Part Uno: Personal Experience
Before my parents moved to Brooklyn, they lived in Greenwich Village on Christopher street. So did I, if you count being in the womb. I had been there (in the flesh) only once, years ago, so I thought I would head back and check it out for this project.
It was great to see that I were conceived on a street littered with fetish shops. The neighborhood had a very happy buzz to it, happy couples holding hands and smiling, The men on the streets were quite warm and welcoming, even if I wasn’t quite their type.
My favorite part of the day, was when I found the pier at the west end of the street. It was a sunny day but there was a cool breeze off the water. New Jersey was too my right and Manhattan to my left, with the Statue of Liberty standing in the middle of the ocean. I realized I hadn’t seen her since I had been moved here in August. I know it’s cliche, but seeing things like the statue really hit hard for me, I sometimes forget where I live until I can’t help but stare straight at it. It was beautiful.
I ate a falafel because I have been meaning to try one. I wasn’t so into it.
Part Dos: The Facts
When I chose Christopher street as my neighborhood to visit then research, I was not aware that I was opening a Pandora’s box of gay history. Not that the neighborhoods sexual orientation isn’t obvious, I just didn’t know the colorful history behind it. I had found the motherland.
Because my main site on interest upon visiting was the pier, I will talk a little about that. The pier was built in the 17th century when New York was still New Amsterdam. Trading boats would dock in the harbor. With a pier on the western end of Christopher street and Jefferson Market at the east, the neighborhood boomed. An elevated train was accessible at both ends.
In the 19th century brought a class divide to the opposite ends of the street. The eastern side became a bohemian and artistic community, where as the western end was the working class. Then in 1932 a series of racial riots broke out between the white shore-men and the black strike breakers.
As early as the 1920’s and 30’s there started to be a hint of a homosexual feeling to the neighborhood. But it wasn’t until the 1950’s, after World War II, once the shipping industry started going under, did the neighborhood become more well known for it’s growing gay community. After all the dock workers cleared out, the taverns and bars needed some new customers.
The abandoned pier became “cruising” territory, a place where lonely men could be sure to meet other lonely men. They would line up in trucks after nightfall, ready and waiting. “What made Christopher street gay was the fact that the trucks were at the end of it.” Samuel Delany said in his autobiography, The Motion of Light on the Water. I’m not sure if “cruising” was really as shady and trashy as I just made it sound. Haha. I’m a little confused.
Okay, there is SO much I want to say, too much. So let’s run through the big things. As the gay population rose, inevitably so did violence and hate crimes. The police raid of the Stonewall Inn on July 27th, 1969 resulted in a surprising revolution, not only on Christopher street but in the entire gay community. While being barricaded by walls of police men the Peaceful Gay Liberation Force organized a “stoop-in”, where everyone sat on the stoops, claiming the street as gay territory. The street became known as “The Gayest Street in America,” and now in honor of this day, sometime in July the Gay Pride Parade is held all over the country.
Of course the community continued to face obstacles, and they continued/continue to fight them. When conflict occurred the bird call would be made, “Out of the bar and into the street!”
There’s a lot more really interesting stuff about the street online, I found this particular article to be very thorough and infrmative: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0425,hoffman,54512,1.html
Lila 