You can find bartenders in their skivvies at Boxers Sports Bar, maybe spot a cowboy two-steppin’ on the bar at Flaming Saddles Saloon, or grab a casual dinner and a (drag) show at Therapy. Local entities are based there, too, like Oasis Latino LGBT Wellness Center, the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, Translatina Network, and the Manhattan branch of the activist organization, the Audre Lorde Project.įurther north, Hell’s Kitchen offers a plethora of nightlife, particularly gay bars clustered along Ninth Avenue. The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce data also shows that the largest cluster of LGBT-owned businesses in the city are there.Ĭhelsea is home to prominent national LGBTQ organizations, like the media watchdog, GLAAD the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and a Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) office. (There are currently five members of City Council’s LGBT Caucus, four openly gay or lesbian state legislators, and gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon is openly bisexual.) Manhattan Chelsea/Hell’s KitchenĬhelsea and Hell’s Kitchen have the greatest concentration of LGBTQ services and resources, health organizations, bars and clubs in New York City, and perhaps the world. In many neighborhoods, New York City’s openly gay and lesbian elected officials not only represent their communities, but have been a driving force in making their communities more welcoming to LGBTQ individuals. The city has seen a shelter open for LGBTQ homeless youth at the Bea Arthur Residence in the East Village and supportive housing in Harlem and Fordham. LGBT-friendly low-income senior housing is under construction in Crotona and at Fort Greene’s Ingersoll Houses. New York is trying to confront some the economic challenges for LGBTQ youth and seniors. “Transient parties or monthly celebrations often replace designated gay bars, which are a declining form of nightlife throughout the nation.” “Especially when tracking nightlife across the city, the movement is perhaps reflective of a younger queer population and the bohemian party scene that has long left the Village,” Kancilia added. Other neighborhoods across the boroughs now have their own hubs. The Village, because of the pricey real estate there, is no longer leading a counter cultural movement, and in some ways is not hospitable to the city’s diverse LGBTQ communities. “In New York City, Queer-friendly spaces are less stagnant and more transient, rather than rooted in one place. “The landscape of these LGBTQ-affirming enclaves has changed,” said Localize.city urban planner Beth Kancilia. Although these services and bars are less concentrated, the existence of newer gayborhoods demonstrate the continued need for LGBTQ safe havens, sites for organizing and resisting the status quo, and places to socialize and love freely are still needed. The list shows that gayborhoods have evolved from places anchored by services, bars, and large queer communities - like the Village and Chelsea - to smaller, more diffuse enclaves throughout the boroughs. Localize.city, a website that uses artificial intelligence to provide buyers and renters with critical details for every home, compiled a list of New York’s LGBTQ-friendliest neighborhoods five decades after Stonewall. Next year, the city will celebrate its 50th Pride. Before the Stonewall riots in the summer of 1969, Greenwich Village had already long been the original “Gayborhood.” The uprising, largely led by transgender women, put the Village, and New York City, on the map as a gay mecca, and spurred the creation of LGBT rights groups nationwide.Ī year after Stonewall, New York City hosted its first Pride Parade.