Major US airport set to become first with its own gay bar
A major US airport is set to make air travel a little bit gayer. (Getty)
A major US airport is set to make air travel a little bit gayer. (Getty)
One of the busiest airports in the US could become the first with a gay bar.
Restaurateur Germán González has proposed bringing a branch of Chicago queer bar Sidetrack to O’Hare International airport. According to The Chicago Tribune, it would be located in terminal one, which served more than 80 million people last year.
Art Johnston, who owns the bar with husband José Pepe Peña, said opening at the airport – the second busiest in the country, behind Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta – 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”.
He went on say: “We have made this a better city, a stronger city. Why not show that to the world?”
Sidetrack opened in 1982 in just one room but now has a collection of spaces with more than eight store fronts, on a number of levels, that can host some 1,000 people.
“Pepe and I were 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 continued.
Sidetrack is a hotspot for activists and the owners were among those who backed Dylan Mulvaney when the trans influencer faced a backlash following a campaign with Bud Light in 2023.
“Bud Light’s recent decision to drop the Dylan Mulvaney campaign, to put on ‘leave’ those who created it, as well as the statement by its [chief executive], wrongfully validates the position that it is acceptable to acquiesce to the demands of those who do not support the trans community and wish to erase LGBTQ+ visibility,” a statement on the bar’s Instagram page read.
Sidetrack would no longer sell any products from Bud’s parent company Anheuser-Busch until it can “clearly demonstrate they will not acquiesce to voices of hate that wish to erase LGBTQ+ existence”, it went on to say.
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