Marc Zinaman is a writer and queer historian based in New York City.
Queer Happened Here
NYC's queer history is everywhere, but rarely is it visibly documented. I grew up not knowing that James Baldwin once lived down my block or that the building I walked by each day once housed the gay bathhouse where Bette Midler got her start. This project is meant to map out and document the oft forgotten LGBTQ history of NYC in an accessible, visual format.
Explore Map of QHH
Recent Writing
All Writing
Wu Zao
An extraordinarily skilled poet, musician, and playwright, Wu Zao occupies a liminal yet luminous place in the history of Chinese literature—and increasingly, in the evolving narrative of China’s LGBTQ+ cultural heritage. Born at the turn of the 19th century, Wu Zao emerged as a singular voice in a literary canon typically dominated by men, and carved a space for herself within intellectual and artistic traditions that rarely welcomed women, let alone those who dared to defy gender and sexual norms.
Read more
When Fetish Met Fine Dining
In 1997, the quirky Hayne Suthon and her partner Robert Jason decided to open a new spot called La Nouvelle Justine, a fetish and S&M (sadism and masochism) restaurant named after the scandalous 1791 novel written by the Marquis de Sade. The upscale restaurant featured waitresses with whips called the "dominants," vinyl-clad busboys called the "slaves," as well as lots of torture-chamber decor.
Read more
ABilly S. Jones-Hennin
The term "trailblazer" often gets tossed around, but in the case of ABilly S. Jones-Hennin, it fits with unparalleled precision. A lifelong activist, ABilly dedicated his life to reshaping the landscape of social justice and intersectional advocacy, and as an esteemed champion for the bi+ community, the broader LGBTQ+ movement, and specifically the BIPOC queer community, his work transcended labels and united disparate causes.
Read more
Connect