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The LGBTQ community in Chicago is one of the United States' most prominent, especially within the Midwest, alongside those of San Francisco and New York City, and holds a significant role in the progression of gay rights in the country. With a population of around 3 million, Chicago is the third biggest city in the US, and around 150,000 of those people identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, questioning, or other.[1]
Gay neighborhoods in Chicago have existed since the 1920s, when there was homosexual nightlife in Towertown, adjacent to the Water Tower. Increasing rents during the middle of the 20th century forced gay-friendly establishments steadily northwards, moving through Old Town and Lincoln Park along Clark Street and on to Boystown.
Boystown presently serves as the best-known Chicago gayborhood and as a center of its LGBT culture.[2] In recent years, the area has been criticized for focusing on "affluent white gay men," rather than the broader LGBTQ community.[3] Gentrification has pushed many LGBT people to reside ever further north into Uptown, Edgewater and Rogers Park.[4]
- ^ Ali, Tanveer (March 30, 2018). "146,000 Chicago adults identify as LGBT: city study". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
- ^ Blackwell, Elizabeth Canning (2012). Frommer's Chicago. Frommer's Color Complete (17th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. p. 351. ISBN 978-1-118-16241-5 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Rhodes, Adam (November 25, 2020). "'We're not asking for any more than what we are already deserved'". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on September 27, 2023. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ "Watch out Boystown, Rogers Park becoming the new gayborhood". Chicago Tribune. February 24, 2012. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2022.