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He suggested the creation of another gay bar, which he said would serve as a meeting and hangout space for the community. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Myers)īarnes said there need to be more spaces in C-U dedicated to LGBTQ+ people. I’m proud of who I am.” A photo of the interior of Chester Street Bar is shown above. “I’m not gay when gay pride comes around or when (the) Champaign (Uniting Pride) Center does their gay pride. “And everybody wants us to spend money and support their places, but do they really support us?”Īs a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Myers said her pride doesn’t go away once September ends. Though businesses profit during Pride month by catering to the LGBTQ+ community, Myers questioned the genuineness of the support. After September is over, she said, the number of LGBTQ+ events dwindles “and everybody goes back to their normal life.” She said the number of LGBTQ+ events in C-U increases in September when the community celebrates Pride. “So, it’s just like a lot of the spaces are going away, and I don’t know why or if it’s because people can go wherever they want to go now whereas they couldn’t before,” Myers said. Now with the internet and people’s more inclusive mindsets, spaces dedicated to LGBTQ+ people aren’t as essential to the vitality of the community. ”Buy somebody some drinks, talk to somebody, get a phone number because there was no Grindr, there was no Tinder, there was no computers or anything, so you had to go out.” “If you wanted to pick somebody up back in the day, you had to go the gay bar and work for it,” she said.
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Drag queens, more people like me and a business owner who hopefully identifies as some letter of the rainbow.” “It’s just, I just know when I walk in, it’s gonna be gay. “It doesn’t mean that straight people can’t come,” she said. Myers said gay bars used to be the only place for LGBTQ+ people to meet. Currently, he is semi-retired and works in retail. He attributed the end of his DJ career partly to the closure of multiple local gay bars.
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Here we are in the 21st century, (and) we got nothing.” It’s sad because back in the ‘70s, we had so much. He worked there from 1983-84 but has previous experience working at other gay bars in central Illinois.īarnes said that when he worked as a DJ, C-U’s gay bar scene was thriving with four or five simultaneously active clubs. Doug Barnes is the former DJ at Chester Street. Myers isn’t the only person who has noticed an absence of gay bars. that “ cater to men and mixed-gender LGBTQ crowds. An NBC article published last April said there are only around 1,000 bars in the U.S. , a stark contrast from the estimated 200 bars that existed in the 1980s. 13 article published by The Lily, only 21 lesbian bars remain in the U.S. While Halsted Street is Boystown's main commercial district, you'll find additional shops, great ethnic restaurants, bars, dance clubs and several theater companies along nearby Belmont Avenue and Clark Street.According to an Oct.
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The Legacy Walk can be found along North Halsted Street, between Belmont Avenue and Grace Street.īoystown is adjacent to Wrigleyville and the broader Lakeview / Lakeview East neighborhoods. The walk is dedicated to combating anti-gay stereotyping and bullying, and is the world's only outdoor LGBTQ history museum. The Legacy Walk is an outdoor display consisting of 40 bronze and rainbow colored memorial pylons which celebrate LGBTQ contributions to history and culture. While exploring Boystown, be sure to do The Legacy Walk. You'll find Chicago's largest concentration of gay bars and clubs along this stretch of Halsted Street. It's home to Chicago’s Gay Pride parade as well as some of Chicago’s largest street festivals. Halsted Street from Belmont Avenue to Addison Street is the heart of Chicago’s LGBTQ community.