Arlington Street has long played a prominent role in the movement for LGBTQ+ equality. By providing safe, welcoming spaces for many organizations—along with founding many of our own— Arlington Street has served as an incubator for social justice, arts, and human service groups advancing equal rights for LGBTQ+ people in Boston and beyond.
In 1969, the Boston Chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) began meeting in the Clarke Room when the group became too large to gather in members’ homes. Founded in San Francisco in 1955, DOB was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States and provided life-changing support and education to thousands of women.
In the late 1960s, after being kicked out of Emerson College for being a lesbian, Maxine (Max) Feldman founded and hosted the Fallen Angel Coffeehouse at Arlington Street. This gathering was a haven for queer musicians and their fans. Feldman was a pioneering singer-songwriter, and her song “Angry Atthis” was the first openly distributed, out lesbian song of what would become the women’s music movement.
When Boston celebrated its first Gay Pride Parade in 1971, the bells in Arlington Street’s steeple echoed across the city for hours— and they’ve been rung for every Pride parade since.
Today, Arlington Street is the 7th stop on the Boston Equality Trail, which follows the route of first Gay Pride March.
In 1977, the Boston chapter of DignityUSA began meeting at Arlington Street. Dignity advocates for change in the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on homosexuality and promotes LGBTQ+ rights.
In 1978, San Francisco’s assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were memorialized in an interfaith service at Arlington Street. Afterwards, a service was held by Arlington Street members of Boston UU Gays and Lesbians (BUUGL), opening with a message Harvey Milk had recorded to be played to gay people in the event of his murder:
“I can only hope they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive… I hope every gay would just say, ‘ENOUGH,’ come forward, and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.”
Five brave souls, including Rev. Gene Navias, who later became Arlington Street’s associate minister, stood in the pulpit and came out as gay or lesbian.
In the late 1970’s, Committee for Gay Youth (CGY) was founded at Arlington Street. Bennett Klein, who would go on to become GLAD’s Senior Director of Litigation and HIV Law, was an active member during his high school and college years. In 1980, CGY members decided they wanted a group that was fully youth-controlled, so they held a fundraising auction at a gay bar and used the money to establish and run a youth-led organization called BAGLY (Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth).
In 1981,BAGLY hosted the nation’s first annual LGBTQ+ youth prom in the basement of Arlington Street. Today, BAGLY continues to thrive as a social justice and support organization serving LGBTQ+ youth in Boston and at fourteen satellite locations throughout Massachusetts.
After seeing the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus perform in 1981, Josef Bevins and several friends formed a similar chorus in Boston. In 1982, the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus’ debut concert was hosted at Arlington Street as part of the Boston Pride Festival.
In 1984, largely in response to suffering caused by the AIDS pandemic in the LGBTQ+ community, Arlington Street and Dignity Boston co-founded the Friday Night Supper Program. To this day, the program continues to provide a hot, nutritious meal in a safe and dignified environment to anyone in need every Friday night in our Parish Hall.
In 1989, Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie was called to Arlington Street’s pulpit as the first openly lesbian minister in Boston. She served as Arlington Street’s beloved Senior Minister for 35 years and was voted Minister Emerita upon her retirement in June of 2024.
Also in 1989, In the Best Interests of the Children, an organization for families affected by HIV and AIDS, was founded at Arlington Street.
In 1997, Rabbi Howard Berman, Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie, and clergy supportive of marriage equality founded the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, which grew to include more than 700 clergy, congregations, and organizations from 23 faith traditions.
In 1998, The Shared Heart was founded in collaboration with Arlington Street and the Massachusetts Safe Schools Program. The project presented a series of portraits and handwritten narratives to amplify authentic, affirming stories of LGBTQ+ young people. The initiative began as a traveling photography exhibition and later became an award-winning book published by William Morrow and HarperCollins.
On May 17th, 2004, the first legal same-sex wedding in a church in the United States was celebrated in the Arlington Street sanctuary.
Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie married Arlington Street members David Wilson and Rob Compton. Three days later, 55 weddings were performed in one day, with three clergy officiating.
On October 16, 2016, the Arlington Street sanctuary was filled to capacity for a memorial service celebrating the life of John Michael Gray. Known as The Hat Sisters, Gray and his husband, Tim O’Connor, were ubiquitous at fundraising events in Provincetown and Boston. Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh offered eulogies in tribute to Gray, an icon who gave so much of himself to the LGBTQ+ community.
In 2019, Arlington Street was honored to become the home of the Helms Library. Dr. Alan Helms, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and the University of Paris, is the author of the bestselling memoir Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life Before Stonewall. His library, comprised of 4,000 literary classics and art books, is a time capsule of a gay man’s life in the 1950s through the 2000s.
In the February 2022 issue of Preservation Magazine, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Partners for Sacred Places recognized Arlington Street’s role in advancing LGBTQ+ rights in their article “Historic Houses of Worship as Advocates for LGBTQ Rights & Inclusion.”
In March 2024, the National Park Service selected the church as one of eight recipients of grant funding for restoration projects to help preserve America’s equal rights history. The preservation award of $750,000 was used to rebuild the stairs to the south entrance.
In March 2024, Arlington Street’s Sarah Boyer and Laura Catanzaro along with Lois Johnson published Coming Out, Becoming Ourselves: Lesbian Stories from the Boston Daughters of Bilitis (Savvy Press). The book highlights stories of courage and love from Boston’s emerging gay liberation movement between 1969–1999.
On May 17, 2024, Arlington Street hosted a large community celebration marking the 20th anniversary of marriage equality in the United States. We were honored to partner with GLAD, MassEquality, The History Project, and Centerline Liberties to welcome an illustrious lineup of speakers, including Governor Deval Patrick, Representative Paul Kujawski, Red Sox executive David Friedman, and author Marc Solomon.
On June 1st, 2024, Arlington Street was honored to host the memorial service of Ann Maguire. Maguire was a public servant, queer rights and breast cancer activist, political strategist, and lesbian icon. She ran Mayor Menino’s first mayoral campaign and instituted the Winter Census of the Homeless when she served as Boston’s Health and Human Services Director. She was a mentor to Governor Maura Healey, who, along with Congressman Barney Frank, offered eulogies at her service.
