I love maps. As a boy, one of my best-loved toys was a wooden map puzzle of the United States. Once I had learned the basic geography of the 48 states ( Alaska and Hawaii hadn't yet become 49 and 50 ) , I would dump the pieces on to the bedroom floor, turn them upside down so I couldn't see their names, and by shape and feel put them into place as fast as I could. I remember being very proud of myself the first time I succeeded in doing this in less than three minutes.
Since my family virtually never left our neighborhood in the Bronx when I was growing up, maps became my point of entry into unfamiliar worlds. As soon as I was old enough to make it on my own to our local branch library, every couple of weeks I hauled a pile of books home. Geography books were among my favorites. I liked the ones that used different colors to identify elevations above sea level; they allowed my mind to picture mountains and valleys and broad plains. Much later, when I began to travel on my own, I pored over maps for weeks and weeks before a trip. By the time I set out in the car or exited from a plane, I felt as if I already knew the place.
To me, maps weren't just two-dimensional descriptors. They set into play an imagination that was vivid and three-dimensional.
This obsession with maps as a way of knowing and understanding the world shaped how I approached my research into Chicago's queer history. As I read through my first set of sources—initially newspapers and organizational newsletters—I didn't just jot down the names of people and organizations and the dates of events. I also paid attention to places. I took note of the location of bars, the route of the yearly Pride Parade, and the site of demonstrations. I recorded the venues where women's music concerts were held in the 1970s, the places where religious groups like MCC and Dignity held their worship services, and the site of softball games and other sports events. Soon I had compiled quite a collection of addresses where queer folks gathered.
I'm something of a technophobe, but with this growing list of places, I found myself excitedly imagining a Web-based map of queer Chicago, with every address marked and coded. A viewer would be able to see the parts of the city that were thick with LGBT locations, and each would be categorized to distinguish different types of places—social, cultural, political, commercial. As one moved decade by decade through time, the map would change, providing a dynamic visual image of shifting, growing, changing neighborhoods and city spaces.
For a variety of reasons, a lot of my early research concentrated on the 1960s and 1970s. As my pile of addresses expanded, one of the first things that jumped out at me was that, today's rainbow towers on Halsted Street notwithstanding, East Lakeview was in no sense destined to become "Boystown." As longtime residents of Chicago know, in the mid-to-late 1960s there was quite a concentration of queer places in the Near North/Old Town neighborhoods. From the river up to North Avenue were bars and clubs and bookstores and theaters and cruising strips. Even into the 1970s, as the new gay and lesbian liberation ethic was spreading, and as more appealing bars and dance clubs opened, this neighborhood kept attracting new businesses.
Once a lesbian and gay press developed in the 1970s—Lavender Woman, Gay Crusader, Gay Life—my sources began doing my work for me. The papers sometimes printed directories of organizations and businesses. They did this in large part to counter the invisibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender life. These directories were a great resource to readers, many of whom might not yet have known where to find the bars and organizations in town. Sometimes, these early papers printed neighborhood maps that pinpointed queer locations around the city. Like the maps that allowed me to visualize the Rocky Mountains before I ever set eyes on them, these maps of Chicago let readers imagine streets full of queers before they had even seen or walked those streets.
One afternoon, as I sat in my cubicle at the Gerber/Hart Library and looked through June issues of Gay Life for reports on Pride Month activities, I came upon a page of these neighborhood maps. There was one of Near North/Old Town, and one of New Town ( today's Lakeview ) , and one of the Far North. And then I found myself stopped in my research tracks. This particular issue of Gay Life also had a map of the South Side.
In one sense, that map was no big deal. The South Side—and, specifically, the African-American South Side—has a rich and interesting queer history. In the 1920s, in the midst of Prohibition, South Side clubs and theaters featured blues singers like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Alberta Hunter, women who were known to love other women and who, at times, performed songs with queer themes. In the 1930s, female impersonators were among the hottest stage shows on the State Street strip, and annual drag balls at Halloween or New Year's sometimes drew crowds in the thousands, even into the 1950s.
In 1969 and 1970, the first gay liberation meetings were held in Hyde Park, making them easily accessible to Southsiders already radicalized by the political upheavals in the black community. And The Chicago Gay Directory for 1974-75, compiled by Michael Bergeron who also published The Gay Crusader, included quite a collection of South Side bars, many of them concentrated in the East 70s along or near Cottage Grove. The Jeffery Pub, the Ebony Room, the Mark III and the Penguin, both for women, and Another Place were just some of the queer-friendly drinking places in the neighborhood. This density of settings suggests an active social world with networks of folks who knew each other.
So, in one sense, that South Side map in the June 25, 1976, issue of Gay Life wasn't a big deal. It was simply pinpointing the gay locales in a particular neighborhood in the city. But, in another sense, I also realized that it's very much a big deal that maps of the South Side—back in the '70s and today as well—so rarely appear in the LGBT press.
Why? Because maps don't simply describe a geography that already exists. They help create new geographies as well. When maps label certain neighborhoods as gay—and thus imply that other neighborhoods aren't—they point people in particular directions. The movement of crowds of people toward North Side neighborhoods every Friday and Saturday night helped make those neighborhoods even gayer. By shaping our imaginations ( "this is where I can find others like me" ) , maps shape our actions, and our actions in turn solidify queer geographies. In a city like Chicago, which has a reputation as one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States, decades of North Side maps in LGBT newspapers and directories help make gay "white" in the popular imagination and render gay and lesbian African Americans invisible.
In the next couple of columns, I'll focus very specifically on South Side developments in the decades when neighborhoods there became definably African-American.
Copyright 2008 John D'Emilio
Freedom to Marry
reception Feb. 5
Lambda Legal and the National Museum of Mexican Art will co-host the 8th Annual Freedom To Marry Reception Thursday, Feb. 5, at The National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th, 6-9 p.m.
The annual reception drew over 400 attendees last year and attracts an incredibly diverse audience from across Chicago, the surrounding counties, and neighboring states. It is one of many ways to engage the LGBT community, local allies, families and friends in a public discourse about marriage equality.
The event is free and includes free tours of museum exhibits, music, hor d'oeuvres and an open bar; in addition, GayCo Productions will be performing scenes from the current show. See www.lambdalegal.org .
Center marks
Black History Month
Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, will host events in celebration of Black History Month in the John Baran Senior Center.
"Black Music: A Celebration of Black History" will take place Saturday, Feb. 7, 1-3 p.m.; LGBT advocate/activist and performer Darrell Gordon will present a historical review of the contributions of African-American musicians. The event is free.
"African-American People to Know" is on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 7-9 p.m. Community members Jacqueline Anderson, Earl "Peacock" Battles, C.C. Carter, Vernita Gray and Patricia McCombs will participate in performances and conversation. This event is also free.
The "OUT-Front and Center: Music Series: Drumming Circle" features members of Lakeside Pride Music Ensembles in an evening of drumming. Admission is $5.
For more info, contact Director of Community and Cultural Affairs Tom Ballentine at tballentine@centeronhalsted.com or call 773-472-6469, ext. 245.
Equality Illinois
gala Feb. 7
Equality Illinois will hold its annual "Justice for All" gala Saturday, Feb. 7, at the Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan.
The event is the largest LGBT-related black-tie gala in the Midwest.
The cocktail reception and silent auction start at 6 p.m., while the dinner and program begin at 8 p.m.
Tickets start at $250 each. Visit www.eqil.org, or contact Joey McDonald at jmcdonald@eqil.org or 773-244-3373.
WSGA's dinner and 'Frenzy' on Feb. 6
The West Suburban Gay Association ( WSGA ) will hold a dinner at RAM Restaurant & Brewery, 1901 McConnor, Schaumburg, on Friday, Feb. 6 at 8 p.m., followed by Hunters Friday Frenzy at 1932 E. Higgins, Elk Grove Village, at 10:30 p.m.
See www.wsga.com for more information.
YPC scholarship
brunch Feb. 7
Youth Pride Center ( YPC ) will hold its Annual Scholarship Brunch Saturday, Feb. 7—National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day—at Circuit ( a newly announced location ) , 3641 N. Halsted, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
YPC youths in college will be out this month gathering support for a project which will culminate in a presentation of checks to them and their parents ( made out to the school ) at the brunch.
Providing a $10 scholarship to a LGBTQ youth of color will result in a youth personally responding with more information. A $20 scholarship allows the donor to attend the brunch, where the youth will perform and be presented with their checks.
Call YPC at 773-808-6503 or e-mail youthpridecenter@gmail.com .
'Sex, Chocolate...'
Feb. 5
"Sex, Chocolate and Your Pelvic Floor" will take place Thursday, Feb. 5, at Flirty Girl Fitness, 1325 W. Randolph, 7-10 p.m.
The event, sponsored by the Women's Health Foundation, will include presentations, gourmet chocolate, champagne, raffle prizes, burlesque dancing, mini-spa treatments and more.
Tickets are $35-$75 each. See www.TotalControlProgram.com .
Lesbian break-up
workshop Feb. 7
Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, is offering a four-week workshop for lesbians who have recently broken up with partners on Saturdays in February, starting Feb. 7, 2-4 p.m. ( The Feb. 21 workshop is 4-6 p.m. )
For more information, contact the lead facilitator, Amber Siler-Knogl, M.A., at 773-472-6469, ext. 492 or asiler-knogl@centeronhalsted.org .
