or risked beg shut down. This actn led to a 1967 New York State urt cisn strikg down l allowg bars to be shuttered simply for servg gay people, pavg the way for greater eedom om harassment and abe by LGBT people, and set the stage for future progrs.

Y, THERE’S A NEW GAY BAR GREENWICH VILLAGE

But this particular Greenwich Village gay weddg is also noteworthy for havg precipated events that led to perhaps the most fabled botched bank robbery New York Cy history, immortalized one of the most acclaimed and inic Amerin films of the 1970s. A story Life Magaze about the cint lled “The Boys the Bank” (an alln to the 1968 Mart Crowley play, “The Boys the Band, ” a landmark of gay theater) by Peter F.