Governor Pritzker, Mayor Lightfoot, and an array of other elected officials, community leaders, and artists gathered along the lakefront for a celebration Thursday morning., a project many years in the making that’s now open to the public. Located just south of Belmont Harbor, the garden’s location has a meaningful place in the history of the city’s queer community.“We honor the myriad fallen heroes who have kicked open the doors to every closet everywhere.
The first step was community meetings in Lakeview that later expanded to bring in other parts of Chicago. The garden’s centerpiece is the massive Keith Haring statue “Self-Portrait.” Around the garden, QR codes lead visitors to videos from survivors, activists, doctors, and more. “Can you imagine how empowering that must have been to be able to come here during the day, in the middle of the city, out in the sunlight, to be with your friends or your lover or whoever at a time when our bars still had blackened windows?” said queer author and historian Owen Keehnen.“When I came over that ridge, what I saw was something I had never seen before … this organic queer space that was thriving,” Keehnen said.
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