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OPINION The unapologetic queer history at the new Obama Presidential Center
Walking onto the 19.3-acre campus of the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side was a respite, and a revelation. As a proud Chicagoan and an inductee into the Chicago LGBTQ Hall of Fame, I didn’t step onto the grounds expecting to experience all of the queer history I saw on full display. Partnering with GLAAD for…
Annual Esteem Awards celebrates queer Chicagoans’ courage and creativity
On the afternoon of July 18, Philip M. Fleming, along with the Epiphany Arts Foundation and Pride Index, presented the 19th Annual Esteem Awards and the Red, Pink, and Purple Polka Dot Poetry Slam in front of a packed room at Sidetrack Video Bar at 3349 N. Halsted St. The awards recognize individuals in the LGBTQ+…
Love in Action Festival closes out Pride 2026
As stroke inducing heat, irritating dust storms and torrential rains bedeviled the Fourth of July celebrations in the nation’s capital, the opposite occurred at the 8th Annual South Side Pride Festival on the campus of Dusable Museum at 750 East 56th Place. Hundreds gathered for Love in Action, the official close of Pride Month on July 5 for a full…
After decades of organizing, Darrell Gordon is still showing up
Over the course of Pride Month, Darrell Gordon was a steady presence at LGBTQ+ events across the city. He kicked off the celebrations at a Pride flag raising in Logan Square, celebrating LGBTQ+ visibility beyond Chicago’s most recognizable queer enclaves on the North Side. Days later, he DJ’d the opening of “Right to Assemble,” an intergenerational…
Picnic closes out 2026 celebrations with queer hootenanny
While tens of thousands marched down north Halsted Street, a smaller, more concentrated group gathered in Jackson Park at 6300 E. Hayes Dr. by Lake Michigan and threw a wild party stuffed with music, drag, fashion—and an awful lot of butt-shaking. Chicago Urban Pride presented the second Pride Picnic on June 28. The title this year…
Queer Yacht Party sets sail with pride in second outing
On the evening of June 26, Chicago Urban Pride seemingly had the attention of the heavens. The group’s second annual Chicago Gay Pride All White Kick Off Yacht Party was in every way bigger and better and stuffed with more cheer than the first edition last year. This time there was a bigger yacht—the Anita Dee…
Chicago Pride Parade reclaims the spirit of protest
The 2026 Chicago Pride Parade on June 28 drove home that it is a protest before a celebration, spotlighting numerous organizations and individuals who each day take on challenges affecting the city’s LGBTQ+ community. The theme, Free to be Proud, was on display as the parade wound its way through Lake View. Cheers filled the…
Black LGBTQ+ Beach Day to return as organizers deepen community ties
Lighthouse Foundation of Chicagoland is bringing hundreds of Black LGBTQ+ Chicagoans to 63rd Street Beach this weekend for Black LGBTQ+ Beach Day, an afternoon of music, games, HIV testing and community resources. Now in its third year, the annual gathering has grown into one of the city’s largest Black LGBTQ+-centered Pride events while reflecting Lighthouse Foundation’s…
Brave Space Alliance celebrates queer/black/trans artistry with inaugural epic
On June 20, Brave Space Alliance (BSA) presented Embodied: A Pride x Juneteenth Variety Show at Thalia Hall at 1807 S. Allport St. Saying the show was “presented” is the safest and most concise way of describing the proud, loud, spiritually uplifting, politically infuriating, colorful, angry, tonally shifting extravaganza that unspooled on that stage in the heart of Pilsen. Curator…
Chicagoans gather to learn about Black queer dance, expression
As massive crowds, former presidents and other celebrities mingled in Jackson Park for the opening of the Obama Center on June 18, a much smaller group on the North Side came together with an entirely different kind of gathering for the second edition of Welcome Home: A Celebration of Queer Street Dance. The event, which took…
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