A Place for Us: Gay Life at Chicago's Belmont Rocks
Owen Keehnen

A Home of Our Own – The Belmont Rocks were a special gathering spot for LGBTQ+ people in Chicago – and a special place in my own coming out. Writer Owen Keehnen describes the evolution and the meaning of this small piece of shoreline along Lake Michigan and presents a wonderful oral history of just what these rocks meant to an entire community. The “Rocks era” stretches from about 1960 to 2003. In part, as Owen notes, the Rocks were “a place of empowerment where gay folks asserted their right to be there, their right to exist, and their right to gather outside in the sunlight at a time when gay bars had blacked-out windows.” One night, I enjoyed my first gay kiss on the Belmont Rocks. The lake was calm. The Big Dipper loomed overhead. And with this kiss, my life changed forever.