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.
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Luis González de Alba
A provocative dissident, writer, psychologist, and early advocate for sexual diversity, Luis González de Alba was among the most fearless and multifaceted public intellectuals in modern Mexican history. Though less internationally known than many of his contemporaries, he helped bridge the worlds of political resistance, literary innovation, and queer visibility at a time when being openly gay in his country remained both dangerous and transgressive.
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Escuelita
Escuelita, also known as La Escuelita or Esco’s for short, was a pivotal LGBTQ+ nightclub in Manhattan that primarily catered to the Latino and Black communities, prominently showcasing drag and trans performers of color for over 50 years. Seen as a major New York institution, the club had several locations since first opening in the late 1960s, each on Manhattan’s West Side. Its longest-running address was 301 W. 39th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.
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Edelweiss
First opened in 1994, Edelweiss was a Hell’s Kitchen nightclub that served as an integral hangout for gender-non-conforming people of all kinds, as well as their admirers. Throughout the ’90s, the club, whose name may have referred to the Edelweiss flower (which grows in rough terrain and overcomes adversity), endured frequent raids, shutdowns and neighborhood complaints.
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