Queer Happened Here by Marc Zinaman with Peppermint & Linda Simpson

This sprawling, unique visual history of New York City’s queer spaces documents the evolution of LGBTQ+ culture, community, and activism within Manhattan’s dynamic landscape over the course of a century, spanning from 1920 to 2020. Author Mark Zinaman in conversation with queer performers and icons Peppermint and Linda Simpson, followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

Can't attend? (please specify that you would like it signed in the comments box at checkout).

New York’s LGBTQ+ history is everywhere, but rarely is it visibly documented. Aside from current venues and a handful of landmark plaques, important queer spaces from the city’s past have otherwise been forgotten about, or remain entirely hidden.

This multifaceted book joyfully and poignantly explores a century of LGBTQ+ gathering spaces across Manhattan through hundreds of historic photographs, flyers, posters, club membership cards, magazine spreads, and more. Author Marc Zinaman’s carefully researched, engaging text includes first-person accounts and little-known facts that range from the humorous to the heartbreaking.

From 1920s bathhouses, drag balls, and the ascent of homophobia during World War II, to the protests and parades of the 1960s and 1970s, to the horrors of AIDS; from the vibrant nightlife scene of the 1990s to 2018’s Rainbow Wave, which saw a record number of queer elected officials in the US, to the rise of geosocial dating apps, every major milestone of LGBTQ+ social history is thoughtfully documented.

The result is a powerful and compelling testament to the endurance of queer culture, and an important contribution to its preservation and celebration.

Marc Zinaman is a New York City-based writer and historian with a passion for preserving LGBTQ+ history. Since 2021, he has been running the social media account @Queer_Happened_Here, which maps the forgotten queer history of New York and has served as the inspiration for this book. He has also written a newsletter under the same name, and has been a contributing writer to the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project and Making Queer History. He was the contributing editor of the book Getting In: NYC Club Flyers From The Gay 1990s and currently serves on the planning committee for the forthcoming American LGBTQ+ Museum.

Peppermint is a New York City-based actor, musician, and public speaker who made history in 2018 as the first out transgender woman to originate a principal role in a Broadway musical.

Since emerging from NYC’s East Village drag scene in the late 1980s, Linda Simpson has racked up a long list of creative endeavors, including nightlife promoter, playwright, and gameshow host. Her literary resumé includes publishing the underground gay magazine My Comrade and her photo book The Drag Explosion, featuring her photos of NYC’s drag scene in the 1980s and ‘90s.

Host or Publisher Rizzoli Bookstore