The Westchester LGBTQ+ History Project

Elizabeth de Béthune is an artist and art teacher who lives in Yonkers, N.Y.

In 2023, de Béthune received a grant to work on an oil painting portrait series called “Out in Yonkers.” In this series, she renders portraits of LGBTQ+ people who live and work in Yonkers.

I see the world around me through the lens of a vast gallery of art historical images, and I feel viscerally connected to the people depicted in many of these works. I am very aware just how important a visual record of people is to the history that remembers them. At a time when the presence of the queer community is being undermined and threatened with erasure, I feel a need to document and celebrate our people.

Elizabeth de Béthune artist statement

The “Out in Yonkers” series was on view at the White Plains Public Library from January 4 to February 29, 2024. (Additional exhibitions will be announced here.) Below are images of some of the the preliminary paintings for the series that de Béthune discusses in her interview:

To read the full transcript of this interview, click here.

I feel like my generation, the Boomers … it’s a common trope, but I feel like we have left a little bit of a mess. You know, we’ve done the best we could with what we had, but I feel like … I don’t want anybody, any young people, to give up hope. I want them to just keep doing what they’re doing.

Elizabeth de Béthune