Gay friendly suburbs of Chicago... (Evanston, Wheaton: school, live, store)

[TempesT68]

Outside of boystown in the city there are no "gay friendly" areas in the chicagoland. Though as long as you're not holding hands, skipping down the street type of people, you will not be bothered in really any community.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by TempesT68

Outside of boystown in the city there are no "gay friendly" areas in the chicagoland. Though as long as you're not holding hands, skipping down the street type of people, you will not be bothered in really any community.

I've seen tons of gay couples holding hands and walking down the street. No big deal here.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by TempesT68

Outside of boystown in the city there are no "gay friendly" areas in the chicagoland. Though as long as you're not holding hands, skipping down the street type of people, you will not be bothered in really any community.

That's utterly ridiculous. Most gay men and women in the city don't even live in Boystown. Most of the North Side is VERY gay-friendly. I live in Uptown, and my building's gay residents are about 50% of the total. And Edgewater has one of the top five gayest zip codes in the country. Oak Park has multiple gay bars and is widely known as gay friendly--and has a "registry" in city hall for gay couples. There are MANY gay couples living openly in Evanston and other suburbs.

[Avengerfire]

What Lookout Kid said is very true. There a huge numbers of gays in the communities of Uptown (particularly Buena Park and Sheridan Park),Edgewater (in Andersonville especially),Rogers Park and Lincoln Square(high amounts in Lincoln Square and Ravenswood.)

[Lookout Kid]

I doubt that the part of Lakeview surrounding the "Boystown" strip on Halsted is even close to majority gay anymore. Gays are pretty well distributed througout the North Side, and have moved on to gentrify other parts of the city.

[Chicagoland60426]

Originally Posted by TempesT68

Outside of boystown in the city there are no "gay friendly" areas in the chicagoland. Though as long as you're not holding hands, skipping down the street type of people, you will not be bothered in really any community.

Thats not actually true. You will find openly gay people just about everywhere in Chicagoland, even in the south suburbs. I seen plenty of openly gay people in the south suburbs, and I never seen anybody literally attack them for it. Chicagoland is not as homogeneous and conservative as people like to believe. Its not Mississippi.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I doubt that the part of Lakeview surrounding the "Boystown" strip on Halsted is even close to majority gay anymore. Gays are pretty well distributed througout the North Side, and have moved on to gentrify other parts of the city.

It is not. Many of the gays live on Halsted or Broadway or within a block or two of "the strip."

[US-Traveller]

I would say that Oak Park is the most gay friendly suburb. I would look at Evanston, but I would be careful of some of the more conservative family areas as well as minority areas. If your looking for gay bars and gay hangouts, Evanston won't have that but Oak Park will and your only 25-30 minutes by car from Lakeview and Andersonville.

[CarolL]

Oak Park is definitely gay-friendly and gay-welcoming. There are at least three churches here that I know of that openly and actively minister to gays, and there is a very active LGBT organization. And, yes, I've seen men holding hands as they walk down Oak Park Ave. in Oak Park, FWIW.

[US-Traveller]

Why do so many homosexuals want to come to Illinois and the Chicago area? Does Illinois have any laws that I am not aware of that allow more rights to homosexuals than other states?