Boystown business group to tap security firm tied to cop with racist past
By Adam Rhodes Medill Reports The Northalsted Business Alliance (NHBA), a business group in the North Side queer enclave of Boystown, plans to tap Walsh Security as its summer security provider, just weeks after a local community center ousted the firm amid activist pressure over its owner’s racist and violent past. Jennifer Gordon, a representative […]
Q&A: Center on Halsted’s new security firm sits down with Medill Reports
By Adam Rhodes Medill Reports Center on Halsted, an LGBT community center in Boystown, chose a new security firm in late January in response to a months-long series of protests, letters and activism from the community about the previous security firm owner’s racist past. Following a bidding processing that kicked off late last year, Quantum […]
Racism pushes queer people of color to look for Boystown alternatives
By Adam Rhodes Medill Reports Queer people of color are turning away from Chicago “gayborhood” Boystown after two anti-black incidents last year and what some say is a pattern of hostility and racism in the neighborhood. Last May, a leaked email showed that management at Boystown gay bar Progress Bar aimed to ban rap music […]
Chicago Police plans to tap city-wide LGBT liaison
By Adam Rhodes Medill Reports The Chicago Police Department plans to tap a city-wide liaison to the LGBT community, police officials told Medill News Service, months after an on-duty sergeant allegedly raped a transgender woman. The move follows the release of a report by the National Center for Transgender Equality that paints a bleak picture […]
LGBT center taps new security firm amid activist pressure
By Adam Rhodes Medill Reports The Center on Halsted LGBT community center in Boystown tapped Quantum Security LLC as its new security provider on Wednesday, ousting a security firm owned by a police officer who investigators found had assaulted a black security guard in a racist attack in Lake View in 2013. The Center said […]
