Movg To LGBT Chigo, Illois? How To Fd Your Perfect Gay Neighborhood!

Contents:

• THE LUCKY HORSHOE IS CHIGO’S MOST DISTCTIVE GAY NIGHTLIFE SPOT
• CHIGO GAY NIGHTLIFE GUI: DOWNTOWN & SOUTH SI
• CHIGO GAY BARS AND CLUBS
• GAY NIGHTLIFE BOYSTOWN, CHIGO: BT BARS, CLUBS, & MORE
• MOVG TO LGBT CHIGO, ILLOIS? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
• CHIGO GAY NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORY
• IN CHIGO, A NEW APPROACH TO GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN WH PROSTATE CANCER
• KEV MAXEN, JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH, OUT AS FIRST OPENLY GAY MALE ACH NFL
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JAGS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE NFL COACH TO PUBLICLY COME OUT AS GAY
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

THE LUCKY HORSHOE IS CHIGO’S MOST DISTCTIVE GAY NIGHTLIFE SPOT

However, as a gateway for immigrants s past, this gay-iendly Chigo neighborhood has always remaed welg to newers of any background.

While you won’t fd the same flamboyant nightlife scene as Boystown, Pilsen has plenty to offer those seekg the bt gay areas Chigo. Although Chigo has among the greatt selectn of gay nightspots the untry, the majory of the hangouts - om bars and diss to LGBT-popular rtrants - are popular mixed rintial-mercial neighborhoods on the north si of the cy.

CHIGO GAY NIGHTLIFE GUI: DOWNTOWN & SOUTH SI

Fortunately, there are a uple of very fun gay nightspots right the heart of downtown, not to mentn an almost endls supply of terrific rtrants, many of them wh mixed gay/straight followgs. Addnally, on the cy's South Si, you'll fd a pair of gay bars that ter predomantly to Ain-Amerin patrons, Club Espe and Jeffery Pub.

It's also a b of a distance to reach the bars, but they're both legendary nightspots that are well-worth checkg out, pecially given that many of the natn's gay Ain-Amerin hangouts have steadily disappeared over the years. Also take a look at the Chigo Gay Bathhoe and Sex Club Gui, which has plenty of advice on where to meet guys lookg to hookup around Chigo. 75th St., 773-667-6454) is one of two long-nng gay bars on Chigo's Southsi, terg largely to the cy's sizable Ain-Amerin GLBT crowd (the other is the Jefey Pub).

CHIGO GAY BARS AND CLUBS

Jeffery Blvd., 773-363-8555) opened on this cy's South Shore more than 40 years ago and has been ground zero for the cy's Ain-Amerin gay muny ever sce. One of the longt-nng gay clubs the Midwt, the que fabulo Baton Show Lounge is also one of the untry's most illtr female impersonatn barets.

Our gay and lbian bars have a ltle b of somethg for everyone, wh late-night loung, dance clubs, burlque and drag shows, and long-standg neighborhood waterg hol almost every rner of the cy. The South Shore staple is also one of Chigo’s first black-owned gay bars, makg all the more meangful for the spot’s many regulars. Come for trivia, the ee Sunday night buffet, and the themed dance parti — then e back the next morng for bnch at attached sister rtrant ClosetYou n’t talk about gay bars Chigo whout talkg about Northalsted (also known as Boystown).

Wh a rich history of LGBT activism and a flourishg muny, Chigo offers one of the bt gay nightlife scen the untry, particularly Boystown. It's here where you'll fd the hight ncentratn of gay-iendly bars and clubs, where everyone is wele to be themselv and take pri who they are and who they love.

GAY NIGHTLIFE BOYSTOWN, CHIGO: BT BARS, CLUBS, & MORE

Sitrack: This immensely popular gay vio bar is a by multi-level bar that appeals to gay men and lbians of all ag, although do tend to lean towards the preppier si. Rose's Tavern: One of the great legends of gay Chigo nightlife, this food-servg bar has remaed fun, relevant, and by sce opened 1987.

Berl: A iendly dance club on the by Belmont Avenue, Berl has been a gay nightlife mastay Chigo for many years, s succs due largely to s e-one-e-all vibe. All the gay bars, rtrants, and clubs will have somethg special planned durg this month and the fect rabow-spir spreads across Chigo.

Why we love Northalsted (also known as Boystown) is one of the most untry’s clive LGBTQ+ muni and the olst officially regnized gay neighborhood the Uned Stat. In the tearooms and speakeasi of this district, lbians and gay men om throughout the cy and the Midwt met and socialized wh lol. The Dill Pickle Club on Tooker Alley hosted group discsns and bat on homosexualy and lbianism, while the Bally Hoo Cafe on North Halsted featured male and female impersonatn acts, as well as a ntt for cross-drsed patrons.

MOVG TO LGBT CHIGO, ILLOIS? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Yet while the public spac played an important role the nstctn of Chigo's lbian and gay muny, private parti and personal works remaed the foundatn of gay culture. One such work head by Henry Gerber, a postal clerk and Bavarian immigrant to Chigo, found the natn's earlit documented gay rights anizatn 1924; the Society for Human Rights published two pamphlets before s members were arrted and the group disband.

CHIGO GAY NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORY

Buildg on the succs of the terracial drag balls that had been held at the Colism Annex on the Near South Si sce the 1920s, the Fnie's Ball beme a celebrated Halloween event on the South Si, drawg thoands of gay and lbian participants and heterosexual onlookers well to the 1960s. Among the bt known were Waldman's, a gay male bar n by a married Jewish uple on Michigan Avenue near Randolph Street, and the Rose-El-Inn, a lbian bar on Clark Street near Divisn.

and bars of this district supplemented the Near North Si venu as gatherg spots for both gay men and the soldiers and sailors who swarmed the cy durg. Durg the 1950s and 1960s, the Near North Si and Near South Si remaed important lbian and gay neighborhoods, and new enclav formed.

The gay leather muny also alced durg this perd—first, around Omar's Grill the Loop, and the early 1960s at the Gold Coast, Chigo's first gay leather bar. Raids on lbian and gay bars beme more equent, and thoands of women and men were arrted, both the bars and on the streets, for beg mat of disorrly ho (a label the thori applied to lbian and gay bars) or for vlatg the municipal ordance agast cross-drsg.

IN CHIGO, A NEW APPROACH TO GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN WH PROSTATE CANCER

Although Illois beme the first state the natn to legalize private, nsensual, homosexual relatns 1961, the thori remaed tent on elimatg public exprsns of homosexualy; the lol media assisted this enavor by publishg the nam and addrs of those arrted raids. Earlier lol chapters of the Mattache Society and the Dghters of Bilis, two natnal homophile anizatns, had been short-lived and largely social, but 1964 a more polilly active Mattache Midwt was found. crackdowns, and wh the help of lbian attorney Pearl Hart and others, aid the fense of gay men and lbians who had been entrapped on morals charg or arrted bar raids.

This group sponsored a cywi dance at the Colism Annex 1970, the first public lbian and gay dance (asi om the annual Halloween drag balls) held Chigo.

KEV MAXEN, JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH, OUT AS FIRST OPENLY GAY MALE ACH NFL

Shortly thereafter, the universy group merged wh the newly found Chigo Gay Liberatn (CGL) and led a succsful picketg mpaign to force the Normandy on Rh Street to bee the first gay bar Chigo to obta a dance license and to perm same-sex dancg.

A Women's Cc and a Black Cc formed wh CGL to addrs the specific ncerns of lbians and black gay men, later breakg away to bee Chigo Lbian Liberatn and the Third World Gay Revolutn, rpectively. Later that year, morate members of CGL tablished the Chigo Gay Alliance, which operated a short-lived muny center on Wt Elm Street and lobbied for the passage of a lol gay rights ordance forbiddg discrimatn hog and employment.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

By the early 1980s, a new gay and lbian mercial and rintial center had emerged along North Halsted Street Lake View, and Augt 1982 area merchants lnched the Northalsted Market Days, an annual neighborhood street fair that soon rivaled June's Gay Pri ftivi.

Thoands of lol gay men succumbed to this disease, which also fueled a new wave of discrimatn and hate crim agast gay men and lbians.

Inaquate public fundg to fight AIDS led the Howard Brown Memorial Health Center, which had been found 1974 as a venereal disease clic associated wh Gay Horizons (now, Horizons Communy Servic), to redirect s servic toward AIDS preventn and treatment. As muny anizatns distributed safer-sex pamphlets and ndoms bars, Dyk and Gay Men Agast Reprsn/Racism/Reagan (DAGMAR) began a mpaign of ant AIDS activism early 1987. In the 1990s other activist anizatns, such as Queer Natn and the Lbian Avengers, led protts agast antigay vlence and ntued police harassment, anized “queer nights” at popular heterosexual nightclubs, and mpaigned to raise awarens of lbian health ncerns, cludg breast ncer.

JAGS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE NFL COACH TO PUBLICLY COME OUT AS GAY

Mayor Harold Washgton appoted the Advisory Council on Gay and Lbian Issu 1987, employg a full-time liaison to the lbian and gay muny. In 1991 this group found the natn's first cy-supported Gay and Lbian Hall of Fame, honorg the liv and work of several muny activists and anizatns each year.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

Larry McKeon, a former mayoral liaison to the muny, was elected Illois' first openly gay state legislator 1996, reprentg a district cludg.