As we watched Sunday’s Gay Pride parade in the heart of Chicago’s Boystown neighborhood, my friends and I this year had a fresh view, looking across the street at the parade participants passing the city’s newly dedicated gay community center, the Center on Halsted.
It made the day seem so much more “proud” with the image of the new 65,000-square-foot facility in the background, shadowing every passing float entry and each convertible carrying a notable politician.
The center “may make Chicago a new gay destination,” as a recent AP story stated.
The article goes on to say that it doesn’t matter that Chicago gained international recognition by hosting the 2006 Gay Games or that we have the country’s first government-recognized “gay neighborhood” complete with rainbow colored art deco pylons lining the area. Chicago has yet to be known widely as one of the nation’s top gay-friendly cities or tourism destinations, but the $20 million Center on Halsted may put us on the tier-one gay map at last.
By any measurement, those who have visited Chicago know how gay friendly it is, from its residents to its city leaders. The center may just be the added attraction to get more people to see the city and its inclusive culture first hand.
The building is an eco-friendly icon with a rooftop garden, large a computer lab, office space for community organizations, a black-box constructed theater, a gym named after tennis star Billie Jean King and any number of amenities for the community and its visitors to enjoy. In closing the month of Pride celebrations, it’s notable to see this structure as a symbol of a city’s worth of pride year-round.
As we close our own blog theme month dedicated to our respective views of Pride, I can’t think of more fitting words than those from Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley at the opening of the center earlier this month: "This is a center that just is not concrete and steel but names behind it who have worked in the community for so long who have struggled for so long."
At least in one sense – in the concrete and steel sense – some part of our struggle is over in the Windy City.
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