After years of disrepair, the 2100-seat Lynn Memorial Auditorium was reopened in 2006 following a full refurbishing. It now hosts major talent on both the local — Boston’s Gay Men’s Chorus — and national scale.

Just ask the leaders of NAGLY, Go Out Loud, Art After Hours, Lesbiatopia.com and other locals—the formerly maligned suburb is turning around, and LGBTs are leading the way

By Scott Kearnan

“Everyone deserves a second act.”

So says DJ Brian Halligan. Halligan stepped away from spinning for nearly a decade. But dance music remained a passion, so last year he decided to get back into the groove. He had few connections in the current local landscape, but networked away. Gig by gig, doors reopened. Now he’s not only a regular on the Cambridge and Boston scenes, but has a Friday night residency at gay club Cirque—a revamped version of gay bar 47 Central in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Halligan sees a certain commonality between his own experience, and that of the city.
“I feel like my story is a parallel to Lynn’s,” says Halligan. “There can be a certain condescension that comes across from people outside it. But it deserves that second act.”
Ah, Lynn. She’s sort of like Boston’s hardscrabble little sister: only a fraction of the size (about 90,000 people) but with a big reputation. That rhyme “Lynn, Lynn, city of sin” is ubiquitous enough to go on coffee cups, and associations with high crime rates and economic malaise have been hard to shake. But as one of the largest cities in Massachusetts, and located just a few miles outside Boston, Lynn has a thriving gay community. It’s becoming an increasingly popular pick for LGBT folks seeking a cost-effective alternative to living in the Hub, and those looking to enjoy the city’s revitalized dining, entertainment, and arts scene as a visitor.

On November 28, 1998, two men followed transgender woman Rita Hester to her apartment in Boston and fatally stabbed her inside.

One year later, transgender activists in San Francisco remembered the event with a candlelight vigil, which has become an annual, globally commemorated observance known as the Transgender Day of Remembrance. 

Recently, organizations like the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) inaugurated Transgender Awareness Week.

This year, MTPC is working with Fenway Health to provide an array of events, including launching of a new video. Other organizations, including local colleges and towns, have also scheduled activities.

Here’s some of what is being offered:

Adam Berry, of Syfy's 'Ghost Hunters,' will be on hand for the launch party of 'Ghosts of Boston: Haunts of the Hub'

It promises to be a spirited evening at Old South Meeting House tomorrow night when Sam Baltrusis’ new book Ghosts of Boston: Haunts of the Hub gets its big coming out party.

Baltrusis is a regular contributor to Boston Spirit, and he just happens to be an expert on otherworldly spirits as well!

Ghosts of Boston made its appearance this month, and the big release event gets underway Tuesday, September 18, at 7 p.m. in downtown Boston.

The Crane Estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts

A Handful of Under-Rated LGBT New England Destinations

Including Bette Davis’ birthplace, Emily Dickinson’s home, Walden Pond, and a Cher filming location

Editor’s Note: The following is adapted from a feature that ran in Boston Spirit magazine, March/April 2010.

By Sam Baltrusis

Provincetown? Ogunquit? Been there, done that.

Why not head out to a handful of hidden gay-fave gems scattered throughout New England, like Emily Dickinson’s home, Bette Davis’ childhood home in Lowell, or Walden Pond?

What’s so gay about them? Fasten your seat belts ...

BETTE DAVIS HOUSE
22 Chester Street, Lowell, Massachusetts.

If the vibrant pink color of this old-school Victorian isn’t enough to tip off tourists, the historical plaque displayed on the front of this Lowell home dating back to the 1890s should set the record straight. The birthplace of movie legend icon Bette Davis is still standing amid a row of triple-deckers in the heart of the Highlands neighborhood near the UMass Lowell campus. In fact, most of the home’s original woodwork dating back to when Ruth Elizabeth was born in 1908 is still in tact. While the LGBT landmark is currently occupied by tenants and is off limits to Davis fans, locals seem to embrace out-of-towners wanting to sneak a peek of where the saucy Jezebel icon was reared.

Gay Factor: Birthplace of the woman who uttered some of the cattiest lines in film, like “But you are Blanche, you are in that chair!” from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? If these walls could talk.

Detail from Fierce Pride: 1992 by Joel Benjamin

It used to be that Gay Pride lasted a day.

Today, in New England, LGBT Pride stretches out over several months, with Northampton Pride having already happened last weekend and Connecticut Pride often scheduled as late as September.

A new exhibition — called Pride: 40 Years of Protest & Celebration — chronicles the early roots of New England's queer rights protests: from the city's first gathering of openly gay-identified individuals protesting the Vietnam war to today's long, loud, and voluminous activities.

Items from The History Project, New England's LGBT archives, are currently on display at the Boston Center for Adult Education (BCAE) until June 30.

An accompanying showing — Fierce Pride:1992 — features provocative photos taken by Joel Benjamin.

An opening celebration — dubbed "Sip the Rainbow" by event co-sponsor Boston Pride — commences from 6 to 8 p.m. this Friday, May 18.

For more information, and to register to attend opening night, check out the BCAE web site.

A toast to Pride!

The LGBTQ Equality Trail. For a full, interactive map, click here.

With the country's first civil marriages for same-sex couples, the first openly gay elected state official in the U.S., the first gay newspaper to go national, the first gay youth prom, and the place where the transgender day of remembrance traces its roots, Greater Boston is the cradle of equality for American LGBTQ citizens.

And with the warm spring weather upon us, it's an ideal time to get out and explore where the history happened.

A couple of years ago, Boston Spirit magazine consulted The History Project, Boston's LGBT archive, and others in order to map out a historical trail encompassing the incredible array of LGBTQ achievements of the area.

This Equality Trail commences at the Boston Common, where some of the city's first gay rights rallies were held. The path winds through much of Beacon Hill and the South End, where so many gay people gathered, lived and rallied in the 20th century. Then the trail ventures out to places like Cambridge, site of the nation's first civil marriages for same-sex couples, and on to Allston, where the Rita Hester was murdered, an event that has been called a Transgender Stonewall because it led to the international Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's all here in the Greater Boston Area.

The full list of places with commentary is below. An interactive Google map can be accessed here.

Hike as much or as little as you like. And while you enjoy the fresh spring air, enjoy your equality too!

1. Boston Common:  Begin at America’s oldest public park, which has been home to countless public rallies reaching back to pre-American Revolution times. Here in 1970, gay-identified groups such as the Homophile Union of Boston (HUB), Boston Daughter of Bilitis (DOB), Student Homophile League, and the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) congregated to commemorate the Stonewall riots of New York City one year earlier—Boston’s first Pride.