Gay bars chicago south side
They were quiet about socializing because they worried their family members would encounter disgrace if anyone found out. And gay women sometimes went out in the company of gay men so they could pretend they were "together" if anyone seemed to pay them undue attention.īyrd said lesbians she knew went out in groups, generally to house parties. Some women in those days wore skirts to parties and then changed into trousers, changing back before they left, to avoid the risk of arrest. Until the 1970s, there were city ordinances that barred people from wearing three or more garments usually reserved for members of the opposite gender.
"We got more harassment from police than we did from the community per se, especially if you were dressed real hard - if you wore men's clothes." "On the South Side, you weren't too safe," Byrd recalled. There, they could relax, chat, dance and play bid whist and other card games. The Fiesta, on 43rd Street near Wabash Avenue, and Mommy-O's on 39th Street were frequented mostly by women, recalled Sandra Byrd, 55, of the South Side.īut many women back then preferred to meet at house parties.
In the 1950s and '60s, there were a few bars that served a mostly lesbian crowd. Some bars on the list had lockers that allowed GIs to change from uniforms to civilian dress and back. In the 1940s, the military is said to have expressed its opposition to homosexuality by issuing lists of gay bars that were "off limits." The list essentially told gay military men where to go. Sometimes, the ill-intentioned efforts of an increasingly restrictive society provided all anyone needed to know about where to find some excitement. Hence, bars were closed if they allowed people of the same gender to dance together or talk in a way that indicated they were gay, or if men had long hair and women short, he said.īut "the life" didn't stop for those who lived it. "They were very strict about preventing bars and clubs from allowing disreputable behavior to take place." "When Prohibition was repealed - in part because the authorities felt they had lost control of nightlife and popular culture altogether - that's when the alcoholic beverage control commissions and state liquor boards were set up," Chauncey said. "Every nightclub had to bribe the authorities and warn its patrons to be prepared to stop doing what they were doing on a moment's notice, so places where gay people were gathered didn't stand out much." "Under Prohibition, things had been pretty permissive," Chauncey said. Things remained open through the mid-1930s. "These events enabled people who weren't able to risk a publicly gay life to look for lovers without having everyone else knowing their business," Heap said. There were drag balls on the North Side as well, though they were more short-lived. Semi-annual drag balls organized by black clubs drew hundreds of people - including some tuxedo-clad women - to the old Coliseum Annex, south of the Loop, on Halloween and on New Year's Eve, Heap said, adding that the events, which continued on the South Side into the early 1950s, were convenient for closeted gays. People went to the Piccardy Club, in the 4300 block of Cottage Grove Avenue, which was run by a host who wore pajamas, eyeshadow and rouged lips - to be avant-garde and different from the average male.