Located in the heart of Boystown in the Lakeview neighborhood, the Legacy Walk is the world’s only outdoor LGBTQ history museum. Its 20 rainbow pylons and bronze plaques recognizing significant individuals were installed along Halsted Street between Belmont Avenue to Grace Street in 1997, and could soon become a protected Chicago landmark. The stretch got more colorful this summer with the recent addition of 14 rainbow-painted crosswalks. Explore the Legacy Walk on your own or with a guided tour—just don’t expect to get very far through the crowds if you try during Sunday’s parade.

While best known for its Swedish heritage, the Andersonville neighborhood is home to a diverse population of Chicagoans and serves as an LGBTQ hub, especially for lesbians. Once referred to as the female equivalent of Boystown, “Girlstown” has seen a decline in its lesbian population in recent years, but many of the neighborhood’s lesbian-centric businesses remain including feminist bookstore Women & Children First.

This landmark mansion in Chicago’s Little Italy serves as a memorial to the memory and legacy of Jane Addams (1860–1935). As a social reformer, pacifist, suffragette, feminist, and a lesbian—though some debate the use of the label—Addams fought for the rights of the disenfranchised and championed causes like child labor, public health, and race relations. She was also the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Addams was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 2008.

LGBTQ pioneer Henry Gerber lived in this stone row house in Chicago’s Old Town Triangle between 1924 and 1925. It was during this time that Gerber founded the nation’s first gay rights organization, the Society for Human Rights. Its “Friendship and Freedom” newsletter was considered the first documented gay rights publication in the country, according to the plaque outside the landmarked residence. The organization was short lived, and Gerber moved to New York after police raided his Chicago home.

In Woodlawn, you’ll find the childhood home of famous Chicago-born playwright Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965). Hansberry went on the write A Raisin in the Sun, the first Broadway play penned by an African American woman. In the 1950s, she identified herself as a lesbian and joined the organization the Daughters of Bilitis where she frequently contributed to its newsletter. The South Side property was designated a Chicago landmark in 2010.

This unassuming three-story building at 206 W. Jefferson Street was once home to the Warehouse club. Founded in 1977, the venue is considered the birthplace of house music—a genre that is said to get its very name from the Warehouse. In its late 70s and early 80s heyday, resident DJ Frankie Knuckles (1955-2014) popularized a new style of music by remixing disco and European electronica. All were welcome at the Warehouse, but the club was particularly popular among gay black men. The city renamed the block “Frankie Knuckles Way” in 2004.

Also located in Rogers Park, the Gerber/Hart Library is the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ circulating library with over 14,000 volumes, 800 periodical titles, and 100 archival collections. Founded in 1981, the nonprofit facility also hosts programs and temporary exhibits. Current exhibitions include a look back at the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots titled Out of the Closets & into the Street: Power, Pride & Resistance in Chicago’s Gay Liberation Movement as well as a collection of historic LGBTQ slogan and Pride parade pins.

In many ways, Chicago’s LGBTQ legacy is still an open book with new chapters being added all the time. This lakefront garden, dedicated to Chicago’s fight against HIV and AIDS, is still in the works. Located next to the Belmont Rocks—a meeting place for Chicago’s LGBTQ community for decades—the new green space is expected to open later this year. For more information and opportunities to support the project, check out the AIDS Garden Chicago website.