Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Activists speak about former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's LGBTQ legacy
by Max Lubbers
2021-10-14

This article shared 4293 times since Thu Oct 14, 2021
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


LGBTQ+ advocates reflected on former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's legacy at Center on Halsted Oct. 13, discussing his role in the city's Human Rights Ordinance and outreach to the LGBTQ+ community. A display of 1980s Windy City Times covers featuring Washington was available in the lobby.

When Washington won the 1983 mayoral election, he became the first Black mayor in Chicago's history. He was later re-elected in 1987 and died in November of that year, but activists said his impact lasted far beyond his tenure and life.

Channyn Lynne Parker, who served as co-MC with Kim Hunt, said his influence is not only evident in his specific accomplishments for the LGBTQ+ community, but also in his ability to inspire.

"When we think about the legacy of Harold Washington, it is all around us. It is sitting with us today," she said. "I see it in the faces of individuals, right now, who dare to dream."

Many of the activists in the room Wednesday worked directly with Washington to effect change, with two panels of key players. The first panel, moderated by Mona Noriega, featured Peggy Baker, who Washington appointed to be the city's first paid liaison to the lesbian and gay community, and Ann Christophersen, who served on Chicago's first gay and lesbian advisory committee and is co-founder of Women & Children First bookstore.

Baker said she moved to Chicago right before Washington's first election, but quickly realized how critical it was for him to serve as mayor.

"My 'We're not in Kansas anymore' moment came when I put on a Washington button and I was walking down State Street by Marshall Field's, and this old white guy spit at me," Baker said. "… I came to feel that supporting Washington's work was about the most important thing that you could be doing in Chicago."

Both Baker and Chrisophersen spoke about the way Washington deeply listened to their concerns and made LGBTQ+ rights a priority. Christophersen said he was particularly interested in hearing personal stories.

"It plugged right into his civil-rights agenda," she said. "We were certainly ready for him and so happy to have him, and he was ready for us."

Former Chicagoan Tom Donelan spoke briefly from the audience about Ken Glover, a top Washington staffer who took the title as the first Washington liaison to the gay community (in addition to his other duties), to make sure the community was not left out of the mayor's first administration. Community ally Kit Duffy was formally appointed later, as a volunteer gay and lesbian liaison for Washington.

Co-founder of Windy City Times Tracy Baim, who organized the program, offered insight into Washington's commitment to civil rights, speaking earlier in the night about an interview she did with Washington in 1986.

At the time, he told WCT that he didn't need an election to support gays and their rights, it was just natural.

However, the second panel of activists, moderated by Mary Morten, emphasized that Washington did not do the work for them. Instead, he encouraged them to fight for their rights.

That panel of speakers—Laurie Dittman, Rick Garcia and Art Johnston—helped push the passage of the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance along with the late Jon-Henri Damski.

It would take three tries for it to pass, Johnston said.

When the first version failed, Johnston said they realized Washington could try to sway City Council members—but he wouldn't somehow create a miracle.

"It was a moment of intense education for all of us, when we lost that vote," he said. "And the mayor made clear to us: Don't rely on me to get your rights for you. You must learn to do it for yourselves."

They said that through their work with Washington, they learned important political strategies.

Garcia spoke about the importance of including nuns in their strategy to go after Catholic aldermen, and Dittman said it was important that she was able to do this work as part of her paid political work with IVI-IPO.

Illinois State Sen. Mike Simmons, who concluded the event, spoke of lessons he takes from Washington's legacy.

Simmons said that as the first openly gay member elected to the Illinois Senate and first senator of color to serve the state's 7th District, Washington's story resonates with him.

"He just had such a marvelous way of connecting with ordinary Chicagoans … but he did it in a way where he built these huge incredible coalitions of people," he said. "He was elected mayor at a time when Chicago was still overtly racist, where people will literally tell you they will not vote for 'the Blacks,' and some of those people lived in the neighborhood I grew up in [Lincoln Square]."

Simmons said that now, as the senator of representing so many different neighborhoods, he's learned to be a coalition-builder, too—and hopes that it will be easier for the generations that come after him.

"We do these things together," he said. "We leave a ripple effect that redefines the political culture, and when I'm done in 10, 20 or 30 years from now, the next generation of people are going to be able to do even more and say more and create more tension."


This article shared 4293 times since Thu Oct 14, 2021
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Thailand parliament passes landmark marriage bill
2024-03-27
On March 27, Thailand's parliament approved a marriage-equality bill by an overwhelmingly large margin—a landmark step that moves one of Asia's most liberal countries closer to legalizing same-sex unions, media ...


Gay News

Kara Swisher talks truth, power in tech at Chicago Humanities event
2024-03-25
Lesbian author, award-winning journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher spoke about truth and power in the tech industry through the lens of her most recent book, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, March 21 at First ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

Chicago alder proposes renaming street after Obama
2024-03-22
Openly gay Black Chicago Ald. Lamont Robinson has proposed renaming Columbus Drive after former U.S. President and city resident Barack Obama, media outlets noted. The street stretches through the Loop from East Grand Avenue to DuSable ...


Gay News

Congressional Equality Caucus on FY24 bills passing the house
2024-03-22
--From a press release - WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), released the following statement after the House successfully passed the final funding bills for Fiscal Year ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds
2024-03-21
It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Va. marriage bill, AARP, online counseling, Idaho items, late activist
2024-03-21
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills protecting same-sex marriages at a state level, surprising some, WRIC reported. The bills—passed out of both chambers along mostly party lines—will require clerks ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ candidates Marcelino Garcia, Precious Brady Davis win primary elections to keep MWRD seats
2024-03-21
Marcelino Garcia and Precious Brady-Davis, the two openly LGBTQ+ incumbents in the race to keep their seats on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), won their primary elections and will move on to the general this ...


Gay News

Small LGBTQ+ candidate pool nevertheless scores some important victories March 19
2024-03-20
Relatively few openly LGBTQ+ candidates were running in the March 19 Illinois Primary Election. But there were some significant contests in play at the local, state and federal levels. Openly gay Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) ...


Gay News

Gay Irish prime minister to step down
2024-03-20
In a surprise move, openly gay Irish Prime Minister (or Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar has announced his resignation, citing "personal and political, but mainly political reasons," according to CNN. Varadkar said he felt he was no longer ...


Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course
2024-03-18
Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools
2024-03-15
In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


Gay News

Chicago History Museum announces "Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s - 70s exhibition
2024-03-14
--From a press release - CHICAGO (March 14, 2024) — The Chicago History Museum is thrilled to announce its upcoming exhibition, "Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s—70s." Set to open on Saturday, May 18, 2024, this exhibition is ...


Gay News

PASSAGES: Former Chicago Commission on Human Relations chair Clarence Wood
2024-03-13
LGBTQ ally and former Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) Chair and Commissioner Clarence N. Wood died March 5. He was 83. Wood was born April 14, 1940, in Alabama. While primarily raised in Alabama, Wood ...


Gay News

Women's History Month doesn't do enough to lift up Black lesbians
2024-03-12
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Combahee River Collective (CRC) was founded in Boston by several lesbian and feminist women of African descent. As a sisterhood, they understood that their acts of protest were shouldered by ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.