Open Post: Do You Like The Stupid Fucking New Name For Chicago’s “Boystown”?

Boystown is an area of Chicago that was designated as the first official gay village in America in 1998 by Mayor Richard M. Daley. It hosts one of the largest Gay Pride Parades in the country and is home to dozens of gay bars and clubs, as well as neighborhood restaurants, and of course the infamous 7-Eleven that sees gays queuing up for long lait night waits to procure White Claw, Flamin' Hot Cheetos, and prophylactics. It's history. It's glamour. It's Boystown.

Well not anymore. The Northalsted Business Alliance - which serves as Boystown's chamber of commerce - decided earlier in the summer that, in 2020, the name "Boystown" had lost its relevancy. The fact that Boystown is inherently gendered is seen by many as exclusionary to trans people as well as lesbians and gender-nonconforming folk.

58% percent of residents surveyed answered that they liked the name Boystown, while 80% said that they felt welcomed in Boystown regardless of the name. However, the Northalsted Business Alliance decided to change the name anyway. Earlier in the summer "Rainbow Way" was being tossed around, and for as hilariously tragic as that is, I'd certainly prefer it to the name that the NBA ultimately settled on: Northalsted.

 

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A post shared by The Advocate (@theadvocatemag) on Sep 24, 2020 at 1:06pm PDT

Now stick with me on this next part, because it's a little tricky. TBH it should really only be reserved for Chicago insiders. You see, "Northalsted" is a combination of the names "North" and "Halsted". The "H" from the end of North and the beginning of Halsted overlap. Oh, I should mention that North Halsted is the main street in Boystown. Get it? Northalsted? It's like, two names in one? Like what New York did with its neighborhoods pre-Sex and the City? Gays are known for innovation.

ANYWAY. Here's the thing. I fucking hate this name so much guys. If we're aiming for inclusion and diversity, I would have much much much preferred that Boystown be changed to Transtown, or Women City, or Lesbian Village, or Queerville, or Other Square. Or what about something truly headline-grabbing like Cynthia Nixon Way or Laverne Cox Boulevard? I want to go to there. Or, how about anything that doesn't replace something unique and special with something that sounds like one of those suburban outdoor malls that's supposed to look like a city. "Hun get the kids, I heard Horthalsted got a California Pizza Kitchen!" You can TOTALLY hear it, can't you?

I always thought of Boystown as an irreverent and frankly silly name that managed to capture the spirit of one of the most unique neighborhoods in America. But after hearing the complaints lodged against Boystown, I also saw the need for change. Since the neighborhood was coined in 1998, so many other groups on the queer spectrum have made their voices heard, and a name change for Boystown seems like an exciting opportunity to choose something innovative and expressive to suit the LGBTQ+ community's needs for the next couple of decades. Something that captures the gestalt of the counterculture presumably rallying around the name change in the first place. Something like... Northalsted. Here's an actual picture of Northalsted.

JK that's a mall in Ohio! But you believed me, didn't you. Frankly, the name change is fairly mute as Boystown is seeing a rapid increase in straight residents. In fact, a deep dark cynical part of me might say that the antiseptic "Northalsted" wasn't chosen by accident, but rather as something palatable to the straight people making the area their home.

Boystown, or Northalsted, is actually just a moniker given to a small section of Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. It's not official. The name was always about marketing and identity. Now that the neighborhood is being marketed to people who identify as straight, maybe, just maybe, Northalsted makes sense.