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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Recent Writing
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Chrissy Witoko
Though she never intentionally sought the spotlight, Chrissy Witoko quietly became one of the most beloved and vital figures in Wellington, New Zealand’s LGBTQ+ history. As a proud Ngāti Kahungunu transgender woman, she managed to both foster and sustain several welcoming queer gathering spaces there during a time when such spaces were both rare and urgently needed. Best known as the proprietor of the Evergreen Coffee Lounge on Vivian Street, Witoko was more than just its owner and manager—she served as a caregiver, a cultural matriarch, and a pillar of Wellington’s takatāpui and rainbow communities.
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Edwin Chiloba
A rising Kenyan fashion designer, stylist, model, and LGBTQ+ activist, Edwin Chiloba was best known for his striking personal style and vibrant presence on social media. But beyond just his creativity and flair, he also stood as a bold and visible figure in a country where LGBTQ+ identities largely remain criminalized. From his rural upbringing to his growing national prominence, Chiloba used fashion not just as a form of self-expression, but also as a tool of resistance—challenging societal expectations and asserting the right for queer Kenyans to live freely and authentically.
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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.
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