The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether to hear a challenge that could reopen the question of who can get married. The challenge to marriage equality is being brought by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who in 2015 defied a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
As SCOTUSblogreports, the justices will privately discuss Davis’s petition on November 7. Davis, who was briefly jailed a decade ago after citing “God’s authority” in refusing to issue licenses to a gay couple, is now asking the high court not only to reverse her loss in the lower courts but to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that established a constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples nationwide.
A Gallup poll from May 2024 found that 69 percent of U.S. adults support legal same-sex marriage—close to the record high of 71 percent. Sixty-four percent said same-sex relations are morally acceptable. Support remains strongest among Democrats at 83 percent and independents at 74 percent, while only 46 percent of Republicans back marriage equality, reflecting the enduring partisan divide.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected Davis’s claim that her refusal was protected by religious freedom, ruling that she acted as a government official, not a private citizen. A jury had previously awarded $50,000 each to the couple, David Moore and David Ermold, who were denied a license.
Several members of the court have recently commented on the 2015 marriage equality ruling, offering clues to how they might view Davis’s petition. Justice Clarence Thomas has long urged the court to revisit major decisions, such as Obergefell v. Hodges, arguing in a concurrence in the court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade, that such rulings expand constitutional rights beyond what the framers intended. He and Justice Samuel Alito have both raised concerns that Obergefell diminished protections for people who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett recently noted in an interview with The New York Times that marriage equality now carries “very concrete reliance interest,” meaning millions of Americans have built their lives and legal relationships around it. In her September book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution, Barrett described the “rights to marry” as “fundamental,” Newsweekreports.
According to SCOTUSblog, if the justices decline to take up the case, that decision could be announced as soon as November 10. But if they agree to hear it, the case would mark the court’s most direct confrontation with Obergefell in years and a potentially seismic moment for LGBTQ+ rights in the post-Roejudicial era. If the court agrees to hear it, oral arguments could be scheduled for the spring, with a decision possible by June. If the justices decline to take up the case, the lower-court rulings against Davis will stand.
A grassroots organization supporting transgender people from South Asia (often known as Hijrah or Kinnar) has opened a physical location in San Francisco after operating for 6 years without one.
Parivar Bay Area opened its brick-and-mortar doors on October 20, during Diwali. The group’s founder, Indian immigrant Anjali Rimi, was brimming with emotion when she cut the ribbon.
“I’m feeling very grateful,” she told KQED. “We have tried many times to see if we can actually have a place where we can belong, we can be ourselves. And being in this physical space, it gives us that rooting.”
“It also looks at our existence as one that is formidable when we are being erased as human beings,” she added.
The center’s director of strategy, Phanny Lun, said it is a critical time to provide legal advice, leadership training, and other support to transgender immigrants, who are being attacked intersectionally by the current administration.
“It’s knowing that there’s community and support,” Lun said. “That’s a really big thing – and making sure that our community knows that there are services out there for us. Not just doom and gloom.”
Lun said the narratives in the media make it easy for trans people to believe there is no support for them. “That’s not true,” Lun emphasized, adding that immigrants and trans people “have a place and a group that will be of assistance to them.”
While the center focuses on trans immigrants from Southeast Asia, Rimi made it clear Parivar is open to immigrants from any country.
The website says the center is the country’s “first & only Kinnar Hijrah led and empowering organization centering Indian South Asian and Global South transgender, gender-diverse, and intersex (TGNCI) immigrants and asylees” with a goal to “advance social, economic, and legal equity through advocacy, arts, direct support, and leadership development.”
“We reclaim spaces beyond cisnormativity,” the site continues, “confront systemic barriers, and build bold, affirming pathways where our communities thrive locally and globally grounded in dignity, belonging, and pride.”
Philadelphia, the “City of Brotherly Love” and birthplace of American democracy, is adding an inclusive destination to the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding next year: the Philly Pride Visitors Center, one of the country’s first LGBTQ+ visitor centers.
“We don’t just welcome diversity — we celebrate it,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation. “Philadelphia is a city that shows up for everyone.”
The new LGBTQ+ destination will open early next year in the heart of the city’s LGBTQ+ neighborhood in Midtown Village.
The 2026 Semiquincentennial is expected to draw record tourism to the “Cradle of Liberty.”
As well as being the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia has a storied history in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. The city’s Independence Hall was one of the first venues to see public demonstrations for gay rights, while the country’s first LGBTQ+ sit-in took place in 1965 at the infamous Dewey’s restaurant, where “avowed homosexuals” weren’t welcome.
“The Philly Pride Visitor Center reflects our commitment to inclusive tourism and to making sure every traveler feels seen, welcomed and celebrated,” said Angela Val, President and CEO of Visit Philadelphia.
“This new center gives visitors and residents a place to connect with Philadelphia’s LGBTQ+ history, discover affirming businesses, and see how this city helped shape a national movement. It is both a resource hub and a testament to Philadelphia’s role in advancing LGBTQ+ rights.”
Plans for the Pride-themed center include services like itinerary planning, attraction ticketing, and travel information, with a special focus on LGBTQ+-affirming destinations, businesses, and cultural institutions. The gift shop will offer a curated selection of souvenirs from LGBTQ+ artists, designers, and businesses.
Historical content will be curated by Mark Segal, founder of Philadelphia Gay News, with the goal of presenting an authentic representation of the city’s LGBTQ+ legacy based on input from the community.
“Philadelphia has always been a trailblazer in LGBTQ+ history, from the first Reminder Day marches in 1965 (four years before Stonewall) to the Dewey’s sit-in, where LGBTQ+ youth stood up to a restaurant’s refusal to serve them,” Segal said.
“Our city helped launch the fight for representation in media, shaped national policy, and created safe, visible spaces for our community,” he added. With the new visitor center’s founding, “Philadelphia proudly honors that legacy.”
Said CEO Lovell: “Our hope is that the Philly Pride Visitor Center becomes a place where LGBTQ+ visitors feel like they belong from the moment they arrive.”
Activists have thrown a spotlight on past comments made about rape by prominent anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans.
An online post from left-wing outlet Occupy Democrats revealed the comments made by six officials over the years, apparently justifying or downplaying the rape of women and girls in the US.
The post on Facebook and Instagram included quotes from Clayton Williams, Todd Akin, Rick Santorum, Richard Mourdock, Jodie Laubenberg and Lawrence Lockman.
Fact-checked by Snopes, the quotes included Todd Akin (R-MO) saying: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that thing down.”
Rick Santorum was a US senator for 12 years (Getty)
Santorum, a notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ former US senator, was quoted as saying: “Rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.”
Another of the quotes, made by Williams during his failed campaign to become governor of Texas governor in 1990, read: “Rape is kinda like the weather. If it’s inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” He died in 2020.
In the 80s, Lockman, a former member of the Maine house of representatives, described LGBTQ+ people as biologically insane.
According to a 2014 article from blogger Mike Tipping, Lockman also became involved in anti-abortion activism. During his stint as a director of the Pro-Life Education Association in the 90s, he said: “If a woman has [the right to an abortion], why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.”
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He later apologised for his remarks, saying he held “no animosity toward anyone by virtue of their gender or sexual orientation”.
Laubenberg, who died last month at the age of 68, sat in Texas house of representatives from 2003 to 2019.
During a debate about abortion legislation in 2013, while opposing the addition to a bill that would have made an exception for women who had been raped, she reportedly said: “In hospital emergency rooms, we have funded what’s called rape kits that will help the woman, basically clean her out [to avoid pregnancies]… basically like an emergency contraception, where they can also do the morning-after pill.”
Rape kits are not used to terminate pregnancies, but to gather and preserve physical evidence for any possible prosecution.
Asked about abortion and contraceptive rights, former US senate hopeful Mourdock was quoted in the post as saying: “Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something God intended to happen.”
He later clarified his comments in a press conference following the debate, saying that he had intended to say that “God creates life,” and that any interpretation of his comments to mean God “pre-ordained rape” were “sick” and “twisted.”
“What I said was, in answering the question form my position of faith, I said I believe that God creates life. I believe that as wholly and as fully as I can believe it. That God creates life. Are you trying to suggest that somehow I think that God pre-ordained rape? No, I don’t think that. That’s sick. Twisted. That’s not even close to what I said. What I said is that God creates life.”
Snopes contacted Santorum, Mourdock and Lockman for comment: the only three people mentioned in the meme who are still alive. They have yet to receive a response.
Studies have shown that survivors of sexual violence in the US are significantly more likely to attempt suicide than their peers. One report from 2020 revealed that 13 per cent of respondents had tried to take their own life.
Suicide is preventable. Readers who are affected by the issues raised in this story are encouraged to contact the Samaritans on 116 123 (samaritans.org), or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to contact the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.
Someone threw rocks and smashed windows at several LGBTQ organizations and businesses across town over the past week, according to a statement from the Parasol Patrol, an organization that shields young people and their families from anti-LGBTQ attacks.
The businesses included salons, a queer gym, a boutique and the Center on Colfax, one of the largest LGBTQ organizations in the state. Many of the business owners were friends.
The apparent attacks spanned the city, from Washington Park to Southwest Denver to Colfax Avenue and the River North Art District. A motive has not been determined, though queer-owned businesses say they are on edge and are well aware of the pattern.
Read the full article. My first report on this is here. Watch the video report below on YouTube. The man seen above was smashing windows with a rock.
A federal appeals court will take a second look at whether West Texas A&M University can ban drag shows, setting aside an earlier ruling that found the university’s ban likely violated students’ free speech rights. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday tossed a 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel issued in August and agreed to rehear the case before the court’s 17 active judges.
The panel’s earlier decision had sided with the student group Spectrum WT, which is represented by FIRE, after university President Walter Wendler canceled a campus drag show in 2023. The panel majority said the students would’ve likely engaged in protected expression, pointing to their drag show’s context as a ticketed event organized by a LGBTQ+ student group to raise money for a suicide prevention charity, and that the venue, Legacy Hall, was a public forum.
This year’s mayoral race in New York City is shaping up to be the most-watched and most consequential local election in the country. Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman and Democratic Socialist who cleanly won the Democratic primary earlier this year and maintains a double-digit lead in the polls, is facing off against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the primary.
Analysts argue that this race could have significant implications for the future of the Democratic Party. If Mamdani wins, it will represent New Yorkers’ desire for a politician who leans further left than the party’s traditional values.
These implications extend to LGBTQ rights as well, as discourse surrounding trans people has permeated discussions of the party’s future since last year’s presidential loss.
With that in mind, here are both candidates’ track records on LGBTQ issues.
Andrew Cuomo allegedly runs a whisper campaignduring his father Mario’s run for New York City mayor against Ed Koch. He uses the slogan “Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo,” referencing Koch’s sexuality. Koch never publicly came out as gay and denied it until his death, but it was known in his personal circle that he was.
“The signs said, VOTE FOR CUOMO, NOT THE HOMO. Andrew says he didn’t do it, and I believe him.”
June 24, 2011
Cuomo signs the Marriage Equality Act into law, legalizing same-sex marriage and making New York the sixth state—and the largest, at the time—to pass marriage equality. The passage of the law is considered a win for gay rights. In a press statement, Cuomo says:
“New York has finally torn down the barrier that has prevented same-sex couples from exercising the freedom to marry and from receiving the fundamental protections that so many couples and families take for granted. … With the world watching, the Legislature, by a bipartisan vote, has said that all New Yorkers are equal under the law.”
June 26, 2011
Two days after signing the Marriage Equality Act, Cuomo marches in NYC Pride and is met with adoration and fanfare. He would continue to be a figure at NYC Pride for the next eight years, but since 2019 has no public record of attending.
Dec. 11, 2014
Cuomo announces regulatory guidelines to help trans people receive equal access to health insurance coverage. The new rules no longer allow insurance companies to deny medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria. The move comes before similar federal protections are introduced in 2015 under the Affordable Care Act, positioning New York ahead of national policy on trans health care.
March 31, 2015
Cuomo bans non-essential state-funded travel to Indiana after the state passes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The act enables anti-LGBTQ discrimination by saying that being forced to serve queer customers is a burden on their religious beliefs. Cuomo would lift the banApril 4, saying he believes changes made to the law will keep it from being used to discriminate against gay people. The next year, Cuomo would impose a similar travel ban for North Carolina because of their trans bathroom ban.
Oct. 22, 2015
Cuomo issues an executive order that expands discrimination protection regulations to include gender identity, transgender status and gender dysphoria. The move is praised by the American Civil Liberties Union:
“With this executive action, Gov. Cuomo has made it clear that his administration is committed to protecting transgender and gender nonconforming people in New York State. … These clear legal protections go a long way toward allowing transgender New Yorkers to enjoy dignity, respect and access to opportunity in New York.”
Jan. 25, 2019
Cuomo signs two pro-LGBTQ bills into law. The first bans conversion therapy for minors by licensed practitioners and bans insurers from covering the discredited practice. The second, known as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), amends the state’s Human Rights Law to ban anti-trans discrimination.
“The Supreme Court says you can discriminate against transgender in the military,” Cuomo says in a statement. “We say today—no you can’t. You cannot discriminate against people by gender identity, period.”
June 30, 2019
Cuomo signs a law banning the “gay and trans panic” legal defense in New York. The law eliminates a long-established loophole in hate crime trials that allowed lawyers to argue that a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity could cause a suspect to fly into a sudden violent frenzy such that they hurt or kill the victim. New York is the eighth state to ban the defense.
Enter Mamdani
Feb. 2, 2021
Zohran Mamdani on his first day as state assemblyman. Photo by @Zohrankmamdani/Instagram.
In his first session as a House Representative for New York’s 36th district, Zohran Mamdani backs the repeal of the “Walking While Trans” law, which was disproportionately used to target trans women of color under the guise of curbing sex work. In the 1970s, “wearing a skirt,” “waving at a car” and “standing somewhere other than a bus stop or taxi stand” were viewed under the law as probable cause for arrest.
That same day, Cuomo signs the repeal of portions of the law and says:
“For too long trans people have been unfairly targeted and disproportionately policed for innocent, lawful conduct based solely on their appearance. Repealing the archaic ‘walking while trans’ ban is a critical step toward reforming our policing system and reducing the harassment and criminalization transgender people face simply for being themselves. New York has always led the nation on LGBTQ rights, and we will continue that fight until we achieve true equality.”
Feb. 15, 2021
The Child-Parent Security Act, which Cuomo signed into law in 2020, goes into effect. The law legalizes compensation for gestational surrogacy, opening new paths to parenthood for both LGBTQ and heterosexual couples alike.
Feb. 17, 2021
Mamdani co-sponsors the Gender Recognition Act, which would make it easier for trans and nonbinary folks to change their gender on official government documents. It would also give them the option to choose a gender-neutral marker of “X” instead of the male/female binary and options for gender-neutral parent language on birth certificates.
Feb. 24, 2021
Cuomo is announced as the recipient of the LGBT Bar of New York’s “Community Vision Award” for his “distinguished record of service to the LGBTQ community, including a sustained commitment to achieving equal rights for all members of our community.” Just hours later, a former staffer publishes a story detailing Cuomo’s history of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior.
In reaction, Cuomo is stripped of his award and barred from attending the gala.
Cuomo, April 6, 2021. Photo by New York National Guard.
In an investigation following allegations of sexual assault and workplace mistreatment by Cuomo, The New York Times reports that the governor allegedly told a male official in 2019: “You’d be a good-looking tr*nny if you get a good set of tits.”
In response to the allegation, a member of Cuomo’s team says, “He would never make a comment so vile.”
June 24, 2021
Cuomo signs the Gender Recognition Act—co-sponsored by Mamdani—into law. This is one of Cuomo’s last legislative moves before his resignation Aug. 24, 2021.
June 10, 2023
Mamdani votes for New York’s gender-affirming care “shield law” that protects providers, patients and medical records from hostile out-of-state actions. The bill is then signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul. Mamdani’s vote underscores his opposition to red-state crackdowns on trans health care.
Oct. 23, 2024
Mamdani writes an op-ed for the Queens Daily Eagle in support of Proposal 1, a state constitutional amendment which bans discrimination “based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and sex—including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” The amendment also introduces legal protections for housing discrimination against LGBTQ people. The following month, Prop 1 passes into law.
Feb. 8, 2025
Mamdani attends a rally for trans youth in New York City’s Union Square and says he is there “to stand up for these children” as attempts to bangender-affirming care spread across the country.
“You need not even know a trans New Yorker to stand up for trans New Yorkers. … This is a trial of all of us to see who we are willing to give up. And our answer is no one.”
March 11, 2025
Gothamist reports that Cuomo hires anti-LGBTQ activist Kristofer Graham to be his campaign treasurer. Graham worked for the Coalition to Protect Kids, a group aimed at defeating Prop 1. Before that, he worked for theSave Our State PAC on Republican Lee Zeldin’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign, which also peddledhomophobia and transphobia.
The decision provokes backlash among former Cuomo allies. Tyler Hack, a trans rights activist and the executive director of the Christopher Street Project, says:
“Cuomo is signaling that trans rights are negotiable to him. … The only takeaway we can make from that is that it’s not an accident.”
Cuomo marches in the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, September 2025. Photo by Marco.
March 27, 2025
Cuomo does not participate in a mayoral candidate forum hosted by four LGBTQ groups, including The Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC, NYC Pride and Power, Equality New York and Lambda Independent Democrats. His absence further alienates him from New York’s LGBTQ community.
April 29, 2025
Cuomo is snubbed by LGBTQ advocacy groups, including the Jim Owles Liberal LGBT Club, Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn and the Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC, as they use the city’s rank choice format to list Brad Lander, Mamdani, Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos. Several groups give Mamdani endorsements. All of them leave Cuomo off the list entirely. The head of Jim Owles credits Cuomo for his past but says he is “unsuitable to be mayor.”
“The gay community is smart. We’re not going to support Cuomo’s baggage. He’s not progressive by any stretch of the imagination.”
Mamdani speaks at Caveat Comedy Festival, May 25, 2025. Photo by Bryan Berlin.
May 22, 2025
Mamdani announces a protection plan for LGBTQ New Yorkers that includes a $65 million investment for gender-affirming care. The plan also proposes the creation of an Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs to “expand and centralize the services, programs, and support LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers need across housing, employment and more.” Mamdani says NYC will become a sanctuary city in an effort to “strengthen and uphold the rights of queer and trans New Yorkers.”
June 1, 2025
Cuomo posts a video celebrating Pride and his past achievements for LGBTQ people. Along with the video is the caption:
“Happy Pride Month! I am forever proud of the work my Administration did in the fight for LGBTQ equality. I will always stand with our LGBTQ community and fight for equality and fairness for every New Yorker.”
Despite this, Cuomo does not attend NYC Pride while Mamdani does.
June 23, 2025
Queer and Jewish influencer Matt Bernstein—known online as mattxiv—endorses Mamdani. This is one of many endorsements Mamdani has received among Gen Z voters and influencers. In one Instagram post, Bernstein writes:
“We need democratic leaders who will tax billionaires, not sell their souls to them. We need democratic leaders who will stand up for the rights of immigrants and LGBTQ people, not throw us under the bus. We need Zohran.”
The Trump administration has issued a new rule for airlines requiring an end to gender demarcations besides male or female.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol issued a new rule, citing an executive order signed by President Donald Trump the first day of his new term. The regulation demands carriers to update guidance for their Advance Passenger Information System, or APIS. Under Democratic President Joe Biden, airlines could note passenger gender with as male, female or other, but can no longer afford that recognition to genders outside the binary.
“Existing APIS regulatory language provides that ‘M’ or ‘F’ (M=Male; F=Female) sex markers are to be accepted in the transmission. However, CBP systems had previously accepted characters other than ‘M’ or ‘F’ without returning an error response or requiring resubmission,” the new rule states.
“Effective July 14, 2025, air carriers will have an informed compliance period of 90-days where values other than ‘M’ or ‘F’ in the sex field will not require resubmission. After the compliance period, APIS will begin returning a resubmit or ‘X response’ which indicates insufficient information requiring resubmission, when values other than ‘M’ or ‘F’ are submitted in the sex field.”
That means as of October 12, airlines will no longer be able to submit an alternative gender. The change also makes clear if airlines submit a male or female designation that is different than anything submitted on the original travel document, the carrier won’t face any type of penalties.
Airlines who face questions must call up CBP offices in Honolulu, Miami or New York, depending on the region.
Of note, the ACLU challenged Trump’s order in February, and a judge in June issued an injunction requiring the State Department to issue passports and other travel documents with alternative gender markers. The State Department is continuing to fight in court for the right to revoke or replace those documents and require male or female designations on every form.
But CBP is part of the Department of Homeland Security, and has authority over any international flights to and from the United States.
A CBP spokesperson acknowledged to The Guardian that the gender marker on any traveler’s documents “is not criteria for an applicant’s admission into the U.S.”
The Terminal Tower, “Cleveland’s Signature Skyscraper,” beamed purple for the second straight year in support of LGBTQ youth and against bullying.
Photo: Super Nina Photography
It is the first landmark in Ohio to participate in Spirit Day, and the skyline this year expanded the purple output, with the nearby Beaux Arts post office plaza also lighting its columns, reflections in the mirrored new headquarters of Sherwin Williams, and additional purple illuminating the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Photo: Super Nina Photography
The 98-year-old, 52-story, 708-foot-tall Terminal Tower is “Cleveland’s most potent symbol,” Cleveland Historical Society notes, connecting thousands of miles of rail lines and centering industrial innovation and civic pride. Lighting infrastructure by Vincent Lighting ensures that the Tower is lit in different colors each night to bring visibility and representation to hundreds of nonprofit organizations, causes, and Cleveland’s beloved sports teams every year.
Northeast Ohio’s LGBTQ community is celebrating additional recent milestones for equality with Ohio’s first county-wide passage of a bill to ban harmful conversion practices on LGBTQ youth, the passage of a Gender Freedom resolution by the Lakewood City Council that protects private health care data and deprioritizes police investigations into best practice health care, the first full-time city staff employee appointed liaison to the LGBTQ community, Carey Gibbons, and the passage this week of the CROWN Act, which bans discrimination based on hair texture and style.
Photo: Super Nina Photography
LGBTQ advocacy organizations around Northeast Ohio also participated in Spirit Day, including TransOhio and the LGBT Center, which is celebrating its 50th year.
“It is more important than ever that LGBTQ youth know they have a world of support out here for them. LGBTQ people are here to stay, our spirit is unstoppable, and we are overjoyed to again see this profound representation in the Great Lakes and greater Midwest,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
Alice Austen, far left, and other members of The Darned Club on Oct. 29, 1891.Courtesy Collection of Alice Austen House
Born into Victorian tradition in 1866, Alice Austen enjoyed a position in Staten Island society that gave her freedom to pursue what she dubbed “the larky life,” a whirlwind of fashionable gatherings and mischief that challenged social norms. But it was the gift of a wooden box camera from her uncle — and a chance meeting in the Catskills — that set the course for how Austen would be remembered beyond Gilded days: as one of America’s earliest and most adventurous women photographers and for her relationship with Gertrude Tate, which spanned more than half a century.
Though her father abandoned her mother when she was an infant, Austen enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle with extended family in their home called Clear Comfort, overlooking the coastline of the New York City borough of Staten Island. She perfected imagery of her natural surroundings, social doings and “the sporting society set” in a darkroom fashioned from a closet. Her photos serve as a portal to the Gilded Age, with images of the annual regatta, boathouse bathers, charity balls and lawn tennis, a sport newly open to women who were too restricted by corsets to actually run for the ball.
A self-portrait of Alice Austen on the front porch of Clear Comfort in 1892.Courtesy Collection of Alice Austen House
When cycling took off, so did Austen, similarly constrained by long skirts that could catch in the spokes; even so, with heavy camera equipment mounted on her bicycle, she ferried to Manhattan, where she famously documented turn-of-the-century urban life, enshrining the likes of street sweepers, rag pickers, egg sellers and messengers to gelatin print — producing her 1896 “Street Types of New York” portfolio.
As adept at arranging portraiture as igniting flash powder over a night bloom of flowering cactus, Austen also delighted in making gender-bending exposures of female friends. Nicknamed “The Darned Club,” they posed in undergarments with cigarettes, men’s suits with fake mustaches and together in bed in Victorian nighties.
“She was in a period where she and her friends were really embracing this concept of the ‘New Woman,’” said Victoria Munro, executive director of the Alice Austen House, the original Austen residence, which also serves as a museum and exhibition space.
“She created clubs with these new activities that women were able to do, unchaperoned by men — and they were safe spaces for her and her circle of women friends who were, many of them lesbian, able to be together and have fun and really celebrate,” Munro said. “There was also a certain amount of freedom in the 1880s and 1890s, because women weren’t yet considered to even have a sexuality … so they weren’t even suspected of this kind of perceived bad behavior.”
The Darned Club members Alice Austen, Julia Martin and Julia Bredt dressed up on Oct. 15, 1891Courtesy Collection of Alice Austen House
Austen enjoyed the affections of multiple women with “decided longings in that direction,” including the amorous athlete Daisy Elliott. Elliott’s letters left little doubt about Austen’s sapphic leanings. “There is a good deal more between the lines than in them,” Elliott wrote Austen. “Read as much as you care to, and you will not be mistaken … ”
It was a romance doomed to fail, however: That same year, 1897, Austen met Tate.
Despite existing in “a very repressive, heteronormative culture,” as Munro described it, the two summered in Europe, attended the Metropolitan Opera and maintained exclusive memberships, including to the Staten Island Garden Club, which Austen founded. Tate moved in with Austen in 1917.
Bonnie Yochelson, author of “Too Good to Get Married: The Life and Photographs of Miss Alice Austen,” speculates that their social conservatism and staying close to high society in their activities were protective.
“Alice’s friends knew her for decades, and they loved her. Tate was delightful and very capable. They were accepted as a couple,” Yochelson said.
Alice Austen and Gertrude Tate in a rowboat in Scotland in 1903.Courtesy Collection of Alice Austen House
But when the 1929 stock market crash caught Austen in the crosshairs, her financial standing plummeted. Though the surrounding waterfront became industrialized, she refused to sell Clear Comfort, and she took out a mortgage not for daily expenses, but to holiday with Tate. Austen sold family heirlooms, and Tate taught dance. Foreclosure was inevitable, though they stayed on as caretakers — opening a tea room with a view of passing ships, until the frailties of age made the enterprise unsustainable.
In 1945, Austen and Tate, then in their 70s, were evicted for good.
Remarkably, the women managed to stay on the exclusive Social Register for years.
“There’s no question that they had friends, and some of their friends did abandon them as they fell on hard times,” Yochelson said. “But many people were very loyal to them … and they continued to pay their membership at a time when they were sufficiently poor that they couldn’t necessarily pay their electric bill.”
A group of friends with tennis racquets on Aug. 5, 1886.Courtesy Collection of Alice Austen House
Austen sold her last remaining possessions to a junk dealer for $600. A preservationist at heart, she gave thousands of plates, negatives and personal treasures to an acquaintance, Loring McMillen, director of the Staten Island Historical Society (now Historic Richmond Town), who declared the women “not broken in spirit but broken in health and finance.”
Austen and Tate lived together in a small apartment until Austen’s arthritis proved too debilitating. When they were forced to separate, Tate moved to her sister’s home in Queens, New York, and Austen to a home for the aged — and eventually, at age 84, a literal poor farm. Ever devoted, Tate visited Austen regularly at the Staten Island Farm Colony.
But the 7,500 photos and negatives Austen entrusted to the Historical Society would prove a saving grace, and they would ensure her place as an eminent documentarian of a changing landscape in the immigration era.
Alice Austen, seated, and Gertrude Tate in 1944.Courtesy Collection of Alice Austen House
In 1950, a Life magazine editor came upon Austen’s photos of 19th century American life — and learned she was alive. Life ran a story the following year, and Austen got a fee that allowed her to take up residence with a private caregiver.
Weeks after publication, the Staten Island Historical Society hosted “Alice Austen Day.” Overwhelmed and delighted to see the first public showing of her work at age 85, Austen attended with Tate and 300 guests. “I’d be taking these pictures myself if I were 100 years younger,” Austen quipped.
In June, because of Austen’s worsening condition and a bureaucratic glitch, plans were being set in motion to move her to Welfare Island, then a location of public institutions for the aged and infirm. She would not make the journey. On June 9, 1952, Tate was preparing to make the trip from Queens to visit when the phone rang: Austen had been wheeled to the nursing home porch and simply passed away, quietly bathed in morning sunlight.
Austen was buried at Staten Island’s Moravian Cemetery. Tate died 10 years later, at 91. Her family denied her wish to be buried with Austen.
The Alice Austen House Museum today.Courtesy Collection of Alice Austen House
The couple could not have foreseen that across the decades and into a new millennium, future strangers would be moved to advocate for recognition of their devotion: from a 1994 Lesbian Avengers protest against institutional resistance to naming the pair as more than “friends” to Munro’s mission to ensure Tate’s name is discoverable in archival metadata, given a name beyond “unknown woman.”
Their story is housed within the clapboard and stone of their historic residence, now the Alice Austen House and a nationally designated site of LGBTQ history. Today, a visitor enters to find Tate’s portrait in her rightful place in family tree documentation on the wall.
“It is imperative that we center her queerness and her identity and that we celebrate this beautiful, beautiful love story,” Munro said. “People have now come back and visited the Alice Austen House and wept because they’re so happy to see this visibility.”
