For the third year in a row, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC’s) Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) hosted a Lavender Graduation. When it first started in 2007, the event was designed to give LGBTQA students a way to celebrate their graduation and academic achievements while recognizing that their sexual and gender identities were integral to their educational experiences and deserving of celebration and recognition. Since then, Lavender Graduation has expanded from 10 students to 30; this year’s keynote speaker was trans actor/entertainer Alexandra Billings.
Category: Chicago Chronicles
Articles about/reporting on Chicago events, issues, and people.
After weeks of speculation and rumors floating in the Chicago LGBTQ community, Howard Brown Health Center (HBHC) finally confirmed that the reasons for the departure of CEO Michael Cook and CFO Mark Joslyn had to do with allegations of mishandling funds involving the Multi-Center AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) grant. As announced last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) , which administers the grant, discovered the discrepancies. HBHC also announced that Jamal Edwards, currently a partner in the law firm of Kirkland and Ellis, will take over as CEO June 1. Windy City Times spoke separately to Edwards and to Paul Fairchild, the interim chief operating officer.
Angela Davis’ appearance at Columbia College’s Getz Theater April 30 was book ended by standing ovations. As she strode out onto the stage, the intergenerational audience that had been buzzing in anticipation rose as one and clapped wildly. In a mark of her status as a living cultural icon, some in the audience were sporting T-shirts with the famous image of her from the 1970s, when Davis was wanted and eventually jailed by the FBI, sparking an international “Free Angela” campaign that led to her eventual release.
In a surprise action, approximately 50 members of the local grassroots organization Gender JUST (Justice United for Societal Transformation) and allies took over the downtown headquarters of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) April 29. This was part of an ongoing series of actions by the group’s Safe and Affirming Education Campaign, which focuses on the issues facing LGBTQ and other youth in CPS. Members of Gender JUST, including several youth and students, have been trying to work with CEO Ron Huberman in an effort to institute a grievance procedure with the school system.
It has now been almost a month since Windy City Times first broke the news that Howard Brown Health Center (HBHC) had placed its CEO and CFO, Michael Cook and Mark Joslyn, respectively, on paid administrative leave. Since then, HBHC has revealed no details about the reasons for its actions, only issuing a series of increasingly cryptic press releases promising further details.
The Chicago History Museum’s Out at CHM series hosted its first Latina/o event March 4. Titled “Queer Latinos: Art and Change,” the program showcased the work of two researchers, Lourdes Torres and Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes who presented on their Chicago-based work in the Latino/a community. They were introduced by Ramon Rivera-Servera, an assistant professor in the department of performance studies at Northwestern University.
