In late June of 1969, a series of police raids happened at the Stonewall Inn bar at the early hours of the morning. In this time, the LGBT community was very much not widely accepted in society at-large, and was oftentimes facing persecution and even death regularly. As a result of the violence ensuing from the riots, the modern fight for LGBT rights and equal treatment began, and in the following years the earliest Pride marches had their origins. Nevertheless, the fight for equal rights, treatment, and acceptance in society is still ongoing, with a number of roadblocks including the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s being used to demonize gay men, and more recently in the present day conservative politicians in a number of countries engaging in political warfare against transgender people (e.g. forcing schools to out kids, using pedophilia as a dogwhistle, banning puberty blockers, sports, banning or heavily gatekeeping HRT, etc.).
With all that history out of the way, here’s the station review part of this entry. Originally named after Sheridan Square, Christopher St.(-Stonewall) is a local station in lower Manhattan, serving line #1 at all times and line #2 at night hours. It’s located in the heart of Sheridan Square and the Greenwich Village, where the modern LGBTQ+ movement has originated, and there’s also a national monument at the Stonewall Inn on street level as well. Furthermore, the area is also pretty busy with businesses lining both Christopher St. and 7th Avenue. And, as a fun aside, you can even see the Freedom Tower from here as well. Neat! As for platform level, you have your usual amenities: faregates, a MetroCard machine (no OMNY!), benches, wastebaskets, and countdown clocks. There’s also no free crossover between sides. Annoying!
The good: It’s historically significant! It’s also in a pretty busy urban area, has basic amenities to make a functional subway station, and has bus connections!
The bad: It’s not accessible! Also, no OMNY machines??? There’s also no free crossover! Goddammit.
Nearby points of interest: The Stonewall Monument and Inn, duh! This area’s literally the origin of the modern LGBTQ+ movement!
Transit connections:
7th Ave. (Line #1)
MTA bus (M8, M20)
Overall, I think my approach for reviewing NYC subway stations are going to be based partly on land use and the quality of the stations themselves since I have a hunch many of them are going to be copy-paste. With that said, here’s my final thoughts on the station. It’s in a cool place. The Village genuinely seems like a cool place that I want to check out further in the future if I ever return to NYC (I will!), and on top of that the area is very important historically, and the events serve as a reminder, at least to me, that while life still sucks as a queer (trans and gay, specifically, in my case) person in the USA, it could be A LOT worse and it was a lot worse historically, and that even in the present day we still have work to do before we’re truly at a point where LGBTQ+ equality is achieved. Lastly, shoutout to Miranda from the Miles in Transit Discord server for tagging along with me for this one, it was nice hanging with you, and hopefully we cross paths again.
Rating: 7/10
