Neighborhood News: During Pride Month, and throughout the year, LGBTQ+ Chicago is #1
As Chicago celebrates Pride Month with parades, special events, and special recognitions, it’s worth noting that the City of Chicago has been a welcoming place for the LGBTQ+ community since its beginning, creating safe spaces since the early 20th Century, and moving to the forefront of LGBTQ+ rights.
Chicago’s inclusivity is a key reason why a recent study, reported by Timeout.com, Chicago was named the 2025 #1 LGBTQ+ city, with many welcoming “gayborhoods” and an active LGTBQ+ presence. As Choose Chicago notes, Northalsted, formerly known as Boystown, is the oldest officially recognized gay neighborhood in the U.S. Andersonville is another safe, celebratory neighborhood for the LGBTQ+ community.
20th Century Acceptance, Community by Community
According to the blogsite ChicagoDetours.com, though The Loop wasn’t a gay neighborhood per se, it was a place gay people could meet each other.
The blogsite notes that certain high-end hotels and private men’s clubs developed the reputation as “cruising” spots for men. The bar at the Palmer House Hotel was one such spot. Another was the Chicago Athletic Association, an elite private men’s club that opened in 1893. It boasted 100 furnished private rooms and a full complement of athletic facilities.
According to a CBS News report, in 1924, German immigrant Henry Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights, which taught others about the gay community and attempted to change laws that made homosexuality illegal.
The organization only lasted a short time before authorities shut it down, but gay and lesbian Chicagoans were visible in the 1920s, finding acceptance among the artists, poets and bohemians of Towertown, an area of the Near North Side just west of the Magnificent Mile by the Water Tower. Lectures and discussions on homosexuality were found on the agenda in salons and speakeasies, and female impersonator shows were popular, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago.
Around the same time on the Near South Side, a substantial African-American gay and lesbian community also formed, frequenting the cabarets in Bronzeville.
By the second half of the 20th century, gay communities were established on the Near North Side, Old Town, Hyde Park, and a part of the Lakeview neighborhood centered at Clark Street, Diversey Parkway and Broadway known as New Town. As the 20th Century progressed, Illinois was also the first state to decriminalize sodomy (in 1961). In 1993, Cook County forbade discrimination based on sexual orientation
LGBTQ+ gets Political, Provides Social Services
According to Wikipedia sources, effective LGBT political involvement began in the 1960s alongside the civil rights movement, with organizations such as the Chicago Gay Liberation Network, Mattachine Midwest, and ACT UP/Chicago.
In 1965, Mattachine Midwest was founded as a gay rights organization following the Fun Lounge police raid the previous year. The Mattachine Midwest contributed both politically and socially to help the discrimination against LGBT groups, raising awareness about bar raids and police entrapment. The organization also created a monthly newsletter that provided LGBT groups in Chicago sources of gay community news, and provided a phone number for the LGBT community to find legal, medical, counseling, employment or religious help if needed. In June 1970, according to Do312.com, Chicago was one of four cities in the US that led a Gay Liberation March to commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York. The rally started in Washington Park also known as Bughouse Square, a popular site for political and artistic discourse as well as a cruising area for queer men. In 1984, journalist Tracy Baim founded the Windy City Times, the official “voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.”
During the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was at its peak in the United States, including in Chicago. On September 9, 1985, the Chicago House was incorporated into Illinois as a project to house those suffering from the disease. A few years later, Chicago honored the victims of AIDS through “The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt”, which can be found in Navy Pier.
In the Millennium: Gay Rights are Human Rights (and vice versa)
In 2004, Illinois fully banned discrimination based on sexual orientation through the Illinois Human Rights Act. In 2007, the Center on Halsted opened its doors on Halsted Street and Waveland Avenue, bringing in over one thousand people per day. To further protect LGBT rights, in 2010, the Safe School Improvement Act was passed, prohibiting bullying or violence on the basis of discrimination, including for sexual and gender identity. In 2013, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed off on the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act. In doing this, Illinois became the 16th state to fully allow same-sex marriage. The first couple to do so were Vernita Gray, and her partner, Patricia Ewert, marrying on November 27, 2013. In 2019, Lori Lightfoot became at age 56 the first black woman and gay mayor of Chicago. She was inaugurated on May 20, 2019. In June 2021, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the AIDS Garden Chicago; the park officially opened on June 2, 2022.
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s the Chicago
