I came from London with my partner to visit my brother who is studying in NYC. My brother and I have always had a rather stoic relationship, so signing the three of us up after over 4 years of not seeing each other in person, me a little anxious.
The route covers all the key NYC LGBT history landmarks tracing the last 100 years of LGBT rights evolution in New York before current marriage equality. For those less familiar to LGBT life and history (such as my brother), the tour can be an engaging crash-course of sorts. For LGBT members and allies who may have read on the subject before (hi), there is still much information to discover. Having researched extensively on the topic, the guide Michael is always available to answer more in-depth questions.
Stories of people like me are not taught at most schools. Like most LGBT folk of my generation I learned about the legacies of Stonewall in fragmented pieces from media. For me it is empowering to see all this history presented in a concise, accessible manner.
Since the tour my brother and I spoke more comfortably with each other, even after my partner and I returned to London. We always have a good laugh about the highly explicit Keith Haring mural the tour ended at.
I would highly recommend to families with LGBT members, partners and young LGBT people. The best way to know how someone else feels is to trace their steps. It’s a powerful portfolio of stories that should be preserved and passed forward with pride.