With the joyful unfurling of rainbow flags in Chicago during Pride Month, it’s easy to forget the fight that led to this point. The bigotry. The raids on businesses. The social death. The defiant rallies and parades. The legislative tug-of-war. The slow turning of minds and hearts toward seeing members of the LGBTQ community as fellow Chicagoans looking to live faithfully and love openly.
Before Pride was about celebration, it was about protest. It was, and still is, about human dignity refusing to cower in the face of hateful opposition. It has taken on weightier relevance today, with the institutional silencing of LGBTQ history and the concerted targeting of transgender people and drag performers.
Like that of many big cities, the history of Chicago features major mile markers in the movement for acceptance and enfranchisement. It was here where the first gay rights organization in the United States was founded, by Chicagoan Henry Gerber in 1924.
But the most potent decades in the LGBTQ community’s fight in Chicago came in the 1970s and ’80s, with the early years of the AIDS crisis and the Stonewall riots in New York serving as major catalysts for the urgency of queer Americans to be seen as human. Advocacy, including from Mayor Harold Washington, and pressure from activists led the Chicago City Council to pass the Human Rights Ordinance in 1988 and include sexual orientation in prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation. It was a watershed moment in the city’s history because it granted queer Chicagoans equality under the law.
These photos of the struggle for equality and justice, curated by Vintage Tribune editor Marianne Mather, depict the passion and persistence of everyday Chicagoans.
Colleen Kujawa is a content editor who works with the Tribune Editorial Board and is a member of the LGBTQ community. She is also a former Flashback (Vintage Tribune) editor.
Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Ron Grossman and Marianne Mather at grossmanron34@gmail.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com
