The library is open–for a quick look at Chicago’s LGBTQ history
Chicago today is known internationally as an amazing hub for the LGBTQ community. With some of the best nightlife and drag entertainment to hosting iconic queer film festivals and gatherings, none of it would be possible without the work and visibility of LGBTQ artists and activists from the past. We’ve teamed up with the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame to bring you ten historic LGBTQ moments in Chicago.
Photo: Facebook / Frankie Knuckles Foundation
Frankie Knuckles and Chicago House Music
Renowned DJ and music producer Frankie Knuckles earned his title of “The Godfather of House Music” for his influential role in developing and popularizing the genre. His journey in Chicago started as the music director for The Warehouse, an invite-only nightclub of Black and Latino gay men, often considered birthplace of house music. Knuckles helped in creating a safe haven for queer people of color and eventually founded his own nightclub, Power House. Knuckles passed away in March 2014, but his music and the causes he advocated for remain cemented in Chicago through the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.
Photo: Facebook / The Continental Pageantry System
Miss Continental Pageantry System
The Miss Continental pageant was founded in 1980 by Chicagoan Jim Flint and was the first beauty pageant to allow trans women to participate. The pageant system soon expanded with branches to include male entertainers, plus-size competitors, and entertainers over the age of forty. The competition has seen legendary past winners like Chilli Pepper, Mimi Marks, and Mokha Montrese - and even Drag Race stars Naysha Lopez, Brooke Lynn Hytes, and Roxxxy Andrews. Based out of the historic Baton Lounge, Miss Continental remains active to this day (celebrating over 50 years of the pageant) and garners thousands of attendees each Labor Day weekend.
Photo: Web Archive / Chicago LGBT Hall Of Fame
The Stroll
The Stroll was the colloquial name given to the section of State Street between 26th and 39th in the 1910s and 1920s. This bright light strip was buzzing with Black Chicagoans and the art and culture they created, particularly thriving during the Jazz Age. The Stroll was also home to numerous cabarets, vaudeville theaters, and dance palaces offering Black queer people more freedom in their personal lives. Artists who migrated during this time include openly gay ragtime piano player Tony Jackson, blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey with songs alluding to her sexuality, and several other trans women, drag queens, and “female impersonators”.
Photo: Facebook / Hydrate Nightclub
South Side Ballroom Culture
The ballroom scene in Chicago dates back to the 1920s in Bronzeville and the South Side. One of the first documented balls, the Finnie Balls, was led by a gay street hustler named Alfred Finnie. These grew and amassed huge gatherings on special events like Halloween. Balls in Chicago were also amongst the first to have a drag presence, even before New York. Due to the city’s long history of segregation, old-school balls stayed primarily on the South Side of Chicago, but still provided a space for non-black queer people. The culture of voguing and ballroom competitions continues to this day and is imperative to maintaining a community for Black queer youth. The Annual Midwest Ball is one of the biggest in the US.
Photo: Facebook / Gerber/Hart Library & Archives
The Intersection Of Black and LGBTQ Activism
Police harassment disproportionately affected Black and LGBTQ communities in Chicago. This led a lot of LGBTQ activists to align their organizations with Black political leaders who increasingly challenged police brutality through protests and lawsuits. The 70s and 80s also saw the foundations of transgender political organizations like the Transvestites Legal Committee and the Black Panther Party chapter in Chicago working with the Chicago Gay Alliance and the Mattachine Midwest to focus on entrapment police harassment and raids. The first black mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington, was influential in repealing laws against sodomy and homosexuality. Another pivotal moment of intersectionality was the Ad Hoc Committee of Proud Black Lesbians and Gays. The organization was founded in 1993 to represent the Black LGBTQ+ community in the Bud Billiken Parade. While the initial application was denied, the group was able to participate the following year with the help of Lamda Legal and marched near the front of the parade, celebrating themes of visibility, youth education, and anti-violence.
Photo: Web Archive / Hull House Museum
Jane Addams and Hull-House
Jane Addams was a settlement activist and reformer who was an important leader in the women’s suffrage movement, based out of Chicago. She founded one of America’s biggest settlement houses, Hull-House on the North West Side of Chicago, with her romantic partner Ellen Gates Star. While contemporary language about sexuality and gender did not exist at the time, Addams exclusively had relationships with women who were also activists. The Hull-House complex grew to thirteen buildings in Chicago and over 500 settlement houses across the nation, and still stands today as the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.
Photo: Web Archive / Chicago LGBT Hall Of Fame
Henry Gerber and the Society For Human Rights
German immigrant Henry Gerber founded the Society For Human Rights, the nation’s first gay rights organization, as well as Friendship & Freedom, the first American publication for gay men. Unfortunately, both the organization and publication faced an early demise following the arrest of several of the Society's members. His legacy lives on in the Henry Gerber House, designated a Chicago and National Landmark, and the Gerber/Hart Library. Gerber’s organization was also influential in the founding of the Mattachine Society and its Chicago chapter.
Photo: Web Archive / Chuck Renslow
Chuck Renslow and Chicago’s Leather Scene
Chuck Renslow was an openly gay artist and activist who was extremely influential in developing Chicago’s world-famous leather and kink scene. Renslow started as a photographer and founded a male physique photography studio with his partner Dom “Etienne” Orejudos, a homoerotic artist. Together they founded the country’s first gay leather bar, Gold Coast Bar, as well as Man’s Country Bathhouse. Renslow also founded Chicago's August White Party (now a popular circuit party format) and the International Mr. Leather competition that garners thousands of attendees from around the world. Renslow’s legacy is secured in the Leather Archives and Museum that he co-founded with Tony DeBlase.
Photo: Web Archives / Feminist Press
Lesbian Pulp Fictions Novels
With very little LGBTQ media available at the time, lesbian pulp fiction novels emerged as cheap and disposable entertainment that developed its own circulation subculture amongst (closeted) lesbian and bisexual women. These paperbacks gained immense popularity with their overtly lesbian themes and titillating art. Chicago’s Newsstand Library Books publisher led the pack with pulp novels made available at bus stops and newspaper stands until a judge declared the books obscene and non-mailable. Popular local author Valerie Taylor also served as an LGBTQ activist and co-founded the Mattachine Society and the Lesbian Writers' Conference in Chicago. As part of their "Femme Fatale" series, Feminist Press has reissued three of Taylor's novels.
Photo: Facebook / The Newberry Library
The Gay Liberation March For The Stonewall Riots
In June 1970, Chicago was one of four cities in the US that led a Gay Liberation March to commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York. The rally started in Washington Park also known as Bughouse Square, a popular site for political and artistic discourse as well as a cruising area for queer men. The march grew rapidly gaining support from local organizations in the 70s and 80s, and eventually developed into the Annual Chicago Pride Parade we now see on the Northalsted strip. The Newberry Library in Washington Park continues the tradition of the Bughouse Square Debates via mounted soapboxes for all speakers and performers to use.
Check out the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame to learn more about queer pioneers in Chicago.
If we missed a historic LGBTQ moment in Chicago that you’d like to see on this list, email [email protected].
