Clark St.Ĭhicago’s three coliseums, no longer in existence, were indoor arenas used for sports and exhibitions- and, from the 1930s, drag balls and gay dances.
Remembering Gerber, in Camp’s eyes, is a way to commemorate LGBTQ ancestors. In 1925, the police raided Gerber’s house, arrested him and shut down the society.Įven though the legal case against Gerber ultimately was dismissed, it cost Gerber his $600 life savings and his job at the post office for “conduct unbecoming a postal worker.” Gerber, a Bavarian immigrant lauded as the grandfather of the American gay movement, created the group in 1924 and named it the Society for Human Rights in an effort to organize gays nationwide. It was designated a national historic landmark in 2015 - the second in the nation, after the Stonewall Inn, to get that designation because of its significance in LGBTQ history. Granted that status by the city in 2001, it’s where Henry Gerber secretly organized the nation’s first gay emancipation group. The Henry Gerber House is one in a row of protected landmark Queen Anne-style houses in Old Town. It’s to celebrate not only the lives that were lost, but also those that survived and the coming together of a community to endure the disease.” Women & Children First 5233 N. Keehnen says it’s “not a memorial garden. The garden also will include a walkway with a chronology of the AIDS epidemic in Chicago. Landscaping still needs to be done, and the garden is expected to be fully open sometime in the fall, according to Keehnen, who works as a historian for the project. It so far includes “Self-Portrait,” a green sculpture, standing 30 feet tall, created by artist and AIDS activist Keith Haring of a man that’s visible from Lake Shore Drive. As a result, Keehnen and others helped envision an AIDS Garden to be built where the Belmont Rocks were. Tom Tunney (44th), who is gay, paid notice. In 2003, the city paved over the Belmont Rocks, and Keehnen posted on Facebook bemoaning this loss.
From sun-tanning to having picnic lunches, the limestone blocks offered a safe place for queer Chicagoans to congregate. The Belmont Rocks lining the lakefront between Diversey Harbor and Belmont Harbor were a place for forging and solidifying friendships in the LGBTQ community, says Keehnen, 60, who lives in Rogers Park. They were simply so important because, if there isn’t a place for community to happen, community doesn’t happen.” AIDS Garden 3003 N. “It’s not just to drink and pick people up.
Since the early days of Boystown, the bars and nightlife that can be found along Halsted Street and nearby have been a magnet for LGBTQ people, according to Keehnen. Halsted St., and Sidetrack Chicago, 3349 N.
Within a couple of blocks are other longstanding nightlife handouts Roscoe’s Tavern, 3356 N. Halsted St., a tavern in the heart of Boystown that recently was sold that’s a landmark in the neighborhood. Running generally from the lake to west of Clark Street between Irving Park Road and Diversey Avenue, it’s where you can find some of the oldest and best-known gay bars in Chicago.Īmong them: Little Jims, 3501 N. A hub of gay-owned businesses and bustling nightlife, the heavily LGBTQ North Side neighborhood known as Boystown received the city's official designation as a gay village in 1997.