I remember at one bar, there was an attack and police said, 'What do you expect. 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. She was the Bette Midler of her time, appearing at gay bars as a singer. 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. 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.
