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Old 08-17-2012, 07:23 AM
 
34 posts, read 64,006 times
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I was just wondering how gay friendly Chicago is compared to
San Francisco. I'm moving to Chicago from their soon. I know from reading there's a lot
of bars in an area called boystown but I'm more
concerned with the whole city. How accepting are people when it
comes to this. Is it like the Midwest? or is it just as accepting as
San Francisco.
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Old 08-17-2012, 07:30 AM
 
2,918 posts, read 4,179,284 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mimsja View Post
Is it like the Midwest? or is it just as accepting as
San Francisco.
Somewhere in between, I would say.
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Old 08-17-2012, 07:38 AM
 
Location: Not where you ever lived
11,535 posts, read 30,113,735 times
Reputation: 6422
Chicago IS in the Midwest, and an Alpha City, too. You should be fine. People are people; most have a personal prejudice about something. As to LGBT: some care; some don't; most won't.
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Old 08-17-2012, 08:00 AM
 
1,210 posts, read 3,049,066 times
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On average fairly accepting. The north side is very gay friendly for the most part though. But there are certain blue-collar neighborhoods on the south side that are more socially conservative still. I'm sure some south side defends will come yell at me for saying that but it's true. Two gay guys holding hands wouldn't be welcomed warmly in Beverly.
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Old 08-17-2012, 08:06 AM
 
Location: River North, Chicago, Illinois
4,620 posts, read 8,116,350 times
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Anywhere in Chicago you're likely to want to live for reasons that have nothing to do with sexuality is going to be gay-friendly. Most other parts are gay-tolerant. A few parts that no newcomer is likely to ever want to visit, much less live, regardless of sexuality, would be potentially hostile to gay people.

I've created three lists below. If you mapped them, you'd notice that north lakefront and the Central Area are all very gay-friendly, the South Lakefront is still pretty tolerant although less so, with most of the non-lakefront North Side being pretty gay friendly, with some of the areas on the south-west side being tolerant, and the Far South Side and much of the West Side more than 2-3 miles from the Lake being less welcoming.

Most of the suburbs fall into the tolerant category. The richer ones tend to be gay-friendly. The very poorest ones might not even be considered tolerant.

Basically, all these areas are gay-friendly and you'll see gay people and couples, listed in approximate order of gay-friendliness (the first 15 or so are similar in degree of gay-friendliness, and the last 15 aren't ):
East Lakeview (Boystown)
Andersonville (Edgewater)
West Lakeview
Lincoln Square
Wicker Park
Bucktown
River North
Ukrainian Village
Lincoln Park
Old Town
Streeterville
Gold Coast
South Loop
West Loop
River West
Uptown
East Rogers Park
Hyde Park
University Village/Tri-Taylor
Ravenswood
Logan Square
Albany Park
Avondale

Places where most people won't care but maybe aren't quite as openly supportive (i.e. gay-tolerant) - in some parts you might hear intolerant things sometimes but no serious physical security threat, again in order of tolerance:
Chinatown
Bridgeport
Pilsen
Kenwood
West Rogers Park
Humboldt Park
Beverly
Craigin
Portage Park
Anything further NW of Craigin/Portage Park
McKinley Park
Little Village
Woodlawn
South Shore
Bronzeville

Places I wouldn't want to live regardless of sexuality, starting with places I might consider if I were a straight urban homesteader, declining to places I don't want to die:
East Garfield Park
Douglas
Washington Park
Back-of-the-Yards
Canaryville
Brighton Park and anything WEST and due south
West Englewood and anything east or south, except for neighborhoods specifically mentioned above
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Old 08-17-2012, 09:01 AM
 
Location: CHicago, United States
6,933 posts, read 8,458,810 times
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The above neighborhood listings aren't very helpful, IMO. Don't use them as your guide. The comments at #3 seem most relevant.
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Old 08-17-2012, 09:04 AM
 
Location: Uptown
1,520 posts, read 2,560,460 times
Reputation: 1236
Quote:
Originally Posted by emathias View Post
Anywhere in Chicago you're likely to want to live for reasons that have nothing to do with sexuality is going to be gay-friendly. Most other parts are gay-tolerant. A few parts that no newcomer is likely to ever want to visit, much less live, regardless of sexuality, would be potentially hostile to gay people.

I've created three lists below. If you mapped them, you'd notice that north lakefront and the Central Area are all very gay-friendly, the South Lakefront is still pretty tolerant although less so, with most of the non-lakefront North Side being pretty gay friendly, with some of the areas on the south-west side being tolerant, and the Far South Side and much of the West Side more than 2-3 miles from the Lake being less welcoming.

Most of the suburbs fall into the tolerant category. The richer ones tend to be gay-friendly. The very poorest ones might not even be considered tolerant.

Basically, all these areas are gay-friendly and you'll see gay people and couples, listed in approximate order of gay-friendliness (the first 15 or so are similar in degree of gay-friendliness, and the last 15 aren't ):
East Lakeview (Boystown)
Andersonville (Edgewater)
West Lakeview
Lincoln Square
Wicker Park
Bucktown
River North
Ukrainian Village
Lincoln Park
Old Town
Streeterville
Gold Coast
South Loop
West Loop
River West
Uptown
East Rogers Park
Hyde Park
University Village/Tri-Taylor
Ravenswood
Logan Square
Albany Park
Avondale
East Rogers and Uptown should be 3 and 4 based on numbers of gay oriented business and residents.
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Old 08-17-2012, 09:30 AM
 
Location: River North, Chicago, Illinois
4,620 posts, read 8,116,350 times
Reputation: 6321
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleking View Post
East Rogers and Uptown should be 3 and 4 based on numbers of gay oriented business and residents.
Both also have large populations of less-friendly demographics, which by my admittedly subjective ranking reduced their overall placement.
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Old 08-17-2012, 10:03 AM
 
Location: Upper West Side, Manhattan, NYC
15,331 posts, read 23,764,559 times
Reputation: 7419
Most people could care less if you're gay or not until you start going into some neighborhoods maybe on the west side and south sides. There were something like 800,000 people at the pride parade this year, and there's even a few gay bars downtown. I have many openly gay friends and they hardly ever run into anybody who thinks negatively of it. Of course, there are people in some friendly neighborhoods that might care, but a lot of the time you wouldn't even know it.
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Old 08-17-2012, 11:59 AM
 
2,918 posts, read 4,179,284 times
Reputation: 1527
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jandur View Post
On average fairly accepting. The north side is very gay friendly for the most part though. But there are certain blue-collar neighborhoods on the south side that are more socially conservative still. I'm sure some south side defends will come yell at me for saying that but it's true. Two gay guys holding hands wouldn't be welcomed warmly in Beverly.
You're probably right about Beverly, but I see it more in Pilsen than I do anywhere on the North side with the exception of Boys Town and Andersonville.
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