WICKER PARK — Could Chicago's next hottest gay bar not even be a bar at all?
In 2011 and 2012, Daniel Heller's Guerilla Queer Bar meet-up was named the Best Gay Club in Boston, "and we don’t even run a gay bar," he said.
His group organizes LGBT meet-ups at "traditionally straight bars," and in 2012 it became The Welcoming Committee, a 15,000-member organization that takes over not just bars but organizes outings in the arts, culture, sports, nightlife and to overnight travel destinations.
Kyla Gardner says the organizers hope the events create a comfortable atmosphere for everyone:
"It's about getting a critical mass of LGBT people together and taking over a space for a one-night only experience — to recreate the awesome level of comfort that exists in gay bars anywhere we want, whenever we want," Heller said.
The company expanded to Washington D.C. and Philadelphia after its initial launch in Boston, and on Oct. 3, it will land in Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta.
Heller declined to name specific Chicago venues he's working with as partners — and he always works with the places the group "takes over" — but he's busy gathering input about what's historic, iconic and special about Chicago.
For example, in Boston, The Welcoming Committee brought 750 people to a Red Sox game and has organized trips to a Connecticut casino that's a popular weekend destination for Bostonians.
"We look for iconic places where a comfort gap exists for LGBT people," Heller said. "We want to give it back to the gay community in an awesome way."
Membership in the Committee is free, and the location for the inaugural Oct. 3 Chicago event will be announced Oct. 2 to those subscribed through email.
The Welcoming Committee is not the first organization to have the idea of a roving gay bar in Chicago. Guerilla Gay Bar South Loop Chicago, with more than 1,000 members, organizes nightlife events in that neighborhood, and the now-defunct Big Gay Cocktail Hour ran from 1999 to 2010 as a traveling meetup with a charity angle.
By January, Heller hopes The Welcoming Committee will be offering between three and five events each month in Chicago. The first Friday of the month is always a Guerrilla Queer Bar takeover, and a month usually also includes a "Newbie Party" for newcomers.
The company is for-profit, and has 100 volunteers working across the organization as local experts. Last week, Heller was in town with Philadelphia organizer Mary Pitek to learn about the LGBT scene in Chicago.
"Chicago is a fairly welcoming city overall" to the gay community, said Wrigleyville resident Sheldon Krieger at one of those meetings. "I have yet to feel targeted or uncomfortable because of my orientation."
But as someone who moved to Chicago a year ago, he felt The Welcoming Committee would build, for the gay community, a "more solid foundation throughout the city."
"It'll be a more concrete welcome," he said.
Heller said the rapid expansion of The Welcoming Committee shows just how desired community-building is within LGBT circles.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed gay marriage into law in Illinois in November 2013, and politically and culturally, the gay rights movement has made huge strides, Heller said. Growing LGBT acceptance throughout the city may be one reason "gayborhood" Boystown is becoming less gay, according to new research.
But The Welcoming Committee does what political movements can't, Heller said.
"All gay rights campaigns are designed for straight people," he said. "Gays aren’t evolving on marriage equality, straight people are. This is a gay rights movement for gay people."
Pitek said The Welcoming Committee often still acts as a public relations event for straight people who find themselves in the middle of an LGBT takeover.
"Some people say, 'Well, why is that needed in a 2014 post-DOMA world in a fairly liberal city?'" she said. "But when people start understanding comfortable access to space, I think people start to get it, even if they don’t think it's obvious or needed."
Heller envisions The Welcoming Committee on day existing in the largest 20 cities in the United States, and hopes to expand it to New York City, Los Angeles and a city in Texas by February.
Though the founder said he could talk all day about community building and comfortable access to "traditionally straight" spaces, The Welcoming Committee is, first and foremost to most of its members, just a fun way to see new corners of the city while meeting new friends.
"It would be great if you left feeling all the feelings, but if all you left with was saying, 'Damn, that was fun,' that's amazing," he said.
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