Puerto Rican queer group comes out

The Chicago area's first Puerto Rican LGBTQ group is holding its first public event tonight. Boricua PRIDE is gathering supporters in the city's Humboldt Park neighborhood to raise funds for a new arts center. "We see lots of younger people coming out [as queer] now, but they go to Boystown," says Boricua PRIDE co-founder Ruben Feliciano, referring to a gay enclave along Chicago's North Shore. "We want to create safe places here in Humboldt Park, so they feel comfortable in their own community." Feliciano tells me one such place will be the arts center, known properly as the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, which is trying to finish a $5 million renovation of its headquarters, a former horse stable in Humboldt Park.