Tracing the gay movement's trajectory since the 1950s from the closet to the corridors of power, Queer Clout is the first book to weave together activism and electoral politics, shifting the story from the coastal gay meccas to the nation's great inland metropolis. Timothy Stewart-Winter challenges the traditional division between the homophile and gay liberation movements, and stresses gay people's and African Americans' shared focus on police harassment. He highlights the crucial role of black civil rights activists and political leaders in offering white gays and lesbians not only a model for protest but also an opening to join an emerging liberal coalition in city hall. The book draws on diverse oral histories and archival records spanning half a century, including those of undercover vice and police red squad investigators, previously unexamined interviews by midcentury social scientists studying gay life, and newly available papers of activists, politicians, and city agencies.
As the first history of gay politics in the post-Stonewall era grounded in archival research, Queer Clout sheds new light on the politics of race, religion, and the AIDS crisis, and it shows how big-city politics paved the way for the gay movement's unprecedented successes under the nation's first African American president.
In 1924 Henry Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. While he was in the Army, Gerber was stationed in Coblenz, Germany. While there, he experienced a more open homosexual community than in America. After his return to the U.S. in 1923, Gerber distanced himself from what he saw as a disorganized, politically unaware gay subculture, choosing instead to live in relative anonymity in a boarding house in Chicago, Illinois. In contrast to the more mainstream, community-oriented homosexual movement he experienced in Germany, American gay subculture was largely relegated to saloons, speakeasies, and the realm of prostitution, a marginalized place in society that was often seen as lascivious and criminal. When he founded the Society for Human Rights, Gerber melded his experiences with the German homophile movement with the American ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, continually referencing the importance of law and order, and a person's right to pursue happiness.
The Society for Human Rights published the earliest-documented homosexual periodical, Friendship and Freedom. Subscription rates were low, a problem that Gerber attributed to the fear of persecution felt by many homosexuals, which kept them from joining organizations or otherwise publicizing their sexual interests. Gerber himself was a victim of the social and political hostilities of the time; in 1925 he and several other group members were arrested. Although never charged, his belongings were confiscated and there were highly prejudiced legal proceedings and extensive, negative media coverage. As a result, the Society for Human Rights withered away.
Henry Gerber's enthusiasm for activism was severely dampened following these warrantless arrests. He went back to living a lower-profile life but continued writing about the position and plight of homosexuals and continued networking and building community with gay allies. In 2015, the Henry Gerber House became the nation's second National Historic Landmark designated for its association with LGBTQ history.
1889: Social reformer and activist Jane Addams opens Chicago’s Hull House, a settlement house, on the city’s West Side. Addams “had at least two long-term same-sex relationships — one of which, with Mary Rozet Smith, lasted 40 years,” according to the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.
1914: Pearl Hart graduates from John Marshall Law School in 1914. Known as the “Guardian Angel of Chicago’s Gay Community,” Hart is one of the first female attorneys to practice criminal law in Chicago and frequently defends countless gay men arrested in bars and tea rooms.
1924: The first American gay rights organization, The Society for Human Rights, is created by German immigrant and Chicago resident Henry Gerber. The state of Illinois officially recognizes the group on Dec. 10, 1924.
1935: Street hustler and gambler Alfred Finnie hosts the first Finnie’s Ball in a basement tavern near 38th Street and Michigan Avenue on Chicago’s South Side. The festivities continue for decades, with thousands of attendees participating in female impersonation contests. A 1953 Ebony magazine article said, “More than 1,500 spectators milled around outside Chicago’s Pershing Ballroom to get a glimpse of the bejeweled impersonators who arrived in limousines, taxis, Fords, and even by streetcar.”
1950: Jazz trumpeter Ernestine “Tiny” Davis opens the club Tiny & Ruby’s Gay Spot with her partner Ruby Lucas in the 2700 block of South Wentworth Avenue in Chicago.
1956: On Aug. 30, 1956, psychologist Evelyn Hooker delivers her paper “The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual,” which was published a year later, at the American Psychiatric Association Convention in Chicago. Her study challenged beliefs about gay men and found that they were not inherently abnormal. In 1973 the APA removed homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders.
1959: “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry becomes the first play written by an African American woman to open on Broadway. Hansberry, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side, featured same-sex attraction in some of her work and is credited with writing two pro-lesbian letters in “The Ladder,” an early lesbian publication, according to the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.
1961: Illinois is the first state to do away with sodomy laws on July 28, 1961.
1965: Lesbian pulp novelist Valerie Taylor and lawyer Pearl Hart, among others, establish Mattachine Midwest, the city’s first successful gay rights organization. The group publishes the Mattachine Midwest Newsletter covering police harassment, raids, legal issues, local events, meetings, community news and more.
1968: Attorney Ralla Klepak represents Chicago bar The Trip after it is illegally raided and loses its liquor license. The case makes it to the Supreme Court and Klepak is victorious.
1970: One of the first pride parades in the U.S. is held in Chicago on June 27, 1970, a day before the anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York a year earlier.
1974: The Chicago Gay Medical Students Association creates Howard Brown Memorial Clinic, a place where gays and lesbians can receive counseling and sexually transmitted infections testing and treatment. The clinic eventually becomes Howard Brown Health Center.
1977: On June 14, 1977, thousands gather outside the Medinah Temple to protest Florida orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant, who opposed gay rights.
1984: Mayor Harold Washington delivers a speech at an LGBT rally in Lincoln Park, endorsing what was known as the Human Rights Ordinance. This is the first time a sitting mayor speaks at an event not connected to a campaign. Washington died before the ordinance was approved by the City Council on Dec. 21, 1988.
1985: On March 2, 1985, drugmaker Abbott develops the first blood screening test for HIV antibodies.
1985:On Sept. 9, 1985, Chicago House is incorporated in Illinois as a nonprofit with the goal of providing housing to those with AIDS.
1988: The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which honors the lives of those lost to the disease, is displayed at Navy Pier from July 7 to July 11, 1988.
1989: On Jan. 2, 1989, Open Hand Chicago begins regular meal deliveries for those impacted by AIDS.
1991: The Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame, later renamed the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame, is created in Chicago, honoring people and organizations who have contributed to the city’s LGBTQ communities.
1992: The University of Chicago begins to offer benefits to gay and lesbian couples, one of the first colleges to do so.
1992: Daniel Sotomayor, the co-founder of ACT-UP/Chicago, a national organization committed to using direct action and civil disobedience to fight AIDS, passes away.
1994: Thomas R. Chiola is the first openly gay elected official in Illinois when he becomes a Cook County Circuit Court judge.
1995: Judges on a state appellate court note, “nothing in the (Adoption) Act suggests that sexual orientation is a relevant consideration, and lesbians and gay men are permitted to adopt in Illinois.”
1997: Chicago passes an ordinance that grants fringe benefits to same-sex domestic partners of city government employees.
2001: Illinois recognizes hate crimes against gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
2007: On June 1, 2007, The Center on Halsted, which began in 1973 as Gay Horizons, opens its doors on the corner of Halsted Street and Waveland Avenue. Now, more than 1,000 people use the center each day.
2008: Illinois legislators decide same-sex partners can make decisions regarding health care in certain circumstances.
2010: Illinois passes the Safe School Improvement Act, which prohibits bullying and the harassment of students based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
2013: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signs the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, making Illinois the 16th state in the nation to embrace full marriage equality for same-sex couples on Nov. 20, 2013. Longtime activist Vernita Gray, and her partner, Patricia Ewert, are the first same-sex couple married in Illinois on Nov. 27, 2013.
2019: Lori Lightfoot, 56, is elected mayor of Chicago. She becomes Chicago’s first black woman and openly gay mayor. She is inaugurated May 20, 2019.
