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Gay Historical Sites, Past And Present: A Look At LGBT Relevant Places Across America

A Look At Some Lesser Known LGBT Historical Sites Around The U.S.
Curtis M. Wong
By 

Senior Culture Reporter, HuffPost

This is a view inside the UpStairs bar following a flash fire that left 29 dead and 15 injured, June 25, 1973. Most of the victims were found near the windows in the background. The bar is located in the New Orleans French Quarter. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell)
This is a view inside the UpStairs bar following a flash fire that left 29 dead and 15 injured, June 25, 1973. Most of the victims were found near the windows in the background. The bar is located in the New Orleans French Quarter. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell)

June 28 marks the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots -- a moment that has often been deemed "the genesis" of the contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights movement.

Still, other historical sites across the country where landmark LGBT rights moments have taken place are in abundance, and many of them go largely unnoticed. Among them is the Black Cat in Los Angeles, which has been deemed the "older sister" of Stonewall, as it was the site of the first documented LGBT civil rights demonstration on Feb. 11, 1967.

Also historically noteworthy of New York's Church of the Village, where the first PFLAG meeting took place in 1973, and New Orleans' UpStairs bar, which was the site of a deadly arson attack that killed 32 people that same year.

Take a look at LGBT historical sites around the U.S. below:

Harvey Milk's old Castro Camera shop
Reinhard Dietrich/WikiMedia
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) office and shop, on 575 Castro Street in San Francisco, was formerly the Castro Camera photoshop owned by Harvey Milk.
Church of the Village
Beyond My Ken/WikiMedia
Located at Seventh Avenue and West 13th Street in New York, the Church of the Village is the birthplace of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). The organization held its first meeting at the United Methodist church in 1973.
New York's Pyramid Club
Americasroof/WikiMedia
The Pyramid Club in New York's East Village was called "the ’80s equivalent of what the gay baths had been 14 or so years earlier," John Epperson, a.k.a. Lypsinka, told The Villager. While the Pyramid was not designated as a gay bar, it nonetheless drew a "more avant-garde and progressive crowd," while Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Madonna and RuPaul are among the celebrities to have appeared there.
Matthew Shepard Memorial Bench
AP Photo/Laramie Boomerang, Andy Carpenean
Matthew Shepard, then 21 years old, was killed as part of an anti-gay hate crime in October 1998. Ten years later, the University of Wyoming student's parents Judy and Phillip were present at the dedication of a memorial bench in honor of their son in Laramie, Wyoming.
UpStairs Lounge Arson Attack
AP Photo/Jack Thornell
This is a view inside the UpStairs bar following a flash fire that left 29 dead and 15 injured, June 25, 1973. Most of the victims were found near the windows in the background. The bar is located in the New Orleans French Quarter.
New York's Julius' Bar
Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images
Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Rudolf Nureyev were among the many well-known patrons of this landmark Greenwich Village bar. In 1966, it helped to launch a city Human Rights Commission investigation of discrimination against homosexuals in bars, according to its website.
Equality House
Megan Rogers/Equality House
In late 2012, Planting Peace founder Aaron Jackson bought a house that sits directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church compound in Topeka, Kansas. in March 2013, he and a team of volunteers from the non-profit painted it to match the gay pride flag. It has since hosted a same-sex wedding and other events.
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