The Politics in LGBTQ+: sexual minority is not a homogeneous body but embedded with gender, class, and race issue in its history.
Overview
In the 1960s, simply being a gay person could be the reason to be denied purchasing houses and to be fired in Chicago. To protect the equal rights of LGBTQ+ people and provide a safe place for social activities, protesting movements were organized, and gay business establishments were opened on Halsted Street in the mid 1970s. Gradually, organizers and activists protesting gay equal rights gathered at gay bars to rally the sexual minorities. By the 1990s, Halsted Street had received the nickname Boystown that came from a popular weekly column called “Boys Town” by Rex Wockner (Jackson, & Nargis, 2017). Boystown then expanded its influence for its inclusive environment for the sexual minorities and grew the economic and political power of this group. However, Boystown was also denigrated as perpetuating sexism and racism because of its gendered nickname and its unfriendly environment to colored people.
However, Boystown was also denigrated as perpetuating sexism and racism because of its gendered nickname and its unfriendly environment to colored people.
The history of gay neighborhood in Chicago
At the time when homosexual people were systematically discriminated and even treated as criminals, the first Chicago Pride Parade in 1970 started in Bughouse Square and went down Michigan Avenue to the Civic Center. This parade symbolized the occurrence of the modern gay rights movement in Chicago. In later years, the Pride Parade took place in the Clark and Diversey area and Belmont Harbor. Eventually, the parade settled down in the Boystown area in the early 1980s. The political and social network of the Chicago Gay Alliance grew beyond the march. The gay community was able to build up its organization and social network to combat the police and other social discriminatory forces thanks to the establishment of the gay neighborhood. To this extent, Boystown area was one of the the most important gay neighborhoods that transformed the LGBTQ+ people into a mutual support group.
The establishment of gay bars on Halsted Street facilitated the assembly of gay people in that area. According to Art Johnston, a community organizer and political activist, having a cluster of gay owned businesses in the Lakeview neighborhood was important because it helped gay people feel like they had a place where they belonged (Jackson, & Nargis, 2017). The North Halsted street gradually developed an LGBTQ identity as it continued to attract more gay businesses and residents. Afterwards, more and more gay people moved to this area because they found inexpensive housing prices in this LGBTQ friendly area. The gay population grew quickly within a few years.
Property ownership, an expanding merchant association, growing population density, as well as registered voters increased the economic and political power of this gay district. Local government had to take the demand of gay people into consideration when making public policies and running elections. Johnston commented that “There is no question that gay marriage would not exist if we had not been through those horrors which transformed our community. We had to change ourselves. We had to learn to become a real community. We had to take care of ourselves, because nobody else was going to. And we did (Jackson, & Nargis, 2017).” Tracy Baim, a gay historian and co-founder and publisher of Windy City Times, one of Chicago’s LGBTQ newspapers, said, “I am not really a bar person, but I covered so many events in the bars because they were really our de facto community centers.” To this extent, the gathering places in Boystown contributed to the realization of the political petition asking for the equal right for marriage of homosexual people, which has been one of the most monumental moments in the gay rights movement.
The gendered nickname and marginalization of colored people
According to the petition launched by Devlyn Camp, a queer podcast producer, the “Boystown” nickname began in the 1990s as a joke and now this name is used by the Northalsted Business Alliance as a marketing tool. This nickname is said to perpetuate the existing social exclusion that deter many LGBTQ people from the neighborhood (Washington, 2020). This name also, according to the petition, extends the “systemic transphobia, racism and sexism that has plagued our neighborhood for decades (Camp, 2020).”
Not only in Chicago but in many of the country’s most well-known and largest gay villages, gay communities are often perceived as appealing primarily to gay, white men (Friedmann, 2019). Such preference somehow challenges the inclusivity of the districts which aim at promoting multi-cultures. The most cited criticism of Boystown is the racism there. According to Johnston, some people, especially younger queer people of color have often said that Halsted is too white. The director of UIC’s gender and women’s studies program Jennie Brier commented that the gayborhood is not outside of the context that racism is structurally part of Chicago (Jackson, & Nargis, 2017). In the early 2000s, some gay bars were asking multiple forms of ID from black and brown patrons, a return to similar racist behavior within the gay community decades earlier (Jackson, & Nargis, 2017).
Overall, Boystown has a rich history and carries on missions to promote sexual diversity. The living conditions of LGBTQ+ people have been tremendously ameliorated through generations of activists’ endeavors. However, Boystown is criticized for its unfriendly environment to females and colored people. This has been a long-lasting issue in the context of racial segregation in Chicago. We need more efforts to make Boystown a more inclusive environment for all LGBTQ+ people.
References
Camp Devlyn. “Northalsted Business Alliance to Stop Promoting ‘Boystown’ Nickname.” June 2020.
Steven Jackson, Nargis Jason. (2017, May 7). Making Chicago’s Boystown. WBEZ91.5CHICAGO. Retrieved from https://interactive.wbez.org/curiouscity/makingboystown/
Washington Laura. (2020, July 19). ‘Boystown’ needs a name that reflects real change. Chicago SunTimes. Retrieved from https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2020/7/19/21328926/laura-washington-boystown-north-halsted-suntimes
Friedmann Sarah. (2019, July 25). Examining the Past, Present, and Future of Chicago’s First Gay Neighborhood. Daily Beast. Retrieved from https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-history-of-chicagos-boystown-examining-the-past-present-and-future-of-the-citys-iconic-gay-neighborhood