Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Juan Martinez

Abstract

This study examines how online discourse reflects public negotiation of neighborhood identity through a qualitative content analysis of Reddit discussions about the renaming of Chicago's Boystown neighborhood to Northalsted. Prior research on LGBTQ neighborhoods has emphasized gayborhoods as sites of safety, identity formation, political mobilization, commercialization, and uneven inclusion. This project builds on that scholarship by examining digital discourse as a site where place attachment, queer placemaking, and urban branding are debated in everyday language. The study asks why people continue to use the name Boystown after the official rebranding and how online participants interpret, resist, or reinterpret the name Northalsted. Drawing on Reddit threads from 2020 and 2021, I identify themes of nostalgia, place attachment, skepticism toward institutional actors, authenticity, commercialization, and debates over inclusion across race, gender, sexuality, and class. Findings suggest that the persistence of Boystown is not simply a matter of habit. Rather, the name continues because it carries historical, emotional, and symbolic meanings that are difficult to replace through a top-down branding effort. At the same time, the data show that attachment to Boystown is contested because the neighborhood's history has not been equally welcoming to all LGBTQ people. By centering online discourse, this project contributes to sociological understandings of how digital publics participate in the construction, preservation, and contestation of urban place identity.

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