User:Krolikowska/sandbox

Gay Community

Many gay and lesbian actors that performed in Times Square 42nd St   wouldn't be able to afford to live in Manhattan. If they did it was very small living space. Many of them decided to migrate to Jackson Heights. Slowly Jackson Heights became a haven for the gay community since 1960. From that time Jackson Heights has become the second largest gay community in New York. At the start many of the gay activities were held at night where no one would find out.From 1960 until 1990 it was difficult for the gay community to be themselves. Many families were very religious, so they looked down on people that were gay. The gay community kept themselves invisible to protect themselves from all the hatred directed at them. This started to change after the brutal killing of Julio Rivera in 1990. Julio Rivera was a 29 year old bartender in Magic Touch gay bar. Two men had cornered him in a schoolyard that was known as a gay cruising area and beat him with a hammer and beer bottle, and then stabbed. At the beginning of this case, the police department categorized the assault as drug related, when in reality it was a bias attack because he was gay. Many people felt fear after this incident. “If it wasn’t for Julio the Queens LGBT movement would not have gotten as far as it has gotten. Julio did not die in vain. He changed people’s lives.” City Council Member Daniel Dromm, 2015 Activism started and led to the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. This is a social services agency that helps monitor any type of criminal acts against the community citywide. Rivera’s sister-in-law was elected as the AVP for the LGBT board. As the community started growing and becoming more aware, they started adding more places for the gay community coming together. One of those is creating the Gay Senior Care Center in Jackson Heights by receiving grant money from the government. This gay senior care center is still open today. Before all of this, the gay community was quite small compared to how it is now. Not only has it grown in numbers, but has expanded its diversity and cultures. Since 1993, the annual Pride Parade in Jackson Heights has been one of the biggest gathering of celebration of the community.

Maly, Michael T. “Chapter 4: Jackson Heights.” Beyond Segregation: Multiracial and Multiethnic Neighborhoods in the United States, Temple University Press, 2011. “Julio Rivera Corner.” NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project http://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/julio-rivera-corner/ The Lavender Line: Coming Out in Queens. Eds. Stephen Petrus and Soraya Ciego-Lemur. LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, LaGuardia Community College/CUNY, 2018.