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Precinct, a sprawling industrial complex featuring drag shows and dance parties, is the place to get rowdy on a Saturday night Redline has a nightclub vibe, too, but is notable for a surprisingly tasty food and cocktail menu. Although one has since shuttered, Precinct and Redline have become must-visit DTLA watering holes. LA’s LGBTQ residents began reclaiming their historic turf after three new gay bars opened in 2015. After an attempt by police to arrest patrons in 1959, an army of drag queens, trans women, lesbians, and gay men fought back in what’s believed to be the first LGBT uprising in the United States.
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Cooper Do-nuts, located on Main Street in DTLA, was once a popular cafe sandwiched between two gay bars and frequented by the local queer community. While WeHo reigns supreme as LA’s most fabulously queer locale, Downtown LA is making a comeback after a half-century hiatus. Andersonville is proof that “gay” isn’t the only thing that makes a neighborhood great for queer residents. Lost Larson, a Scandinavian-inspired bakery, and Little Bad Wolf, a craft-beer Elysium, give the ‘hood culinary clout, and the area’s boutique stores offer shopaholics an excellent reason to get into some serious credit card debt. The neighborhood’s historically Swedish population still has a presence in the local cuisine scene (check out Svea Restaurant for breakfast).
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What makes Andersonville so appealing isn’t just these queer establishments but the diverse array of other noteworthy offerings. SoFo Tap is the local bear bar, Atmosphere is the go-to for go-go boys, and Jackhammer has been going strong as a leather dive for 20 years. While many gay-centric businesses in Boystown have recently shuttered and reopened as more straight-friendly establishments, the queer offerings in Andersonville are expanding. Nearly 20 years later, the boys are following in their footsteps. Once a Halstead staple, the store migrated north to avoid skyrocketing rents and became an anchor in Andersonville as Chicago’s lesbian residents flocked north. The neighborhood earned the nickname “Girlstown” in the 1990s following the opening of feminist bookstore Women and Children First. Halstead Street has been the central vein running through Chicago’s OG gayborhood, Boystown, for 50-plus years, but Clark Street, the commercial artery in the heart of nearby Andersonville, is emerging as the new frontier for LGBTQ residents.Īndersonville is no stranger to the queer community. Here are six cities around the United States where these new archipelagos are beginning to take shape. As the definition of what it means to be queer in the US is changing, so are the areas that LGBTQ people call home. These new districts don’t look like the country’s gayborhoods and aren’t always so easy to identify. Sociologist Amin Ghaziani suggests that LGBTQ urbanites are foregoing the idea of a singular gayborhood in exchange for what he refers to as cultural archipelagos: queer pockets throughout a city’s landscape that reflect a diverse expression of sexualities and lifestyles. But what if it isn’t? What if, instead, the dream has changed to reflect the times in which we live? As a result, many journalists are calling the dream of an American gayborhood dead. Pushed out by gentrification and tempted by assimilation, it has become too expensive to live in the areas once cornered by queer folks and safe to expand to other neighborhoods. Today, these neighborhoods are noticing a marked decline in their number of LGBTQ inhabitants.