The 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York’s Greenwich Village is the year “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” became a rallying cry out from what had been a silent void.
Or so it seems. I recently discovered that the city’s gay heritage stretches back, improbably, to the 1880s thanks to Andrew Lear, whose encyclopedic knowledge of the Village’s pink past lend gravitas to his role as president of Oscar Wilde Tours, dedicated to delving into New York’s extensive gay past that is often glossed over in modern histories.