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Cruising Through History: Exploring Chicago's LGBT Past

By Tony Peregrin in Arts & Entertainment on May 3, 2011 6:00PM

Gold coast mural.jpg
Oil Painting Mural from Gold Coast bar, 1973, by Dom “Etienne” Orejudos. The Gold Coast bar opened in 1958, making Chicago the first city in the country to have a leather bar.

Looks like we’ve been here—and we’ve been queer—since the city of Chicago was founded in the 1850s, according to the curators of “Out in Chicago,” a new, expansive LGBT-related exhibit at the Chicago History Museum. Previously these communities could only be traced as far back as the 1920s—but according to a recently uncovered ordinance from 1851 that prohibited openly dressing in opposite gender clothing, its clear these communities have been part of the Windy City’s DNA since its inception.

“This exhibit is a unique and timely opportunity to interpret our knowledge based on historical expertise, and making what we know as scholars and researchers available to the public,” said Jennifer Brier, co-curator of the exhibition.

Billed as the first gay history project of its kind ever produced by an urban museum, Out in Chicago opens May 21 and explores more than 150 years of urban history, including the period before the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender were commonly used. The exhibition is constructed around four thematic tent-poles reflecting major chronological and historical issues in Chicago’s LGBT past.

The first section looks at how Chicago attracted newcomers who resisted gender norms and found a place to live their lives differently. Topics include Chicago’s municipal ordinance against cross-dressing (the earliest in the U.S.); and clothing portraying a broad range of gender representation in the city.

The second section documents how LGBT Chicagoans have made homes and formed different kinds of relationships and families—despite being subjected to harassment and discrimination. Topics include single-sex boarding houses at the turn-of-the-twentieth century; homeless LGBT youth who migrated to the city in response to rejection by troubled relationships with their families; and Chicago House, a social service agency providing a home for people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS—the first such organization in the country to provide this type of service.

The third section looks at the public life of LGBT communities and how Chicago’s neighborhoods, nightlife, and bars served not only as social spaces but also as political crucibles that helped shape the course of struggles for equal rights. The themes explored in this section will represent for many visitors much of what they know, appreciate, and expect of LGBT history, according to exhibit organizers. This section includes topics such as the bohemian life epitomized by the Dill Pickle Club in the 1920s; grassroots political efforts in the media and press for LGBT civil rights; bar raids; the leather community in Chicago; and the Gay Games.

The fourth and final section shows how LGBT people became a political force in shaping their own destiny in Chicago. The events or movements in this section include the founding of the Society for Human Rights in Chicago in1924; the radicalism of the LGBT movement in the 1960s and 1970s and the beginning of the Pride Parade; the evolution of Latina lesbian activism from the 1980s to the present; history of healthcare and AIDS activism; and the development of transgender activism in Chicago.

After visitors leave the exhibit, they are invited to share their own stories and experiences inspired by the exhibit on the museum’s Out in Chicago Facebook page.

The exhibition officially opens to the pubic on Saturday, May 21 and will feature live music and performances from popular LGBT performing groups including The Windy City Cowboys, Chicago Spirit Brigade, Dykes on Bikes, and Chicagoist favorite Furrlesque!—a Burlesque-type show featuring members of the Bear community.

Out in Chicago—which runs through March 26, 2012—was curated by Chicago History Museum curator Jill Austin and guest curator Jennifer Brier who is an associate professor in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program and the History Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The exhibition’s honorary chairs include actress Jane Lynch, columnist Dan Savage, and chef Art Smith.