A return to Chigo’s 1980s gay paradise, the Belmont Rocks - Chigo Rear

Contents:

• KATHY OSTERMAN BEACH (HOLLYWOOD BEACH)CHIGOMENULUXURY HOTELSHOTELSON TODAYBARSDANCE CLUBSCISE CLUBSGAY MASSAGESNASGAY WEDDGSGAY MAPKATHY OSTERMAN BEACH (HOLLYWOOD BEACH)
• A RETURN TO CHIGO’S 1980S GAY PARADISE, THE BELMONT ROCKS
• GREAT GAY-IENDLY BEACH - KATHY OSTERMAN BEACH

KATHY OSTERMAN BEACH (HOLLYWOOD BEACH)CHIGOMENULUXURY HOTELSHOTELSON TODAYBARSDANCE CLUBSCISE CLUBSGAY MASSAGESNASGAY WEDDGSGAY MAPKATHY OSTERMAN BEACH (HOLLYWOOD BEACH)

Crowds at Kathy Osterman Beach, also monly known as Hollywood Beach or the “gay beach” Augt 2021 Cred: Kathleen Hkel.

Keehnen says the beach was a revolutnary haven for gay men to take up physil space, to be queer public, and to be among others like them. “The Rocks were jt as important to my socializatn as a gay man Chigo durg that time as the bars were.

The article was a personal and fascatg glimpse to the gay male muny Chigo at the time, wh echo of the same stggl and termuny strife still alive today.

A RETURN TO CHIGO’S 1980S GAY PARADISE, THE BELMONT ROCKS

“I thk is reflective of people like me and that’s jt any queer space on the north si, ” says Kalob Gossett, a lol HIV/AIDS tor who is a whe, cisgenr gay man. Most queer beach, like many longstandg gay bars, were purposefully difficult to get to or outright hidn.

There’s power a gay man beg able to wear a thong whout the glar of nearby straight fai; a butch woman feelg safe wearg board shorts and a prsn top, rather than a biki; a trans person proudly displayg surgery srs like badg of honor; havg a space where we ci the l of engagement.

Chigo do not e to md as an immediate gay statn, but that ’s a big shame, bee this is a metropolis that will appeal to cy has a skyle to rival Manhattan, art mms and public squar, jazz, pop and dance mic aplenty and a superlative theatre tradn. It also has a nightlife to rival New York, the dynamism of LA and a gay past to match San Francis’s. Friendly gay sceneThe scene is void of snobbishns and ’s ls rg-fenced between var gay trib than elsewhere.

GREAT GAY-IENDLY BEACH - KATHY OSTERMAN BEACH

YTo p all, wh a total of 36 kms of laki beach and summer temperatur equal to those the Mederranean, Chigo n rightly lay claim to beg a major beach statn wag to be more about Gay Chigo and plan a gay honeymoon the USA. It is apt that the gay beach Chigo, popularly lled Hollywood Beach, is officially named after Kathy Osterman, the Chigo polician who fought for gay rights the 1980s.

It is arguably one of the bt kept secrets gay beach is full of pure whe sand that, on a sunny Midwt day, mak you believe that you are Florida rather than Illois.

If you e by tra, take the red le, get off at Bryn Mawr (six stops north of Belmont at Boystown) and aga walk unr Lakhore Drive towards St Andrews church and the you reach the beach, head to the southern part close to the pier which is exclively gay. Named after the Chigo polician who fought for gay rights the 1980s, Kathy Osterman Beach is a gay beach at the northernmost tip of Lln Park at Ardmore Avenue Chigo. The southern part close to the pier is exclively gay.