Chicago's Gayborhood Ditches Male-Focused Name

The LGBTQ+ neighborhood's business group responded to criticism that the gendered nickname was exclusionary.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

September 24 2020 3:31 PM EST

May 31 2023 5:37 PM EST

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Chicago's most famous LGBTQ+ neighborhood, long known as Boystown, will now have the more inclusive moniker of Northalsted, at least in official marketing materials and for purposes of city recognition.

The Northalsted Business Alliance, the chamber of commerce for the neighborhood centered on North Halsted Street, announced the change Wednesday. The business group did a survey in response to Chicagoans who objected to the gendered name as exclusionary.

This summer, for instance, activist Devlyn Camp created a Change.org petition calling on the alliance to change the name "to promote the inclusion of transgender, nonbinary, lesbian, and intersex individuals." The petition noted that among the best-known LGBTQ+ neighborhoods in the U.S., only Chicago's had a gendered nickname.

While there are other sections of Chicago with large queer presences, notably Andersonville, the North Halsted area is home to many bars and other businesses serving the LGBTQ+ population as well as nonprofits including the Center on Halsted, Chicago's LGBTQ+ community center. It hosts a popular street festival, Northalsted Market Days, and is on the Pride parade route. It had been informally known as Boystown since the 1970s, and in 1997 Richard M. Daley, then Chicago's mayor, issued a proclamation officially recognizing the name.