Take em to a gay bar theyll love it

Hey there, folks! Talking with them reaffirmed why I started The Caftan Chronicles in the first place—because in the past 50 years, we gay men have done incredible things, often against tremendous societal and personal odds, and these stories must be told! The subscriber base grows a bit with each new installment, and I hope to have many, many juicy new interviews for you in some of them are already in the works!

Art: Of course. Tomorrow, we have our holiday party for the Sidetrack staff at our house, so we're a little crazy. But thank you for focusing on Chicago. We adjusted years ago to being in a flyover state. If things in the gay community don't happen in New York or California, they get overlooked.

But in Chicago, we feel like we've had our own path toward things and have a vibrant exciting gay community of our own. Art: Yes. Pep came here from Cuba and I came from Buffalo by way of Virginia, and neither of us thought we were going to love it here so much. Tim: How would you describe Chicago to someone who's never been—or, like me, has only been briefly a few times?

Pep: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that Northalsted, the gay area, used to be called Boystown.

An Etiquette Guide for Straight People in Gay Bars

Pep: Well, it will forever be Boystown for me, Art and others. But some folks thought it sent the wrong message because it didn't include everyone, so now it's officially Northalsted. Art: Most young activists, gays and a number of nonbinary folks. I'm glad anytime we see any kind of activism in younger folks—it's exciting.

But I doubt we'll be able to fully get rid of Boystown. Once you have a nickname, it sticks. Art: Yes, for sure. Chicago, I'm sad to say, is one of the most segregated cities in the country, and that comes from a long history of people in charge, politicians, really trying to keep folks separate.

And it happens that areas where the gay bars have been were predominantly white, so we're still dealing with ways to make it [more diverse]. Pep: In Miami in the late s was not a proper city. I came to Chicago once on vacation and fell in love with it. It's a real city while Miami felt more like a suburb to me.

I drove on Lakeshore Drive and fell completely in love because it reminded me of the seawall in Havana. Tim: Okay guys, before we delve into the past and the history of Sidetrack's place in Chicago's gay scene, what is a typical day like for you today?