If you think Chicago's LGBT neighborhood history consists of Boystown and Andersonville, you might be especially qualified for a new tour being offered this summer by Chicago Neighborhood Tours through the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture.
"Out and Proud: LGBT Chicago" will allow Chicago natives and visitors both gay and straight to experience the city's rich LGBT history and culture past and present. In addition to stops in Lakeview, Boystown and Andersonville, the bus tour will also venture to South Side neighborhoods and spots such as Bronzeville and the Jeffrey Pub in South Shore, where the early roots of Chicago gay history were formed.
Windy City Times editor and Chicago LGBT historian Tracy Baim, author of Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community, will lead each of the three four-and-a-half-hour tours on Saturdays May 26, June 16 and Aug. 4.
"I want to give a historical context to where we are today," Baim said. "I'm not going to assume they're straight or gay or if they know a lot about history. It's another thing going out and seeing these locations, even for someone who is a semi-expert on Chicago gay historyto see these places and make them more real."
Baim said the emphasis of the tours will be on the extensive geography of the LGBT community and its history, a reminder that Boystown is a new phenomenon.
"I'm concerned about the surface knowledge that gets relayed to our community," she said. "We don't have a sense that we truly are everywhere. We say that, but we don't always believe it."
This is not the first time LGBT history and community tours have been offered in Chicago. Baim previously ran a touring operation in the '90s with writer and historian Sukie de la Croix.
Chicago Neighborhood Tours manager Patricia Sullivan had heard of these tours being offered in the past and felt it was time to revive them, which many of her LGBT friends had suggested and encouraged.
"I thought it was just about time [the idea of LGBT tours] was revisited," Sullivan said. "With the gay community being a vibrant and important part of the city, this is something we need to offer."
The two main walking stops on the tour will be the Center on Halsted and the Leather Archives and Museum. Sullivan said she sees the center as vital to what's current in LGBT history with the extensive amount of services they offer.
Beyond this summer, Baim and Sullivan said they hope to make this tour available to any groups looking charter a tour, from schools and youth groups to organizations such as PFLAG chapters or corporations with LGBT employee groups.
"Chicago is a destination point for people not born here," Baim said. "They are often thrown into the middle of a city they have no context for. … This would be a terrific tour to use as an induction to Chicago."
The tour costs $35 for adults and $30 for seniors, students and children 8-18 year old. Spots can be booked by calling 312-742-1190. Walk-ons will be taken based on availability. For more information, visit www.explorechicago.org .