You're here! Try checking in by tapping the lock button to the left. The sculpture atop the Bethesda Fountain, the focal point of Central Park’s Bethesda Terrace, is the 1860s masterpiece of lesbian sculptor Emma Stebbins. Dedicated in 1873, it was the earliest public artwork by a woman in New York City and the only sculpture sanctioned as part of the early design and construction phase of Central Park. Stebbins’ sculptural group depicts the biblical “Angel of Bethesda” resting on a base surrounded by four cherubs representing “health,” “purity,” “peace,” and “temperance.” Playwright Tony Kushner understood the symbolism of the curative powers of the water from the biblical fountain of Bethesda and, appropriately, set the final scene of the Perestroika section of the AIDS-themed play “Angels in America” at this location in Central Park.

Although this literary icon and civil rights activist did not like to be labeled in terms of sexuality, politics, religion, and so on, he wrote several novels that featured gay and bisexual characters (such as the groundbreaking Giovanni’s Room) and spoke openly about same-sex relationships. He was also a critical voice for the civil rights movement, taking part in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, and writing about the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the sit-ins, and other civil rights events taking place in the South. A self-described “transatlantic commuter” who lived primarily in France, he used this building, which he owned, as his New York City residence from 1965 to 1987 (his death).

Since its beginnings in the 1930s, this cultural institution has employed a significant number of gay men and lesbians, many of whom have worked as highly influential curators of the American art scene: Jere Abbott, Monroe L. Wheeler, William S. Lieberman, and others. This art mecca also held the first major career retrospective exhibition on the work of noted lesbian photographer Berenice Abbott and the first American exhibition on architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray.

A world-class performing arts center, this location has had close connections to the LGBT community since planning began in the mid-1950s. Work by gay men such as architect Philip Johnson; artist Jasper Johns; choreographers Lincoln Kirstein, Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robins; conductor Leonard Bernstein; composer Aaron Copland; and many more defines this location. It was also the location of the first AIDS Walk, sponsored by the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, in 1986.

📷 One of America's most renowned commercial illustrators kept a studio with his partner along this popular park for about a decade, beginning in 1910. Best known for his Arrow collar ads and his Saturday Evening Post covers, this artist idealized images of young, white, collegiate men, often dressed elegantly and frequently attending or participating in sporting events (few people knew that the handsome man portrayed in many of these ads was oftentimes his partner). Many of this artist’s advertising images are clearly homoerotic, not only those for Arrow collars, but notably his work for another major client, Kuppenheimer men’s clothing, and also images for Ivory soap, Chesterfield cigarettes, and other products.

This private social club was started in 1966, taking space in Midtown between March 1967 and 1971. The Club offered the largely older lesbian and gay community an alternative to the bar scene, holding such events as dances, card parties, plays, movies, and dinners. By 1968 it had a membership of over one thousand. Activist Craig Rodwell described it in his periodical Hymnal as “probably the only legitimate private club in New York City.”

📷Founded in Los Angeles in 1968 to minister to the LGBT community whose members were not welcome in most houses of worship, this church established a New York City branch in 1972. It eventually moved to its own location on the Far West Side in 1994, where it remains today. Trans woman of color Sylvia Rivera, an early LGBT activist who co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with her friend Marsha P. Johnson in 1970 (among other accomplishments), was an active member of the congregation. Until her death in 2002, she volunteered in the food pantry and youth center; these have since been renamed the Sylvia Rivera Food Pantry and Sylvia’s Place in her honor.

One of the most important yet little-known figures of the civil rights movement lived in an apartment in this Chelsea building complex from 1963 to 1987 (his death). One of his many roles was as chief advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1950s and early 1960s, to whom he taught Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance. He was also the lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (best remembered for Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech). However, despite working tirelessly for the civil rights cause, this activist was often forced to give up leadership roles and recognition because of prejudice towards his homosexuality.

Best remembered for his pioneering book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, this author and East Harlem native was also a significant gay rights and AIDS activist in the 1970s and ’80s. He lived here from 1969 until his death in 1990. Working at the Museum of Modern Art, in the film department archives, he found movies featuring positive gay imagery from the 1890s to 1933 \[following this time period, the Motion Picture Production (Hays) Code of 1930 was strictly enforced to ban major film studios from showing “immoral” subjects, such as homosexuality]. This discovery led to his groundbreaking book and he has been credited with having “almost single-handedly invented the field of gay and lesbian media studies.” In 1983, he co-created Our Time, the first news show for the gay and lesbian community. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and died five years later.

Cuban-born Max Ferrá co-founded this theater group, in 1966, as one of the city’s earliest visual and performing arts spaces for Latino artists who had little or no opportunities at other theater companies. It operated in this loft building until 1971 and is now known as INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center. Significant LGBT playwrights associated with this legacy include Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz, Cherrie Moraga, Manuel Puig, Carmelita Tropicana, Migdalia Cruz, and Off-Off-Broadway pioneer María Irene Fornés, who led the company’s Hispanic Playwrights in Residence Lab for nearly 14 years.

In the two decades prior to the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, the term “homophile” was commonly used to describe gay and lesbian organizations. In the conservative post-World War II era, two such homophile groups -- the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis -- were considered quite radical for campaigning for the rights of gay men and lesbians to simply exist openly in society without fear of arrest or persecution. The New York chapters of both groups (initiated in California) raised important issues such as the roles of government, religion, and psychiatry as major agents of oppression. Mattachine had offices in the Flatiron neighborhood from 1959 to 1968, sharing space with the Daughters of Bilitis until 1961.

Led by Dr. Emery S. Hetrick, a psychiatrist, and Dr. A. Damien Martin, a professor at New York University, a group of concerned adults gathered to discuss at-risk LGBT youth in New York City affected by homophobia, physical abuse, homelessness, chronic truancy and school drop out, and involvement in sex work. They provided direct services to address the physical, social, educational, and therapeutic needs of LGBT youth and, thanks to a funding from the New York State Division of Youth, were able to establish an office in this location near Madison Square Park from 1983 to 1986. The organization is now known as the Hetrick-Martin Institute.

📷 This public park was an important gathering spot for SALGA (the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association) to protest in the 1990s, when the group was banned by the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) from marching in the India Day Parade, an annual event on Madison Avenue that has been organized by FIA since 1981. These protest gatherings were called “Desi Dhamaka” (a SALGA member said that “dhamaka” essentially means “blast” in Hindi). SALGA currently serves Desi LGBT people who trace their roots to countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet, and those of South Asian descent from countries such as Guyana, Trinidad, and Kenya. The group has met at the LGBT Community Center since its founding in 1989.

📷 A famous hotel with a secret room: in the early 20th century, gay businessmen would discreetly meet here.

The last Broadway show to be impacted by the Wales Padlock Law was held at this theatre.

This place was one of the world's most famous discos– and its owners modeled it after New York’s gay nightclubs. 🕺

📷 Despite the 1927 Wales Padlock Law, which forbade the depiction of “sex perversion” on stage, lesbian and gay characters did make it onto this Broadway stage.

When West Side Story premiered here in 1957, all major members of the cast were gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

Many gay choreographers, like Robert Joffrey and Alvin Ailey, have been hosted in this dance venue.

Aaron Copeland lived here from 1936 to 1947.