Champaign il gay bar
‘Fractured’ and ‘disconnected,’ CU gender non-conforming community seeks specific spaces
‘Support groups are not enough’: CU’s queer community works for more cohesion
CHAMPAIGN — Despite feeling like “there’s no shortage of gay people in Champaign,” discovery the LGBTQ community in Champaign-Urbana wasn’t easy for 21-year-old Arden Hatch when she moved here in 2020 and came out as a trans woman.
“I think the community feels very disconnected,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know each other.”
She says a big part of why it took so long to combine with others in the LGBTQ community was the lack of specific spaces for queer events or even just to gather.
“There’s no place we can go and just be ourselves with other people,” Hatch said.
Eventually, she establish Uniting Pride of Champaign County, which hosts various support groups and occasional events. Though she said she’s grateful for everything the organization does and she now volunteers with the non-profit, Uniting Identity festival didn’t completely fulfill her needs.
“Support groups are not enough to foster a unified sense of gender non-conforming community in Champaign,
63 Chester Street: theBar
From 1978 to 2017, 63 Chester Street in Champaign was home to two prominent LGBTQ spaces that were known throughout the Midwest scene: theBar and Chester Street.
On Easter Day in 1978, theBar opened at 63 Chester Street, under the ownership of Joe McNamara, Tim White, and Mike Short, all of whom were former employees at Giovanni's, a trendy Champaign gay bar. Joe McNamara became the sole owner of theBar within the first few months. When it opened, theBar advertised a full restaurant, a side room prevent, a disco, and a game room.
theBar's name came from the coded language that gay people would often use when talking about a gay exclude. Instead of talking about going to "the queer bar," people would state "the bar."theBar's name was a coded way of telling others it was a safe place for gay men, lesbians, and other queer people to meet up with others and socialize.
With disco rising in popularity, it was popular to own a live DJ. Joe was inspired by discotheques such as Studio 54 and aspired to change theBar into Champaign's control disco spot that could compete with the extravagance of the larger cities' bars. As his reside DJ, Joe hired Doug Barne
Suffice it to say, 63 Chester Street should contain been placed on the American Registry of Historic Places years ago, certainly before all the devastating “renovations” and arson and collapse that stripped it of its unique traits. Then again, for the longest time Chester Avenue east of the Illinois Central Railroad wasn’t considered part of downtown Champaign, despite being one block from Illinois Terminal. Perhaps that is why it was rarely appreciated by the City of Champaign, even during its downtown revitalization efforts.
Now it is gone, destroyed.
Such a deficit was doubly impactful with Monday, June 28 marking exactly 52 years since the Stonewall rebellion in New York City — a tipping point for the gay liberation movement.
Maybe in some profound way, the confluence of this event and the Stonewall anniversary is meant to signal a new start. I can only long for, however, that we never forget the memorable experiences that thousands upon thousands of residents and visitors enjoyed at the historic landmark known as 63 Chester Street, Champaign, Illinois.
The Balloon Saloon
In March 1974, U of I Professor Jack Adam and his partner Bill Burke opened C-U's first openly same-sex attracted bar, The Balloon Saloon, located at 317 N. Fremont St., Champaign. The bar was an instant success popular with male lover men, gay women, queenly queens, and drag kings. They were open 7 days a week, had a live DJ, and would host drag performances, such as a Lose Champaign contest in 1975 that featured "a couple dozen drag queens from all around the state" ("Where gays can experience unfettered", Daily Illini, July 8, 1975).
By 1975, The Balloon Saloon became a known hotspot for male lover people around the Midwest, with out-of-towners traveling from St. Louis and Indianapolis to go there. One patron said "Champaign is the biggest gay scene in this part of the Midwest, outside of Chicago. Springfield used to be a big scene, but it's died out. Now everyone comes here."
People would gather to attach out, celebrate holidays and birthdays, and organize performances at The Balloon Saloon. There were people who would get into queenly specifically to perform at the bar, and people would also get into drag just for the fun of dressing up with their friends.
One year after
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