When Brooklyn Was Queer

by Hugh Ryan

There will come a time, here in Brooklyn, and all over America, when nothing will be of more interest than authentic reminiscences of the past. —WALT WHITMAN

Over the 1910s, they would try to define, contain, and control queerness and queer people—from sex workers such as Loop-the-Loop (perhaps the first explicitly “trans” woman in Brooklyn history), to queer-friendly bar owners such as Antonio Bellavicini and Robert Bonner. Although problematic, the records of these groups point to large numbers of queer people living in Brooklyn.

by the turn of the century as many as half a million people could be found at Coney Island every day.