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Notably, gay bars not only developed as entertainment venues for the LGBT+ community, but also as essential community spaces and activism grounds as the LGBT+ movement grew. The LGBT+ community in Chicago also began opening its first health centers, community centers, and bars at the beginning of the ‘70s, increasingly coalescing around the area that would eventually be known as Boystown.Īs WBEZ described, the modern-day boundaries of Boystown really began to take root in the 1980s, as a variety of gay bars began to pop up along the neighborhood’s now-famous Halsted Street. The aforementioned Stonewall Uprising of 1969 helped spark some of this activism and, a year afterward - in 1970 - Chicago hosted its first-ever pride parade, Chicago magazine noted. Activism at Its RootsĪs LGBT+ communities and individuals were being pushed out of various Chicago neighborhoods in the ‘60s, LGBT+ activism – which derived at least partially out of response to discriminatory treatment from police, politicians, and other city officials, was simultaneously on the rise. However, “slowly, as rents went up and other things happened, the community was forced out," Baim reported. As Tracy Baim, a gay historian and founder of the Windy City Times, described to the outlet, “in the ‘60s gay communities were scattered around the city, with many of the communities … centered around downtown, River North, and Tower Town in the mid part of the last century.” Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood, including the Lake View communities of Triangle Neighbors and Belmont Harbor, was also home to many members of the city’s LGBT+ community in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, the Encyclopedia of Chicago noted.
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Notably, the modern-day Boystown neighborhood resulted after the LGBT+ community was pushed out of other neighborhoods in Chicago in the 1960s, WBEZ reported.
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Following the conclusion of this year’s pride, reflecting on how Boystown was created offers insight into the neighborhood’s unique history – and the challenges and opportunities it faces as it looks to the future.Ĭhicago’s Boystown was officially recognized as the city’s gay district in 1997, though the neighborhood was rich with LGBT+ history for many years prior. Many pride activities are held in LGBT+ neighborhoods, including in Chicago’s Boystown – first-ever gay neighborhood that was officially recognized by a large city. Every June, cities around the world hold pride festivals and parades to honor the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising – the 1969 protests that are often considered the launching point of the modern gay rights movement.
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The building was eventually renovated into The Kerryman bar and restaurant as River North began to gentrify in the 1990s.Pride month is one full of both celebration and commemoration for the LGBT+ community.
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In 1979, the club began hosting newly popular new wave bands after a series of difficulties with their earlier clientele, but owner Rus Cramsie closed the venue in 1982 after encountering financial difficulties. Additionally, numerous bands from Chicago's own music scene began playing shows there before achieving wider success, including Naked Raygun, Strike Under, Ministry, and Skafish. The club promoted shows by national-touring acts including Toxic Reasons, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, and Dead Kennedys. Chicago's first Punk club Le Mer Viper had burned down two months prior, and O'Banion's began to form the epicenter of the city's early Punk scene in what was then a notorious skid row area as well as hire many of the former employees of Le Mer Viper. Named for Chicago Irish gangster Dion O'Banion, it was established in June 1978, inside what had formerly been McGovern’s Saloon (itself an infamous Chicago gangster bar where a young O'Banion had performed as a signing waiter) as well as a series of strip clubs and gay bars. O'Banion's was a nightclub located at 661 N.