Category: Queer Politics, Culture, and History

LGBTQs part of May 1 immigration rally

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 6, 2009

This year’s May Day celebration came at a time of both hope and uncertainty for both LGBTQ and straight attendees. With an Obama administration in the White House, there is hope for substantive changes in policy among labor organizers and immigration activists. But this year’s rally came in the midst of an outbreak of “swine flu,” later dubbed A(H1N1) by the World Health Organization. Since this particular strain is reported to have its origins in Mexico, and because Chicago’s annual May Day march has effectively become an immigrant-rights march, concerns about contagion caused initial uncertainty about whether or not the event would even go on.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History

Gay Bars and Bachelorettes, Oh My!

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 3, 2009

“Clearly, these women desire a kind of sexual freedom that has no space in heterosexual institutions. That, for me, suggests that women are not able to safely have a kind of freedom of sexual expression in straight spaces. That’s intense.”

Image result for pulp covers with gay sex

Chicago Chronicles Feminism Queer Politics, Culture, and History

Bar none: Gay clubs reject bachelorette parties

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 29, 2009

Dawn Turner Trice’s recent Chicago Tribune article, “Gay rights battle puts strain on parties,” has created a stir. Trice noted that Geno Zaharakis of Cocktail, a gay bar at 3359 N. Halsted, does not allow bachelorette parties. Neither does the popular nightspot Sidetrack (next door at 3349 N. Halsted) , co-owned by Art Johnston, who was quoted in the article. The story disrupts the popular mythology about the bond between gay men and straight women, and it shines a new spotlight on the gay-marriage movement, which has seen significant advances. Is the ban a sign of things to come, and what does it tell us about the historical relationship of gay bars to their neighborhoods and their clientele? Windy City Times spoke to the principal people involved and a historian of gay political life.

Gay pulp art print Gay Cruise vintage pulp paperback cover image 0

Academia Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Daley double: Scholar talks local LGBTQ history

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 29, 2009

Chicago’s infamous machine politics is as much the stuff of lore as a reality of Chicago life. Richard J. Daley, most associated with the machine, was mayor from 1955 to 1976. His son, Richard M. Daley, has been mayor from 1989 to the present. Except for a period of 13 years in the interim, there has been a Daley in power since the mid-1950s. The issue of what differences, if any, mark the tenures of the two men has been the subject of several books.

Capitalism, Class, Inequality Film, Art, Television, and Media Gay Marriage Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Gays All A-Twitter about Amazon: How They Nearly Ended Capitalism But Chose to Hate Porn Instead

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 16, 2009

Gay love and erotic content are opposed to PORN! BAD PORN! NAUGHTY PORN! DISGUSTING, VILE PORN!

Gay Marriage Queer Politics, Culture, and History

I Support Gay Marriage

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 1, 2009

“What was really keeping me from fighting for gay marriage?”

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

LGBT elders make themselves heard

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 1, 2009

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.

Feminism Gay Marriage Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

The Kids Aren’t All Right: The Gay Marriage Movement and its Manipulation of Children and Youth

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date March 22, 2009

Is this what we want: young people whose self-worth is determined entirely by their romantic relationships?

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Frat comes out against Kansas church

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date March 18, 2009

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.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

UIC’s center hosts town hall

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date March 18, 2009

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.