Featured Video:
Corinne Kawecki
August
1991
Chicago based Northwestern University researcher Dr. Micheal Bailey published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences his findings and studies of twin brothers of gay men and found that 52 percent of identical twins were also gay.
This Month in Gay History
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Out and Proud in Chicago Book and History Web site launch events set
There are several events planned for the launch of the Chicago Gay History Project Web site (www.chicagogayhistory.org) and companion book, Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Movement, edited by Tracy Baim (Agate/Surrey, 224 pages, $30).
There will be co-authors at each of these events, depending on their own schedules. All events are free except for the Sept. 26 fundraiser.
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Sept. 18, 2008: Book launch: Thursday, Sept. 18, 7 p.m. at Women & Children First Books, 5233 N. Clark Street, Chicago, 773-769-6729. Come meet many of the writers and photographers featured in this new book.
Sept. 26, 2008: History Project fundraiser featuring a rare Chicago appearance by national gay historian Jonathan Ned Katz and Chicago-based historian John D'Emilio. Hosted by Michael Leppen at the Sears Tower Metropolitan Club, 5:30-7:30 p.m., $500 donation. Call 773-387-2394 for details tickets. Sign language interpreter.
Sept. 27, 2008: History Project and Community Book Launch, featuring more than a dozen of the writers from Out and Proud, plus Jonathan Ned Katz and John D'Emilio. Hear about the Web site's future and get copies of your book signed. Saturday, Sept. 27, noon-2 p.m., Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted. Sign language interpreter.
Oct. 1, 2008: The Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Branch downtown, is hosting a panel discussion of the Web site and book, 6 p.m., Wed., Oct. 1, 6 p.m., 400 S. State Street, Chicago. This free event features panelists Tracy Baim, Marie J. Kuda, Jorjet Harper, William B. Kelley, Pat McCombs and Chuck Renslow, followed by Q&A and booksigning.
Oct. 5, 2008: Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore hosts our first suburban Out and Proud booksigning, featuring writer Marie J. Kuda and Tracy Baim, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2-4 p.m., 7419 W. Madison Street, Forest Park, Ill., 708-771-7243.
Oct. 11, 2008: National Coming Out Day is the occasion for this signing in Oak Park 2-4 p.m. at Borders, 1144 Lake Street, 708-386-6927. Hear from Oak Parker Marie J. Kuda, Tracy Baim and other writers about Coming Out Day, the 10th anniversary of the Matthew Shepard murder, and its impact on Chicago.
Oct. 12, 2008: A special far west suburban booksigning in St. Charles at the TownHouse Books & Cafe, 105 North 2nd Avenue, St. Charles, Ill., 630-584-8600.
Welcome to the ChicagoGayHistory.org Web site, a project created by
Tracy Baim. This site is launching officially in September 2008, but
we are posting it now to encourage people to continue to submit
photos and surveys to the project. By September, more than 250 videos
will be edited and posted to this site, as well as tens of thousands
of photos, articles, surveys, transcriptions, and more. Sign up for
our newsletter and you will receive updates about new parts of the
site. See "HOW TO" section for how to use this site.
A companion book to this project will be available by the end of July. Titled Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community, the book is edited by Tracy Baim and features the contributions of more than 20 prominent historians and journalists. It is published by Surrey Books, an Agate imprint, and is hard cover, 224 pages, 4-color, with nearly 400 photos. Look for a book and web site launch in September 2008.
Chicago's gay community has contributed in many ways to the national and international fight for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights. However, those contributions have often been overlooked in documentations of the movement, and this new Chicago Gay History Project seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of those many important people, events, and organizations who helped the Windy City become a beacon of gay progress in the latter part of the 20th Century. From the anti-gay police raids and harassment of earlier decades, Chicago has risen to become one of the most progressive cities in the world, with legal protections, a city-designated neighborhood, a major community center, the hosting of the Gay Games in 2006, and a city-sponsored Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.
Illinois was the first state to remove its sodomy law, and the first gay-rights group in the U.S. started in Chicago. While The Society of Human Rights in the 1920s was short-lived (due to police intervention), the visionary who started that group, Henry Gerber, was among the many Chicagoans who were at the vanguard of the movement for gay equality. From Jane Addams to Lorraine Hansberry, Marie J. Kuda to William Kelley, Chuck Renslow to Vernita Gray, this projects takes an extensive look back, so that we may learn for a better future.
The Chicago Gay History Project will add to the original scholarship documenting our city's key role in the gay movement. Areas of focus include politics, the law, bars, culture, sports, academia, media, and much more. There are hundreds of original video interviews included, plus tens of thousands of articles, photos, and other archival material in this unique project. We include non-gays who contributed to the progress for gay rights, and we also provide extensive resources for additional information.
Come tour through Chicago's rich gay history of the past 100+ years ... we will continue to add new materials and interviews, to make this a living, breathing history of this community.
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