“About two years ago, I moved into my home that has a clawfoot tub. While lesbian bars may have almost vanished, the new generation has found its way in reinventing spaces to include new communities that need their own space. Now you have much more powerful lesbian pop-up spaces or just queer pop-up spaces. Originally kind of being in homes and moving around that way. Andie explains, “Lesbian spaces have always kind of leaned towards pop-up events. Today, there has been a shift towards pop-up parties and events geared toward the queer community. The combination of lesbians being more assimilated into society, the availability of technology to connect people, and the shift toward intersectional identities, rather than identifying simply as gay or lesbian has created a community that does not rely on lesbian bars like in the past. So that's why I would argue that we need more queer bars and not more lesbian space.” But as we move forward and we find our intersectionalities in the corners of our community that need us most, that model doesn't work and we have to expand. And thus we have lesbian bars and we have gay bars.
“When you start, you need to find your people and protect them and stay together. We need queer bars and queer spaces,” says Andie. I would argue that we don't necessarily need lesbian bars. “There's also a shift towards queer as opposed to a lesbian bar. Looking deeper, Andie argues that as people have been able to identify in ways that were not prevalent in the past, there has been a shift in what spaces are needed. Yes, technology has brought people closer than ever, but that’s only part of it.
And there was a feeling that lesbians needed to set up a space where they were safe, where they could be open, because, before this time it was very dangerous to be a lesbian.” Mary Ann adds, “there was harassment of people who were different. Lesbians were harassed in bars across Chicago and so, following the spirit of the LGBTQ movement and the Lesbian Feminist movement, lesbian bars thrived. The underlying notion that if your interests are not properly represented, you can create new spaces that do serve those interests was key to increasing the number of lesbian bars in the 1970’s and 1980’s.įor lesbians, being open and visible in mainstream society was not an option. “Lesbian Feminism developed kind of as an alternative to those other movements.” Thus, another reactionary movement was born. Similarly, the gay rights movements may have gained notoriety, but lesbians felt that they were left out of the conversation too often. Yet, these new women’s organizations did not give equal voice to all women– lesbians found themselves left out of the subsequent women’s movements. So women began to set up their own organizations.” So they said, ‘Why are we doing this for someone else?’ Let’s do it for our own interests.
“They were very capable and experienced in organizing. This lack of efficacy in other movements led to the creation of women’s own movements in an effort to advance interests that were largely ignored. 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.“Women have always been activists,” Mary Ann asserts, “but women who participated in those movements often felt that their voice wasn’t taken seriously and the issues that specifically affected women weren’t being addressed.”
GAY BARS CHICAGO HASLTED FREE
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. Several of Chicago’s queer event collectives are set on partying with a purpose, especially those with Black queers at the helm. 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. 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.