Billy the Kid (Jackson Heights Queens Gay Bar/70's and 80's)

Billy the Kid — Jackson Heights, Queens Gay Bar Tee

Long before Jackson Heights became one of New York City's most recognizable LGBTQ+ neighborhoods, there was Billy the Kid.

Part of the neighborhood's gay nightlife during the 1970s and 1980s, Billy the Kid belonged to a world of neighborhood bars, cruising spots, and late-night gathering places that existed far beyond the better-known gay scenes of Greenwich Village and Chelsea.

And Jackson Heights had a queer history all its own. Beneath the neighborhood's busy commercial streets and residential blocks was a social world where gay men could meet, drink, flirt, and find one another without having to take the subway into Manhattan.

The name Billy the Kid fit right into the period's fascination with cowboys, denim, boots, and rugged masculinity. Western imagery was everywhere in gay male culture during those years, from leather bars and motorcycle clubs to the cowboy look that would eventually become inseparable from the Village People.

Places like Billy the Kid mattered because queer New York was never just Manhattan. Queens had its own communities, regulars, friendships, and nightlife traditions, serving people who wanted somewhere closer to home—and somewhere they could feel a little more like themselves.