Because if you live there, you'd better have a stack of Benjamins.īy the time the name "Boystown" stopped being an ironic name and was embraced by the business council, the "boys" had fled to lower rents. Might as well call it "Richmond" or "Benjamin Village". Boys haven't been able to move to Boystown in a long, long time. The people who came there came to party- and that meant young guys.Īs far as preserving the name, whatever. I'm just saying that I didn't see them move into the Halsted corridor early on.
![side trax gay bar chicago side trax gay bar chicago](https://fthmb.tqn.com/gexmOvj0XT0MVeb4-N9TqCPFS3I=/960x0/filters:no_upscale()/Sidetrack_Chicago-56a351415f9b58b7d0d174c8.jpg)
I don't mean that Lesbians and Trans folks aren't important to Chicago gay history. The business I recall that anchored the area (Pleasure Chest and others), I recall as owned by gay men. Most older gays were in bars scattered around the neighborhoods.
![side trax gay bar chicago side trax gay bar chicago](https://www.chicagomag.com/wp-content/archive/galleries/2879/73172-JefferyPub_edit2JefferyPub_01.jpg)
There wasn't a trans presence that I remember. I could be an unreliable witness, since I was only looking out for boys. Who knows, maybe I was looking past them. I don't recall a single Lesbian bar there. all basically frat parties gone overtime. But for the most part it was a strip of gay bars that perpetually looked like a beach town on spring break: Roscoe's, Side Trax, Berlin. One or two bars catered to an older crowd (the long gone Manhole, for example).
![side trax gay bar chicago side trax gay bar chicago](https://www.tripsavvy.com/thmb/R0-gr3dg9Z3kS7X79NKg-YY9kGI=/1229x922/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Baton_Show_Chicago-56a3513b3df78cf7727cdfe1.jpg)
But it was called that to reflect how it appeared by 1990: wall-to-wall boys. People are complaining that it's gender-specific. And they sorta resented the "Boystown" moniker at the time.Īs I recall, the name started ironically. I knew people who grew up there (as opposed to gay men who moved there). I think it was sometimes "Newtown", but I haven't heard that name in decades. So the official neighborhood was always "Lakeview".