More than six months after the Northalsted Business Alliance said it would abandon the name Boystown for the city’s principal queer enclave, business leaders in the community have made few changes and continue using the moniker that many have called misogynistic and transphobic.
But banners bearing the Boystown name were removed from light poles throughout the neighborhood only days ago. Businesses still use the name in marketing materials, even those seemingly disseminated by the chamber. Some critics also told the Reader that the group has privately encouraged businesses to continue using the purportedly retired moniker.
But in response to criticism from Camp and others, Northalsted Business Alliance President Ramesh Ariyanayakam, who runs the Kit Kat Lounge in the neighborhood, tells the Reader that the chamber was focused on weathering the pandemic rather than scrubbing Boystown from the streets and its websites as quickly as possible.
Camp also says the decision to change the neighborhood’s nickname isn’t separate from the ongoing struggle with racial equity and misogyny in the mostly white neighborhood.
Camp and other critics say that while they are upset by the board’s decision, it’s not surprising given the makeup of the mostly white board, and its own struggles with diversity. Out of 11 members of the NHBA board, only one is a woman, who is also one of only two people of color.
Despite what activists have called the board’s refusal to reform, many say the neighborhood can be a place for every member of the queer community. It’s just going to take serious, and tough, work. And it’s not work that will be done in a matter of months.
