Laura Washington: An iconic LGBTQ+ bar in O'Hare is the ‘perfect billboard' for Illinois

Chicago Tribune

6 hours ago

A Sidetrack bar at O'Hare International Airport?
'Whoa! Wow!' That was Art Johnston's reaction when restaurateur Germán González pitched the idea. Johnston is a preeminent LGBTQ+ civil rights activist who, with his husband, José 'Pepe' Peña, co-owns the famed Sidetrack bar, Chicago's largest and most popular LGBTQ+ bar.
They are teaming up in the hopes of opening a Sidetrack bar at O'Hare. It would be the first gay-owned, gay-themed bar at any airport in the nation, González said. This news comes as we celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride month, a powerful antidote to the hateful anti-LGBTQ+ polices and rhetoric of President Donald Trump's administration.
González is managing partner of the Somos Hospitality Group, which operates three Chicago restaurants, including Tzuco, an upscale Mexican restaurant in River North and a James Beard Award semifinalist.
On June 5, González submitted a proposal to the city of Chicago to bring the bar to O'Hare. Somos would be the lead operator; Johnston and Peña would be investors and license the Sidetrack name and brand.
González, 30, came out as gay as a teenager. 'So, you know, making aware younger generations, but also the general population, those struggles we went through, I think it's very important,' he said in an interview. A Sidetrack at O'Hare would be the 'perfect billboard.'
Johnston, 81, is a longtime gay philanthropist and co-founder of Equality Illinois. He helped drive the astounding achievements for LGBTQ+ rights in Illinois, from statewide human rights protections and anti-discrimination laws to marriage equality and transgender rights.
Johnston and Peña opened Sidetrack on North Halsted Street in 1982, touting the news on a spray-painted plywood sign. In the early days, customers sat on beer cases.
Forty-three years later, Sidetrack is an iconic, two-story, 15,000-square-foot nightclub with dozens of TV screens pumping out music videos, four bars and a rooftop deck. It also serves as a community center for meetings, fundraisers and celebrations, where powerful politicians, community leaders and activists, gay and straight, gather. Revelers wait in line to sample the bar's signature cocktails and massive beer selection in Lakeview, the epicenter of Chicago's LGBTQ+ night life.
A Sidetrack at O'Hare would 'create ways for people to see gay people and see that not only have we done well in Chicago, we have thrived in Chicago,' Johnston said. 'We have made this a better city, a stronger city, and why not show that to the world?'
Since the 1970s, Johnston, Peña and generations of other activists have made huge strides toward ensuring equity, safety and acceptance for LGBTQ+ people across Illinois.
Hostile forces threaten that progress. Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, LGBTQ+ people are under attack, from the perilous to the petty.
The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics has removed all references to gender or gender identity from at least four federal surveys, reports The Appeal, a news organization that examines racism and inequity. The changes will make it nearly impossible to monitor crimes and other forms of violence experienced by transgender people. The Trump administration has eliminated more than $800 million worth of research on the health of LGBTQ+ people, 'setting back efforts to defeat a resurgence of sexually transmitted infections,' including HIV, according to a recent analysis of federal data by The New York Times.
The revered name of Harvey Milk is being removed from an American battleship. Milk served during the Korean War as a Navy diving officer on a rescue submarine. The first openly gay person elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors; he was assassinated in 1978 shortly after leading the passage of legislation that banned housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
LGBTQ+ people have been maligned, attacked and portrayed as almost subhuman. A Sidetrack at O'Hare would be a potent way to fight back.
'Sometimes the best defense is a good offense, no?' González said. 'And we're getting attacked everywhere. And at the end of the day, you know, we need to have presence. We need to have a seat at the table. We need to have representation everywhere.'
O'Hare hosted 80 million passengers in 2024, and the bar would be in Terminal 1.
'Pepe and I, we're just blown away by the notion, knowing the number of people who pass through here every day who could see that there are (gay) bars here, where the people there don't have horns and tails, and we're not trying to steal anybody's children,' Johnston told me. 'We're trying to live our lives and make life better for all of us. And O'Hare is, we think, a perfect next step in that direction.'
'And it's not like you need to be gay to go to the bar,' González added. 'I mean, at the end of the day, it's going to be a beautiful bar.'
And fun. Planning is in the initial stages but there might be a piano on-site. Perhaps sing-along show tunes? Beyoncé nights? Sidetrack's popular espresso martini and maybe a rainbow cake and charcuterie board, González mused.
'They make a mean Negroni,' he said.
The city's decision on the concession bids is months away, and González said they are competing with hundreds of other small businesses to win a lucrative and high-profile airport spot.
The fight for pride goes on.
'So, we believe it is a time nationally when representing our community is more important than ever,' Johnston said. 'You know, so many of these battles we fought and won before, and we didn't think we had to fight them again. But we will.'
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