LGBT History: The Slide

I think this year I’m going to delve more into LGBT history. Not just The Stonewall Riots, but lesser known events in other areas of the country. If you know of something I should cover, please let me know.

As moral as the general public has tried to be over the centuries, we who love someone of the same sex have always been around and no matter what anyone does to us, we continue to rise like majestic phoenixes out of the ashes. Several months ago, a friend of mine recommended that I tune into a podcast called The Bowery Boys because I love history and they cover the history of New York City from its days as a Dutch colony right up to the present. These guys have over 250 podcasts as well as some blog posts that cover bits of history. One such post I recently read is about New York’s notorious “fairy resort” – a place called The Slide. They discuss this club as part of an analysis of the accuracy of the limited television series The Alienist.

You can read about it here and I hope something else will grab your attention on the BB site and you can learn more about NYC.

Someone chained a cross to Gay Street

I hate to point out the obvious, but I’m going to anyway: bolt cutters will get you around any lock. Superglue or no superglue. I have no problem with what the residents chose to do with the cross, but if the person who left it there is determined to take it back and cleanse it, bolt cutters will do the trick.

The community of Gay Street, New York came together to deal with a giant cross that materialised in the area.

Gay Street, Manhattan, is located in the heart of NYC’s LGBT district, just down the road from Christopher Street and the iconic landmark Stonewall Inn.

There was a disturbance on the force in the area last week, when a giant wooden cross materialised in the middle of Gay Street, padlocked to a street light so it could not be moved.

Though the motives of the cross-maker are unknown, many have taken it to be a protest against the street’s name and ethos.

But the residents of Gay Street don’t take much lying down.

Full story

Gay leprechauns welcome again in NYC parade

Hello Lovelies! If any of you are in NYC next March and want to participate in the St Patrick’s Day parade, rest assured you will be welcome now.

In a statement to the Associated Press, the parade committee said that OUT@NBCUniversal — the employee resource group of LGBT & Straight Ally employees at NBCUniversal, the company that broadcasts the parade — would be participating in the parade on March 17, 2015, under an identifying banner.

According to the statement, parade directors voted unanimously to include the group and that the parade was “remaining loyal to church teachings.” They told AP that the “change of tone and expanded inclusiveness is a gesture of goodwill to the LGBT community in our continuing effort to keep the parade above politics.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is to be the parade’s grand marshal next year, was “very supportive” of the change.

Full story

Guinness Drops Out of NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade Over Anti-LGBT Policy

I may think that the drink Guinness is the most foul tasting drink on the earth, but the company is high on my favourable list. I’m so glad NYC lost a huge sponsor like this. It warms my heart.

Guinness announced Sunday it is dropping its sponsorship of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City due to the parade’s rule that effectively bars LGBT groups from participating in the parade.

“Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all,” the company said in a statement. “We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year’s parade. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. We will continue to work with community leaders to ensure that future parades have an inclusionary policy.”

The move comes just days after Heineken announced it is backing out of the parade, which kicks off at 11 a.m. on Monday in Midtown, and is expected to draw more than one million people. In a similar boycott due to LGBT exclusion, Sam Adams Beer skipped the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Boston on Sunday.

Full story

Elderly Gay NYC Man, Allegedly Killed For ‘Blowing Kisses’

This just breaks my heart. I mean it’s bad enough that the poor man was a victim of a hate crime, but it just somehow feels worse because he was elderly too. 😦

I hope Karma is a bitch to that boy and bites him HARD.

A 69-year-old gay man was allegedly stabbed to death with an eight-inch knife under a New York subway station in broad daylight Sept. 16.

Though witnesses initially speculated that the attack occurred over a cell phone, officials are now reporting that the victim lost his life because the attacker thought the man was gay, according to NBC.

Steven Torres, a 22-year-old Bronx resident, is facing charges of second degree murder for the death of Ever Orozco after allegedly attacking the man beneath the elevated 7 train station at 90th St. and Roosevelt Ave. as he was feeding a parking meter around 1:30 p.m.

“There was a lot of screaming, and all I could see was the guy was stabbing him — stabbing him and stabbing him,” stated Eddie De Jesus, a local stop owner who bore witness to the incident.

Full story

NYC spike in anti-gay crime

Every time I think we might be getting ahead in our fight for rights and for acceptance, I see this headline on Yahoo and I realize that for every leap forward there’s still a lot of pushback.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City is seeing a spike in anti-gay attacks, with two assaults coming within days of the fatal shooting of a gay man over the weekend, the city’s police commissioner said on Tuesday.

Two men in their early 40s were attacked on a street in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood early on Tuesday morning by two men who shouted anti-gay slurs in Spanish and English and left one victim with a minor eye injury, police said.

Late on Monday night, a 45-year-old man was beaten unconscious after spending the evening at bars in Manhattan’s East Village with a man he met at a homeless shelter where they both were staying, police said.

Source

8 Ways Legalizing Same Sex Marriage Is Good For The Economy

1. It would help curb the deficit.
2. It would boost tax revenues.
3. It helped NYC’s economy.
4. It would alleviate payroll headaches for many businesses.
5. It can boost struggling state economies.
6. It will cut spending on government safety net programs.
7. More weddings mean more money.
8. Lots of major corporations think it’s a good idea.

Details for each of these can be found on the original story via The Huffington Post