This list details Chicago’s top venues, crews, and parties aimed at connecting with queer community, crushing a cocktail (or five), and twisting the night away. BOYSTOWN The oldest gay bar in Boystown is closing its doors for good Thursday night after 45 years in business. to be officially recognized as a gay neighbourhood.
These organizations are going beyond designing safe spaces for queer Black folks to dance, make out, and meet-they’re creating moments that decenter the white gaze (not to mention white gays), showcasing the artistic talents and sweet joy of Chicago’s Black queer, trans, and gender non-conforming residents and curating welcoming opportunites for folks to get down free from inhibition and fear. Boystown in Chicago is a vibrant community famous for its ground-breaking role as the first in the U.S. This cash-only gay bar and club in Chicago is basically a speakeasy for the LGBTQ+ community, except, instead of being subterranean, it’s vertically smushed between a psychic shop and an Armenian restaurant. Several of Chicago’s queer event collectives are set on partying with a purpose, especially those with Black queers at the helm. Chicago’s Boystown is to Toronto’s Gay Village or to San Francisco’s Castro, or to Seoul’s Homo Hill, the epicenter of 10.0 magnitude of queerosityJust like any other gay areas, Boystown is no different: rainbows everywhere. Read More: 8 Popular Bars You Need to Visit in Boystown Photo Credit: Second Story Bar Facebook Second Story Bar. Much of that is thanks to the hard work of folks like the Chicago Black Drag Council and countless other queer Black nightlife prose, all backed up by those of us happily partaking in the scene. While Boystown and Andersonville continue to flourish with queer and queer-friendly businesses on every corner, since last year’s uprisings and calls for accountability in Chicago’s gay nightlife scene, things have started to (slowly) change. Chicago’s newest queer bar and the latest addition to the country’s sadly waning lesbian bar population, Nobody’s Darling has emerged as a go-to. We have some of the most renowned drag performers, incredible queer nightlife artists of all kinds, and queer neighborhoods teeming with bars and clubs. Chicago has transformed into a true queer destination in recent years, no longer looked at as some podunk midwestern city cast in the shadow of coastal meccas like New York and Los Angeles. Gelukkig heeft het Uptown-gebied zijn horizon op het homofront verbreed en beschikt het nu over genoeg bars, clubs en restaurants om een LGBTQ + ontmoetingsplaats te worden genoemd (hoewel nog steeds niet zo populair als een lokale gay-ontmoetingsplaats als Boystown).