As the country marks the Stonewall anniversary, Johnson recalled key moments over the last 50 years when Chicago’s gay bars have been at the center of the LGBTQ community’s fight for equal rights. Gay LesbianChicagoGay & Lesbian Bars Near Chicago Find Nightlife in Chicago Lucky Horseshoe Lounge Anti Corporate Media Roscoes Tavern Big Chicks. Still, like the Stonewall Inn, Johnston said Chicago’s gay activism took place in the bars - including Sidetrack, which he opened 37 years ago in the historic Boystown neighborhood.Īs co-founder of the civil rights organization Equality Illinois, Johnston has been an outspoken leader of Chicago’s anti-discrimination movement. The Stonewall riots helped galvanize the gay rights movement nationwide.īut in Chicago, even after the riots, activist Art Johnston said police raids of gay bars would continue to make headlines for another decade. Just blocks from the Argyle Red Line station, Big Chicks has been dubbed the friendliest gay bar in Uptown for over 28 years. Rioters barricaded cops inside the bar and for several days took to the streets in an effort to put an end to years of harassment. It’s been 50 years since violent protests broke out on June 28, 1969, following a raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in New York.