LGBTQ+ business owners discussed the need for a citywide minority-owned business certification and other ways the government can better support them during an information session hosted by Congresswoman Delia Ramirez.
More than a dozen business owners met June 17 at Villanelle, a queer-focused event venue at 2500 W. Chicago Ave., where they got a rare chance to network with other LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and share what issues affect them most.
“When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, when it comes to the immigrant community and when it comes to our Black small business community, we don’t have enough of them here, and we should be supporting and uplifting them,” Ramirez told Windy City Times. “This is an opportunity to also hear directly from small businesses about what’s working and what’s not.”
One of the most prominent issues the entrepreneurs raised was the lack of an LGBTQ+-owned business certification in Chicago, which would require a percentage of contracts for city business to go to LGBTQ+-owned businesses. Such certifications already exist for minority- and women-owned businesses.
“One of the biggest challenges is getting certified as a vendor,” said Rick Aguilar, who owns a photography business known as Rick Aguilar Studios. “I tried like 14 years ago, but the process was so difficult I just kind of gave up.”
Robin Hicks and Ilana Sepiashvili, board members of LGBT Chamber of Commerce, said the organization has been advocating for such a business designation in Chicago for years. They were hopeful the certification would be created under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who promised it within her first 100 days, but progress stalled after City Council conducted a study on whether the program would be effective in Chicago, Sepiashvili said.
“We spoke to Lori Lightfoot and she said that the data didn’t justify itself,” Sepiashvili said. “Then COVID happened, then the conversation went off the table … and nothing moved forward.”
Chicago’s City Council voted for the LGBTQ+-owned business certification study in January 2020, according to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times. But some alderpeople expressed worries at the time that the set-asides would only benefit cisgender white men as such contracts are already available for women- and minority-owned businesses.
“Women are already considered a minority. African Americans, Latinos and Asians—all of them are considered a minority. The only ones in the LGBT arena that are not considered as a minority is the white male,” Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) said at the time.
But LGBTQ+-owned businesses still face unique challenges and could benefit from the set-asides, Sepiashvili said.
“Chicago does say they welcome everybody and puts everybody’s rights out there with beautiful, flashy posters, but it’s just talk,” Sepiashvili said. “With the right people and the right connections, we might have our voice heard a little bit better and get things done.”
Other entrepreneurs discussed the struggle to find a balance between using their businesses to serve their community while also making enough money to be self-sustainable. Many said simply having a meeting where they could connect with other business owners on these issues was helpful to them.
“Being able to be here together and network today is huge,” said Taylor Deatherage, owner of Logan Arch Chicago, a store catering to nerdy people of all ages. “There are a lot of weird barriers or challenges that prevent us from coming together, and this is a great step toward emerging more together.”
Ramirez and her team took notes throughout the discussion and promised to use what they heard from the business owners to influence changes that might help them.
“The truth is that I have the privilege to be in relationships with our alderperson, commissioners, state elected [officials] and some of our mayors,” Ramirez said. “And I have a responsibility to make sure that your concerns are also heard when I’m having conversations with them about how we can make sure Chicago really is, beyond the hashtags, a place that is welcoming for all of us.”
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