Yasmin Nair

Group stages sit-in at Durbin’s office; 13 arrested

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 26, 2010

Thirteen LGBTQ protesters staged a sit-in at U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin’s Chicago office May 20. They went to insist that the senator sign a pledge affirming his support for a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) . The senator was not in his office, but the activists refused to leave unless the pledge was signed; Durbin did not oblige. The pledge required Durbin to “agree to stand before [his colleagues in the U.S. Senate and the media to forcefully declare the urgent need for a transgender-inclusive ENDA in 2010.”

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Gender JUST protests CPS again

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 19, 2010

Gender JUST carried out its third direct action against CPS May 13. The local grassroots organization has been waging a campaign for a grievance process that would allow LGBTQ students in Chicago public schools (CPS) to record the harassment they suffer and for greater awareness facing these students overall. According to the group, it has been unsuccessfully attempting for nearly a year to get Ron Huberman, chief executive officer of CPS, to agree to the institution of this process. Finally, feeling that it was being stalled and that talks had broken down, the group has, in recent weeks, been engaging in direct action protests against CPS and Huberman.

Film, Art, Television, and Media Gay Marriage Hate Crime Legislation Prison industrial complex Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Reporting

Queers on the Run: Interview with Eric Stanley and Chris Vargas

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 14, 2010

“Radical queers haven’t yet figured out how to use film as politics; we’ve done it with performance and spoken word, but not with film. The assimilationists are winning the war because they’ve learned how to use film as propaganda by wrapping their message in the preferred discourse of civil rights.”

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Reporting

Sweet Tea comes to life

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 12, 2010

Sweet Tea, a new production of E. Patrick Johnson’s one-man performance of the stories and lives of Black gay men in the South, began its theatrical run May 7 at the Viaduct Theatre. The piece is based on Johnson’s book of the same name, a compendium of interviews with 63 subjects. The May 8 performance was preceded by a panel discussion involving several of the men. Windy City Times spoke with three of them separately by phone the day before the initial performance.

Academia Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Alexandra Billings speaks at UIC’s Lavender Graduation

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 12, 2010

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.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Howard Brown: New leaders talk

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 5, 2010

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.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Reporting

Angela Davis at Columbia College

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 5, 2010

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.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Gender JUST takes over CPS building

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 5, 2010

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.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Howard Brown: More questions than answers

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 28, 2010

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.

Academia On Books and Publishing Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

D’Emilio talks Nixon and gay liberation

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 21, 2010

The Chicago History Museum’s (CHM’s) ongoing series, Out at CHM, featured local gay historian John D’Emilio on April 15. D’Emilio, a professor of history and gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, presented a piece entitled “Richard Nixon, Gay Liberationist?” Speaking to a packed auditorium, D’Emilio discussed the implications of his research for scholars of queer history. He argued that while it was tempting to read the virtual end of the harassment of gay bars in the 1970s as a sign of the success of queer resistance to the Daley machine, the truth might be more prosaic and linked to wider national political changes of the time.