Christopher Street: The Gay Mecca. You Have To Visit At Least Once In Your Life

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Top: A map of Christopher Street in the West Village, NYC
Left: A street sign indicating the corner of Christopher & Gay Streets. Believe it or not the placement of these streets was a total coincidence.
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I know it doesn't look like much, stretching about ten blocks in New York's West (Greenwich) Village but Christopher Street is arguably the most important place in gay culture and the birthplace of the Gay Rights Movement in the United States. Even today it is the home of the Heritage Of Pride parade and festival held annually on the fourth Sunday in June. Attended by one million revelers, this is one of the largest, if not the largest gay pride gathering in the United States. Cities all around the world have Christopher Street Day or CSD gay pride festivals and parades to commemorate the movement that started on this small New York street.

Just about every gay person here in New York has a thought, memory, opinion, or a story involving Christopher Street. For many of us back in our younger days it was the first place where we could feel free to publicly display affection for our same sex lovers. Even today it still continues to attract many newly out and questioning youth.

As a closeted homosexual questioning teen I had no idea that a place such as Christopher Street existed. The first time I heard about it was at church, quite ironically. I remember one Sunday night as the evening service was closing the pastor of the church (who ironically, or not so ironically had gay rumors swirling around him like a tornado at the time, shyt, all the time) I was at was doing the benediction prayer and he said something like this:

"...and Lord, we bind up that Christopher Street spirit right now!"

I remember thinking 'Where in the heck is Christopher Street?' and exactly 'What spirit was he referring to?' I asked one of my older friends, let's call her Teresa, what he meant. She told me that Christopher Street is a hangout for gay people, and a lot of the undercover (or not so undercover) ones in church hang out there on Sunday nights after service. Obviously as a closeted homosexual questioning teen my curiosity was piqued. I remember going home that night and finding this "Christopher Street" on a map. I wanted to go there but due to everything I was taught in church I was deathly afraid and Lord knows I didn't anybody to tell my mama they saw me there.

My first time going to Christopher was a drive by. I remember one night out with my older sister we were driving down 7th Avenue South when out of the corner of my right eye I saw a brown street sign that said "Christopher Street." I was excited! I asked her to turn around so we could drive down Christopher Street and see if we recognized anyone from church. I figured in the safety of the car I was okay. I ducked down really low in the back seat on the right side of her car as we made that right turn onto Christopher Street (to this day I always walk down Christopher on the right side). I spied through the crack of her tinted windows at this forbidden yet wonderful place. Men were holding hands with other men, women with women, talking and carrying on as normal as if what they were doing wasn't going to make them roast in a burning hell when Jesus comes back. I even recognized one guy from church, I didn't really know him though so that was no fun. I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be after having my glimpse at Sodom but I was still curious. I was definitely going back and the next time I was gonna be walking.

My next visit to Christopher Street was indeed on foot. One Friday night after dinner at Uno's on 6th Avenue & Waverly Place me, my younger sister and two friends of ours from church, one of them being Teresa, ventured back down Christopher Street. Her and the other older friend of ours, we'll call him Lester, who was obviously gay (but we just didn't talk about things like that in church, at least not to the person's face anyway) had been to Christopher many times before and were shocked at our inexperience with the area. I was already scared to be there and their stories of men randomly touching your butt as you walked down the street didn't help. Of course now I realize that they were just trying to scare me.

As we crossed 7th Avenue South I remember holding on tightly to Teresa's hand. I was nervous. I didn't want them to think I was gay and touch my butt. I figured that if I held Teresa's hand people would think that she was my girlfriend even though Teresa and I looked terribly mismatched as she was twice my size. As I walked down the street hand in hand with Teresa, my sister with Lester, they seemed to know people on every corner, stopping an starting up conversation after conversation. That night I saw a lot of guys from church and it was no big deal. They saw me and no one was shocked, they looked as almost to say 'Oh, you finally made it up here, girl, we always knew anyway.' The most shocking moment was when we saw an older elder who we had just seen in church the other day, he had to be around 60-65, walking hand in hand with a lover half his age. I'll never forget that experience:

Me: "Oh dip! There goes Elder So-And-So with that young guy."

Lester: "Teresa, I dare you to say 'Praise The Lord'..."

Teresa: "Alright."

** Elder So-And-So and his lover get closer to us **

Teresa:  "PRAISE THE LORD ELDER SOANDSO!"
She yells loud enough to raise the dead.

Elder So-And-So: "Praise Him Chile..."
He replies, recognizing Teresa.

Teresa: "ALLLLRIGHT ELDER! See you in church on Sunday."

Elder So-And-So: "Yes chile."

I could not believe what I just saw. This elder from church was on Christopher and really didn't care who saw him. This was so crazy, how can you say one thing in church and live another with no shame or nothin'? You see why I don't mess with church boys (read that post here). Needless to say, Elder So-And-So certainly wasn't the last clergyman I spotted on Christopher.

My most fond memory of Christopher Street was the night I met RuPaul. I didn't just meet RuPaul I had a three hour conversation with the man on a stoop at the corner of Bedford and Christopher right across from the Lucille Lortel Theatre. I remember walking down the street with an ex of mine, we'll call him Michael, my ex best friend, we'll call him Chuck, and his then boyfriend who is one of my best friends now, we'll call him Russell. Michael tapped me and said that the tall bald headed guy walking toward us was RuPaul (of course he was out of drag). I told him that it wasn't, but Michael asked and indeed it was RuPaul. He had his iPod with him and I had mine. We struck up a conversation about our iPods and music in general right under the marquee of the theatre. All five of us ended up sitting on a stoop across the street.

A conversation that should have lasted a few minutes turned into about three hours. We spoke about RuPaul's life, his career, celebrities he's worked with, how he keeps those wigs on his bald head, makeup, what kinds of guys he likes, everything you could possible think of. As much as I write here you can only imagine how many questions I asked. The part of that conversation I cherished most was when he told us the story of the significance of Christopher Street to gay culture and how it was the launching point for the Gay Rights Movement. He felt as though it was his responsibility as an older gay man to pass his knowledge down to younger generations.

Before that day I didn't like drag queens. I thought that they were so "extra" and that they brought shame to "regular" more masculine gay males like me. After that night talking to RuPaul I gained a new sense of respect for who they are and what they do, especially regarding the Gay Rights Movement and the events that happened on Christopher Street. It's the drags who fight for us all. Next time you see a drag queen, give her a hug.

At that time I already knew the story of Christopher Street and the Stonewall Inn Rebellion but it was a joy to hear him retell it. I'll give you the short version:

Back in the '50 and '60's it was illegal to be gay. Even today there are some unenforced sodomy laws still on the books in many states. Police would raid bars where gays would frequent and often have the names and unlawful activities (not sex but things we consider nothing like kissing, holding hands, cross dressing, etc.) of the men in these bars printed in the newspaper. At about 1am Friday night, June 27th or Saturday morning, June 28th, 1969 (accounts differ between the dates) the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on 53 Christopher Street near 7th Avenue South (which still stands today) which was known to not only have gay patrons but many gay patrons of African American and Hispanic descent. Raids were quite frequent and commonplace at this time but this night the gay, lesbian, and transgendered patrons who were there this particular night fought back, causing a riot which was the catalyst for the Gay Rights Movement. Some people associate the death of gay icon Judy Garland a few days before ("Dorothy" from the original "The Wizard Of Oz" and mother of gay icon Liza Minelli) with the event, but most dismiss that as urban legend.

Click here to get more information on this event along with actual newspaper clippings from that day, courtesy of Columbia University.

I met up with my friends on Christopher last Saturday night. I don't get down there much anymore. I actually haven't been down there since pride, back in June and even then I didn't stay too long. Christopher is definitely not the wonderland that it used to be when I first came out. I remember the few times I ever did get to walk up and down the strip and hang out on the pier everyone used to look so good and we used to all have so much fun. We would eat pizza at that pizza shop that nobody knows the name of on the corner of Christopher & Hudson, or the other one on Christopher & 7th next to the cigar shop or have (mostly) bad food but good service at Manatus and desert at the Bread Factory Cafe on Bleecker & Christopher where we could watch people walk by and crack jokes on them, so many memories.

Many of my friends don't hang out there anymore as we're all older now and largely look at Christopher as a place where all the teen queens or queenagers (as Mr. Man would call them), ugly drags, and old washed up queens hang out (mainly at the Hangar & ChiChi's). The cooler, more fashionable people hang out, club and bar hop further north in Chelsea or further south in TriBeCa or have blended so well into straight society that they don't even hang out at quote-unquote 'gay' places anymore. Being back there myself on Saturday I see why they say these things and unfortunately I have to agree.

There are a few new shops and a lot of new faces on Christopher but the magic there is long gone. Christopher Street has become for lack of a better term, the gay ghetto. It's so run down, it's dirty, it's ravaged. It seems to have turned in on itself like the pulling off of an ejaculation filled condom that is tossed into a toilet bowl. Or maybe it was that way all along and it is us who have changed. Either way, love it or hate it Christopher Street is still a part of all of us and it's significance to our culture can't ever be denied. I may not be hanging out there anytime soon but you can count on me to pay me respects at least once a year every 4th Sunday in June.

LINKS:
- More info on the Stonewall Rebellion, courtesy of Columbia University
- The Official Stonewall Inn Website
- Heritage Of Pride Official Website

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Playing In The Background...
"I'm Gonna Live 'Till I Die"
by Queen Latifah
from the album "Trav'lin Light"
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