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Mapping Bias: LGBT Resources on the South Side of Chicago

Guest Blogger

This is a guest post by Kayla Higgins, and it was originally posted at In Our Words: A Salon for Queers & Co. Kayla is a bisexual Jewish feminist who divides her time working as a psychology research assistant and volunteering as an intern with the law office of the Cook County Public Defender. She recently received her Bachelors in Law, Letters and Society from the University of Chicago, which is located on the city’s South Side.

A few days ago I happened upon a conceptual map of the Midwest on a friend’s Facebook wall. It looked something like this:

(Description of this map at the bottom of the post.)

I think it’s safe to say that the humor of this map lies in that it feels so true. The interesting thing about maps is that they are almost never objectively accurate. Rather, they depict a space through the perspective of the Chicagoan mapmaker. And such is the case of the various maps of gay life in Chicago. They are “Gay Chicago” as seen through the eyes of a particular mapmaker or, sometimes, an entire demographic. But they cannot be said to depict “Gay Chicago” as it objectively exists.

This was something that troubled me as I began the project of investigating LGBT resources on the South Side of Chicago. I realized that, as is true for many white, privileged, queer-identified Chicagoans like myself, I had many biases when it came to “mapping” gay Chicago. When it came to my own mental map of Chicago, anything north of Boystown and south of Roger’s Park was charted in my head as “Gay-borhood,” anything south of Boystown and North of The Loop was charted as “Gay-friendly,” and anything South of the Loop had a similar connotation to the State of Illinois outside of Chicago in the map above (“Here be dragons,” or, in other words, a gay no-man’s-land). However, what I have discovered is that this stereotype of the South Side as utterly devoid of LGBT resources and under the heavy influence of a queer-hating Black church is an inaccurate representation.

Tristan Cabello, a Ph.D. candidate and lecturer at Northwestern University who spearheaded a project researching the South Side’s LGBT history has worked tirelessly to dispel the notion of predominantly black communities Chicago as being inherently anti-gay. In an interview with the Windy City Times, he said that one of the goals of his project was to show that “homophobia in the black community is not a historical thing.” [1] Rather, his view is that the tendency for black communities in Chicago to reject non-heteronormative lifestyles only started to arise during the Civil Rights movement, when black people, in order to gain acceptance, felt they had to play to white heteronormativity.

And in today’s South Side there exists much that the South Side is welcoming toward LGBT gatherings and institutions. For example, POW-WOW (Performers or Writers for Women on Women’s Issues) is a LGBT institution that has existed on the South Side for nearly eight years, and features a spoken-word performance by Chicago LGBT artists every Tuesday. The founder of POW-WOW, C.C. Carter, said in a 2010 interview with the Windy City Times that “People tend to imagine that the South Side must automatically be a difficult place to host LGBT events because of the presence of the Black church, but we have found that businesses there are incredibly supportive of our work. We found venues with no problem.” [2] Indeed, POW-WOW’s events take place in venues throughout the South Side, including the Echelon Theatre (at 2101 E. 83rd) and Jokes and Notes (at 4641 S. Martin Luther King).

In addition, various churches in the South Side dispel the stereotype of a queer-hating Black church. Indeed, PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Chicago Southside Chapter holds meetings on the third Wednesday of every month at First Presbyterian Church on 6400 S Kimbark. And there are many other churches on the South Side, too, that are LGBT friendly.

Another bias I encountered during my research regarded what exactly constitutes a “gay resource.” Take the Center on Halsted, for example. This large, modern gay community center on the North Side is a prototypical example of what the white gay community considers to count as a “gay resource.” Current services include support groups for youth, seniors, and several other gay demographics, mental health services, amenities like a community technology center providing internet access, an upscale theater where LGBTQ comedy and musical acts regularly perform, and a lovely roof top garden. What’s more, it even has a Whole Foods attached to it, one of the most expensive supermarkets in the country specializing in the type of food services that white privileged Americans most value (organic, vegetarian, fair trade, etc.). The Center on Halsted certainly is a great resource for its community of mostly white gay North Siders.

However, it would be a mistake to think that the lack of an equivalent building featuring a plethora of similar resources on the South Side signifies a dearth of South Side LGBT resources. Though it is true that it would be wonderful to have more support groups and mental health services available to LGBT South Siders, it seems to also be true that there are a number of great resources available to the South Side LGBT community that serve that particular community just as well. POW-WOW is an example of such resource, as is locating PFLAG meetings in a church, a central gathering place for much of the black South Side community.

In addition, there exist a number of shelters on the South Side that cater predominantly to the queer community. One is Bettendorf Place, a new permanent housing facility for people with HIV/AIDS and disabilities run by the Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry, which also includes offices for counseling and support staff. And another is Teen Living Programs, a nonprofit that runs two South Side youth shelters where a majority of residents self-identify as LGBT, and which also offers services to LGBT youth such as introducing them to local LGBT-related activities and connecting job-seeking clients to gay-owned companies.

These services might not be centrally located in a single building like the Center on Halsted, but these services do exist to serve LGBT communities on the South Side in a way that meets the needs of that community. There is still a definite stark difference between the range and concentration of LGBT resources on the North Side and those on the South Side. However, it is indicative of the power of segregation in Chicago that maps of Gay Chicago seem rarely to include the South Side at all.

A quote that nicely summarizes the problem of mapping LGBT resources on the South Side is the following one by John D’Emilio, a professor of history and of women’s and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago:

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 [and their spaces] invisible.” [3]

As someone who has begun, during this short endeavor to investigate LGBT resources on the South Side of Chicago, to come face-to-face with my own biases regarding the mapping of gay resources on the South Side, I hope that this post starts to shed some light on these spaces which are so often invisible in the white conceptual map of Gay Chicago.

Map of LGBT resources in the South Side:

(The map directly above features several pegs that denote sites of interest such as the First Presbytarian Church of Chicago. Click here for a larger version. The map at the top of this post is a conceptual map that shows the Midwest in a stylized and humorous way, from the perspective of Chicago; for example, Chicago is labeled “Civilization”, all the Great Lakes are labeled “Lake Michigan”, directly south of Chicago is labeled “Here be dragons” and south of that is labeled west-to-east as “Texas”, “The South” and “The Klan”.)

[1] Wes Lawson, “ ‘Queer Bronzeville’: The South Side’s LGBT history,” Windy City Times, June 17, 2009, Page 7.

[2] Yasmin Nair, “POW-WOW prepares to wow Chicago,” Windy City Times, March 3, 2010, page 7.

[3] John D’Emilio, “Mapping queer Chicago,” Windy City Times, Feb 4, 2009, page 8.

23 thoughts on Mapping Bias: LGBT Resources on the South Side of Chicago

  1. Thanks so much for this; it’s fascinating to me — largely because even though I live in New York City and the only LGBT Center I’ve ever been in is the one in Greenwich Village where I used to go to support groups, my son is a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago who happens to be gay (rather recognizably so), and has spent quite a bit of time at local public schools on the South Side (giving art classes at schools where they don’t really have art programs) without any issues whatsoever. I will forward this to him.

  2. As a progressive feminist in Cleveland, Ohio, this map makes me sad. 🙁 But then, the current state of Ohio politics (especially reproductive rights) makes me sad! We’re fighting, I promise!

  3. That map contains several inaccuracies: All of MN is viking land, and the Green Bay Packers do not suck.

  4. “The Center on Halsted certainly is a great resource for its community of mostly white gay North Siders.”

    This is true- but I would also mention that many youth of color use the Center on Halsted, which has resulted in some really unfortunate “Take Back Boystown” sentiment among Boystown’s predominately white (gay male?) “Old Guard.”

  5. I understand the humor in this map, but as someone who grew up and lived in the southeast from 1973-1998, the words “The Klan” implying the southeast couldn’t be more wrong. While I know there is racism there, and the Klan is there, the Klan is all over. Further, after living in urban, rural, academic, and working class areas of the southeast I never once saw the Klan – and believe me I looked. Like I said, I know they are there, but they are everywhere. I personally think a better, joking, label would be “moonshine” or “southern baptists” or “evangelicals, fundamentalists, and snake handlers.” But, as this post is about lenses – this is my lens of the southeast – as a middle class, white, educated woman.

  7. I grew up in a Southern city (Birmingham, Alabama) which often pretended that LGBTs were invisible. There were resources available, but they were often in the city. The suburbs as I remember them were a dull, frequently homogeneous location where everyone’s kids played at the same ballpark. Never once was homosexuality in any form discussed in polite company.

    From time to time, I heard a few veiled references to homosexuality, usually part of that whole “anxious masculinity” concept. But overt hostilities were few, because of willful amnesia. The part of town where LGBTs settled was only even known to those in the loop. One had to frequent a few liberal areas of town, or liberal churches to know about resources like PFLAG.

    The South is well known for using denial to escape truths that might otherwise be too painful to recall.

  8. The Chicago Dyke* March Collective (held on the same weekend as Pride, which occurs in boystown area) had its last march in the South Shore area of Chicago. The march was fantastic and we received great responses from the community. All my other experiences doing queer activism in the south side has been great, particularly with south side churches. However, that has mostly been in Hyde Park so unsure if it would be different elsewhere.

    Also, I think the idea of boystown and places like Center on Halsted being open for all queer identified people is also an over simplification. As a genderqueer trans* person I’ve felt unwelcomed in boystown and CoH and I am by no means the only one. Boystown is very very white gay-male centric (and if you are not a gay male there are other gayborhoods on the northside, like Andersonville). You are very right to point out the racial issues of boystown. The “Take Back Boystown” campaign is just a recent and visible example of the deeper problems.

    *Despite the name the Dyke March is self-described as “a grassroots mobilization and celebration of dyke, queer, and transgender resilience.”

  11. zuzu: How DARE this map not include New York.

    It does! It’s the tiny thing on the right. =P

    When I was growing up in the Chicago ‘burbs, I thought that the only things in Wisconsin were the Bristol Renaissance Fair, cheese, and Jewish summer camps.

  13. I live in the land of Cardinals fans (and crime apparently), and there’s a similar split with most of the LGBT resources heavily centered in middle-to-upper-middle class enclaves and not much elsewhere. Our local pride parade snakes around the same working-class/multicultural neighborhood I grew up in, but the crowd was less than diverse. It does make you ask, “Okay, who is this for?”

  14. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn.

  17. IIT has a very active GLBT group, if you count that as part of the broader South Side resource network.

  19. Man, as if living in the state where our Republican government is trying to get all the Planned Parenthoods closed is bad enough. Now I also live in the Black Hole. And a black hole that’s covered brown on the map, too! We have corn, too (I know, it’s so exciting). Indiana. . .

  20. I read Feministe now and again, and what a surprise it was to find my church, First Presbyterian of Woodlawn, mentioned in a post! Thank you for an excellent post and for taking the time to take a more nuanced look at Chicago’s South Side.

  21. Could someone please explain the Michiganders thing to me? I’ve never heard of it.

    Lower Michigan is shaped like a hand and I can attest to the fact that some people from Michigan, when you ask them where they’re from, will hold up their hand and point at the area where their city is located. A friend I had just met in college, after asking her where she was from, did that to me and I was confused until she explained.

  23. “I think it’s safe to say that the humor of this map lies in that it feels so true.”

    Unless you’re from Minnesota, in which case the omission of the fact that Minneapolis is the gayest city in America seems kind of weird.

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