By the way, Chicagoans call the subway the El, as in elevated. The best way to get there is via the subway. With its official decor, Northalsted claims to be America's first official gay neighborhood. It's lined with more than a dozen gay bars and nightclubs and punctuated with 22 city-installed Jetson-esque rainbow striped 20-foot columns. Its gayest part stretches from Belmont Street to Broadway. The Castro Street of Chicago is Northalsted's main street, North Halsted Street. The Closet bar is a good example of the many gay venues in the area that are frequented by both men and women, although The Closet is usually mostly women. Northalsted is home to more than 20 gay bars and dance clubs. The Closet is part of the Lakeview neighborhood in a section officially known as Northalsted and unofficially and more commonly known as Boys Town.
'So, do you want to be a lesbian?' asked a smart aleck woman, or maybe one who hadn't heard me give my mission statement. My mission, I said, was to find out more about the lesbian scene in the Windy City for an article I was writing for the Bay Area Reporter. But that was after I explained that I wasn't there to convert anyone. That left me in the bar with about 30 women. Minutes after I walked into the Closet bar in Chicago's famously gay 'Boys Town' neighborhood, the only two boys in the bar left. I guess I shouldn't have taken it personally.
