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We're the heterosexuals who believe that homosexuals deserve equal respect and equal rights. What's that noise I hear? It's the sound of us heterosexuals squirming. Tribune columnist Mary Schmich wrote in August of that year: Jane Byrne was the first mayor to officially recognize the event, issuing a Gay Pride Parade Day proclamation in 1981. In 1997, Mayor Daley declared the six-block stretch of Halsted from Grace to Belmont the first official gay neighborhood in America. More than a few Chicagoans protested the idea. It is most visible in the New Town area on the North Side, with its string of gay bars and bathhouses that are commonly the centerpiece of media coverage. Today, Chicago's gay population is about half a million, though obviously no one has taken a census. As Chicago noted in 1983, in an article about gay life here: The first gay bar on Halsted Street, Little Jim's, opened in 1975, and others soon followed, among them the Loading Dock (now the Kit Kat Club), Christopher Street (now Hydrate), and Sidetrack (opened in 1982 and still in business). Current residents despised the influx of overpriced stores and "young singles looking for action." (That's a quote from an oddly prescient Tribune column in 1971, “New Town Charm Loses to Glitter.”) Magit opened a boutique at 2900 North Broadway Street. New Town first entered the Chicago lexicon around 1969, when high-end fashion retailer Paul B. At that point, the parade had moved closer to its currently location, starting at Addison and Halsted, in an area then referred to as "New Town." That number would swell to "thousands" by 1980. The "gay liberationists" leading the charge numbered 300, according to the Tribune. It was Broadway and Diversey for a while, then up to Halsted Street."īy 1973, the parade had moved its starting point to Belmont Harbor. "Fifty years ago, River North was where the heart of the community was," Baim says. "Over the decades it began to move north. The Tribune ran a 75-word blurb about the event on the third page of its June 28 edition, noting that it ended with festgoers circling the Picasso statue in the plaza and shouting, "Gay power to gay people."Īfter that, the parade tended to follow the gay community. That day, about 150 people marched from Clark and Walton Streets to the Daley Center (then known as the Civic Center). Department of Interior declared the Henry Gerber House in Old Town a National Historic Landmark, the second-ever LGBT-related property to earn such a distinction.) But while Chicago would continue to see gay activists rise to prominence in the coming decades, the first gay pride parade wouldn't be until June 27, 1970. Way back in 1924, Chicago’s Henry Gerber formed "the nation's first chartered LGBT rights organization." (Just last week, the U.S. When the "Gay Liberation Movement" organized its first-ever march in the city in 1970 on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Boystown as you know it didn't exist.īefore diving in, it's important to note that the gay community in Chicago took root long before Stonewall. I think people want to keep it there as long as it makes sense, but if there are some incidents that happen this Sunday…we'll see what happens this year."Īnd while it may strike some as odd to move the gay pride parade out of Boystown, the event didn't actually start there.
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Patrick's Day parade. The city has to treat us like it treats everyone else. "Every other parade is judged by its merits and its problems. "Our community can’t expect that we have exceptionalism," Baim says. Police also arrested 45 people throughout the day. The change will be decided early next year, but it wouldn't come as a surprise to Tracy Baim, the publisher of Windy City Media Group and author of Out and Proud in Chicago. The primary reason for the change? Crowd control. While the first gay pride parade had only a few hundred attendees, last year's march drew one million people to the route. According to DNAinfo, the parade is on the verge of outgrowing the neighborhood and could move downtown starting in 2016.
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But the raucous Pride celebration that is sure to follow could also be the last that Boystown will see. The Supreme Court ruled this week-just in time for Pride-that same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states. The 46th annual Chicago Pride Parade will be held this Sunday at noon, and this year's edition could be special for a few reasons.