Gay cruising in brooklyn
Now a popular romantic site for marriage proposals both gay and straight, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade was once one of Recent York City’s most widespread and well-known gay male cruising areas, beginning in the 1950s and unforgettable well into the 1980s. During the 1960s in particular, it became contested ground when complaints from residential neighbors about the "goings on" there belated at night led to a police crackdown as well as a curfew.
The Brooklyn Heights Promenade, also called the Esplanade, is a a 1,826-foot extended platform and pedestrian aisle which cantilevers out from Columbia Heights over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Brooklyn Heights. It is particularly known for its breathtaking views of NY Harbor and the Lower Manhattan skyline, and runs from the west end of Remsen Street to the west end of Orange Street and can additionally be accessed from Montague Street and Pierrepont Place and the west ends of Pierrepont Street, Clark Street and Pineapple Avenue. The promenade first opened in mutliple stages between 1948 to 1951. As early as 1952, it had already become a documented location for lgbtq+ male cruising.
As reported by Hugh Ryan in When Brookly Brooklyn Heights became known as a center of lgbtq+ life beginning in the 1920s. This collection highlights the neighborhood’s LGBT history through residences of notable LGBT figures, gay cruising areas, and sites of political activism. While much of New York City’s known LGBT history and experience centers on Manhattan, we are currently working on adding more sites throughout Brooklyn to our website. If you have a suggestion, please fill out our online form. This theme was made workable by the Fresh York State Council on the Arts with the endorse of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and a grant from Con Edison. Header Photo Gay Alliance of Brooklyn flyer, c. 1971. Courtesy of the Lgbtq+ Alliance of Brooklyn records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Common Library. Published in:July-August 2019 issue. IN 1965, as a senior attending a Jesuit high college in Manhattan, I told the pupil counselor that I thought I had a calling to the priesthood. Then I told him the bad news: I had powerful homosexual urges and had acted upon them several times. He listened sympathetically, expressing no condemnation, and volunteered to arrange an appointment with a Jesuit psychologist who would determine if these desires would be a barrier to my entering seminary. The psychologist’s office was in Brooklyn Heights and, Bronx lad that I was, the trip there seemed like a journey to a foreign land. After interviewing me and administering a Rorschach test, the contract suggested I receive a walk in the neighborhood while he evaluated the test. Leaving his office, I soon found myself on the Promenade. The view of Manhattan was magnificent, but that wasn’t what captured my attention. Instead, I noticed a stream of men strolling endorse and forth and eyeing each other, including me. Unlike Times Square, a cruising area where a few same-sex attracted men were crowded among hundreds of other pedestrians, on the Promenade they predominated. That saunter made me discover that my sexual desires Crowd: All types: shadowy , white, young, old. Neighbourhood: Downtown All types Take the A,C, 2,3,F train to Jay Street. Once you come out, walk to Fulton Street and turn left. It's just one block down from there. Brooklyn Heights
overview
Macys
Who's Coming
Cross street: Jay Lane
Cross street: Jay Street
Best times: Varies