However, if we expand our conception of queer people beyond the traditional white gay male residents of gayborhoods, it becomes evident that many people of color never lived in Boystown to begin with. Pauline, a Black lesbian in her late thirties, told me that when she was young, in the late 90s, she lived on the south side of Chicago. JJ and his friends, a primarily Latino group, all live on the west side of Chicago. These arrangements are typical. Chicago is a segregated city. Boystown is no exception to that. The census data, although notoriously unreliable for neighborhood demographics for
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