15 of the best LGBT ‘Humans of New York’ stories

Humans of New York, the brainchild of Brandon Stanton began in 2010 with the aim to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street.

What followed was a mass following, a book deal and the chance to tell stories of every day people. Stanton’s work has become something of a global phenomenon.

We’ve compiled some of the best LGBT stories below.

1. A couple who don’t dress up together, stay together

“We met 48 years ago at a Halloween party.”
“Do you remember the costumes you were wearing?”
“We were the only two not wearing costumes, actually.”

2. When your life is the plot of a movie

“We were best friends in high school.”
“Did you both know the other was gay?”
“I knew she was. She didn’t know I was.”
“So how did she find out?”
“I wrote her a love letter.”

3. We will take your advice on anything and everything

“If you could give one piece of advice to a large group of people, what would it be?”
“Be yourself.”

4. We’ve got major sneaker envy

“We’re coming up on a year of marriage.”
“Tell me your favourite thing about each other.”
“Her ability to intuit my moods.”
“Her living room choreography of every song that comes on the radio.”

5. When these ladies gave you relationship goals

“Girl-in-black was explaining how much she enjoyed the fact that girl-in-white always wrote her handwritten notes. As she was explaining this, I noticed that girl-in-white’s eyes were lighting up. She turned to girl-in-black and said: “Can you cover your ears for a second?”

Then she leaned toward me and whispered: “She doesn’t know this yet, but it’s our anniversary this weekend, and I’ve just covered the entire house in sticky notes.”

6. When you realise you’ve made a mistake

“I was married to a woman when I met him.”
“Why did you marry a woman?”
“Because I thought being gay was a choice. Until the honeymoon.”

7. Simply adorable

“I love his eyes and his belly.”

8. If this isn’t one to show the grandkids, we don’t know what is

“We just got back from the prom.”

9. The one guaranteed to break your heart

“I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me.”

10. You have to give props to the psychic, they were half right

“I went to a psychic the day before I met him. She told me I was about to meet the woman of my dreams. I said: ‘I’m gay.’”

11. Here’s hope for everyone on Tinder, dating sites work

“We met on a dating site twelve years ago. I sent her a message saying: ‘I want to let you know up front that I’m in a wheelchair, because I can’t hide it.’ And she wrote back: ‘Why? Is it bright yellow?’”

12. Further proof couples in matching outfits are the absolute best

“I was in line at the City Clerk’s Marriage Bureau, waiting for [another couple] to register, when I spotted these two. They were from Dallas, but had decided to marry in New York. When I asked for their photograph, they told me they needed a witness for their marriage. So my name is actually on their marriage certificate.”

13. When you get serious couple style envy

“We’re gay refugees from Iran.”

14. And sometimes we come across a couple of famous faces …

“One time we were driving through Italy, and we were listening to a radio station that played nothing but melodramatic Italian love songs. So we started inventing translations. The stories we made up kept getting more and more ridiculous, and the laughter kept escalating until soon we were both in tears.”

15. But all-in-all, Humans of New York excel in showing the good in society

“After they finished kissing, she took off her blue cape, and laid it over a woman sleeping on a nearby bench. It was such an unbelievably poetic moment, I actually chased them down to fact-check my own eyes. ‘Excuse me. Was that your blue blanket?’ “Yes.” ‘And you just gave it to her?’ ‘….Yes, why?’ ‘Oh nothing.’ “