Category: Chicago Chronicles

The Reagan years defined a new era in LGBTQ organizing.  The community struggled against governmental apathy towards AIDS while forging activist communities that demanded resources and health care for those affected by the disease.

For the most part, historians have paid attention to LGBTQ activism in this decade by focusing on the two coasts.  However, Chicago witnessed its own efflorescence of intense activism in this decade, and a May 7 Out at CHM (Chicago History Museum, 1601 N.  Clark) panel entitled “surviving Reagan” provided a glimpse at the work of some of the city’s queer activists.  The event was moderated by Jennifer Brier, assistant professor of history and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the author of a forthcoming book on the politics of AIDS from 1980 to 2000.

The Chicago Department of Senior Services is required to conduct annual citywide public hearings on the Area Plan on Aging.  This public document is designed to describe how the Office of Senior Services will use funds from the Older Americans Act of 1965 and from the State of Illinois General Revenue Funds.  Howard Brown recently conducted an LGBT Elder Needs Assessment, and the results were presented at a public forum at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N.  Halsted, March 24.  The event was organized by the Chicago Task Force on LGBT Aging and the SAGE Advisory Council.

The Westboro Baptist Church, headed by the notoriously anti-gay and right-wing Fred Phelps, made its way to the University of Chicago campus on March 9.

The Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC; formerly the Office of GLBT Concerns) at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) hosted a town hall March 12 to discuss its future directions and the search for a new director.  The previous director, Patrick Finnessey, left in November and Liz Thomson was appointed interim director.  Thomson has been keen to engage the larger LGBTQ community with the mission of GSC.

A new support group for LGBTQ people living with disabilities has recently begun meeting at Access Living, and its founders are eager to spread the word about it in the community.