LGBT Culture In Chicago
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LGBT Culture In Chicago
The LGBTQ community in Chicago is one of the United States' most prominent, especially within the Midwest, alongside those of San Francisco and New York City, and holds a significant role in the progression of gay rights in the country. With a population of around 3 million, Chicago is the third biggest city in the US, and around 150,000 of those people identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, questioning, or other. Gay neighborhoods in Chicago have existed since the 1920s, when there was homosexual nightlife in Towertown, adjacent to the Water Tower. Increasing rents during the middle of the 20th century forced gay-friendly establishments steadily northwards, moving through Old Town and Lincoln Park along Clark Street and on to Boystown. Boystown presently serves as the best-known Chicago gayborhood and as a center of its LGBT culture. In recent years, the area has been criticized for focusing on "affluent white gay men," rather than the broader LGBTQ community ...
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Chicago River Ferry
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of United States cities by population, third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. As the county seat, seat of Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, often colloquially called "Chicagoland" and home to 9.6 million residents. Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a Chicago Portage, portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but ...
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Bijou Theater (Chicago)
The Bijou Theater (also referred to as The Bijou) was an adult theater and sex club for gay men located at 1349 N Wells Street in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood. Opened in 1970 by Steven Toushin, the Bijou Theater was the longest-running gay adult theater and sex club in the United States. The Bijou Theater featured the "Bijou Classics"—adult films produced by Bijou Video in the 1970s and 1980s—every Monday. The theater also hosted live shows featuring adult entertainers, a non-sexual cabaret show written and directed by drag entertainer Miss Tiger and special appearances by gay porn stars. The theater permanently closed its door on September 30, 2015. History Theater The Bijou Theater featured a 15-by-18-foot silver screen and seated 77 people in anchored, theater-style cushioned seating. The theater's lobby hosted a DVD counter to purchase gay adult films. A desk and computer were set up for patrons who would like to peruse the Bijou's website listing over 14,000 title ...
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River North Gallery District, Near North Side, Chicago
River North is a Chicago neighborhood located north of the Chicago River, south of Division Street, and west of Wabash Avenue. It is adjacent to the Magnificent Mile retail and tourism corridor. River North has become one of Chicago's top neighborhoods for nightlife especially on and around Hubbard Street. It once hosted the largest concentration of art galleries in the United States outside of Manhattan. River North has experienced the development of large high-rise buildings, nightclubs and restaurants. Along with a handful of art galleries today, the area holds many bars, dance clubs, popular restaurants and entertainment venues, and a design district with shops and showrooms selling commercial and luxury interior furnishings in the blocks north of the Merchandise Mart. Kingsbury Park is an area of newly built residential high-rises at Erie Street and the Chicago River. History Smokey Hollow River North was named Smokey Hollow around the turn of the 20th century du ...
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University Of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a Non-profit organization, non-profit university press publishing Peer review, peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and poetry under its imprint, Terrace Books; and serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region. UW Press annually awards the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, and The Four Lakes Prize in Poetry. The press was founded in 1936 in Madison, Wisconsin, Madison and is one of more than 120 member presses in the Association of University Presses. The Journals Division was established in 1965. The press employs approximately 25 full and part-time staff, produces 40 to 60 new books a year, and publishes 13 journals. It also distributes books and some annual journals for sele ...
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Mattachine Society
The Mattachine Society (), founded in 1950, was an early national gay rights organization in the United States, preceded by several covert and open organizations, such as Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection of male friends in Los Angeles to protect and improve the rights of gay men. Branches formed in other cities, and by 1961 the Society had splintered into regional groups. At the beginning of gay rights protest, news on Cuban prison work camps for homosexuals inspired Mattachine Society to organize protests at the United Nations and the White House in 1965. Name The Mattachine Society was named by Harry Hay at the suggestion of James Gruber, inspired by a French medieval and renaissance masque group he had studied while preparing a course on the history of popular music for a workers' education project. In a 1976 interview with Jonathan Ned Katz, Hay was asked the origin of the name Mattachine. He me ...
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Magnificent Mile
The Magnificent Mile (sometimes locally abbreviated to the Mag Mile) is the approximately one-mile-long stretch of Michigan Avenue (Chicago), Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Oak Street (Chicago), Oak Street on the Near North Side (Chicago), Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is dominated by luxury retail, high-end retail, hotels, and several important tourism in Chicago, tourist attractions. The Magnificent Mile is the primary commercial corridor linking Chicago Loop, the Loop to the Gold Coast (Chicago), Gold Coast,Stamper, John M., "Chicago's North Michigan Avenue", University of Chicago Press, 1991, inner cover, and it divides the neighborhood of Streeterville, on its east, from River North, on its west. The real estate developer Arthur Rubloff of Rubloff Company gave the district its nickname in 1947. List of tallest buildings in the United States, Skyscrapers and List of Chicago Landmarks, landmarks along the Magnificent Mile include the 875 North Mich ...
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Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its south. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the List of U.S. states and territories by GDP, fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the List of U.S. states and territories by population, sixth-largest population, and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 25th-most land area. Its capital city is Springfield, Illinois, Springfield in the center of the state, and the state's largest city is Chicago in the northeast. Present-day Illinois was inhabited by Indigenous peoples of the Americas#History, Indigenous cultures for thousands of years. The French were the first Europeans to arrive, settling near the Mississippi and Illinois River, Illinois rivers in the 17th century Illinois Country, as part of their sprawling colony of ...
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Henry Gerber
Henry Gerber (June 29, 1892  in Passau, Bavaria– December 31, 1972) was an early gay rights activist in the United States. Inspired by the work of Germany's Magnus Hirschfeld and his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and by the organisation Bund für Menschenrecht by Friedrich Radszuweit and Karl Schulz, Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights (SHR) in 1924, the United States' first known gay organization, and ''Friendship and Freedom'', the first known American gay publication. SHR was short-lived, as police arrested several of its members shortly after it incorporated. Although embittered by his experiences, Gerber maintained contacts within the fledgling homophile movement of the 1950s and continued to agitate for the rights of homosexuals. Gerber has been repeatedly recognized for his contributions to the LGBT movement. Early life Gerber was born Heinrich Joseph Dittmar (some sources say "Josef") on June 29, 1892, in the city of Passau in Bavaria. He changed his ...
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Society For Human Rights
The Society for Human Rights was an American gay-rights organization established in Chicago in 1924. Society founder Henry Gerber was inspired to create it by the work of German doctor Magnus Hirschfeld and the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and by the organisation by Friedrich Radszuweit and Karl Schulz (publisher), Karl Schulz in Berlin. It was the first recognized gay rights organization in the United States of America, United States, having received a charter from the state of Illinois, and produced the first American publication for homosexuals, ''Friendship and Freedom''. A few months after being chartered, the group ceased to exist in the wake of the arrest of several of the Society's members. Despite its short existence and small size, the Society has been recognized as a precursor to the modern gay liberation movement. Henry Gerber Henry Gerber emigrated from Imperial Germany in 1913,Loughery, p. 53 settling with his family in Chicago because of its large German-sp ...
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Pansy Craze
The Pansy Craze was a period of increased LGBT visibility in American popular culture from the late 1920s until the mid-1930s. During the " craze," drag queens — known as "pansy performers" — experienced a surge in underground popularity, especially in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The exact dates of the movement are debated, with a range from the late 1920s until 1935. The term "pansy craze" was first coined by the historian George Chauncey in his 1994 book ''Gay New York''. The Craze New York's first drag balls were held in Harlem's Hamilton Lodge in 1869. In the 1920s, female impersonators were hired to perform at cabarets and speakeasies in many major cities, including New York, Paris, London, Berlin, and San Francisco. The target audience was straight, which gave the performers broader social acceptance. Gene Malin — known as the "Queen of the Pansy Craze" — achieved relative mainstream success, appearing in both Hollywood film ...
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Mary Rozet Smith
Mary Rozet Smith (December 23, 1868 – February 22, 1934) was a Chicago-born US philanthropist who was one of the trustees and benefactors of Hull House. She was the partner of activist Jane Addams for over thirty years. Smith provided the financing for the Hull House Music School and donated the school's organ as a memorial to her mother. She was active in several social betterment societies in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. Biography Mary Rozet Smith was born on 23 December 1868 in Chicago, Illinois to Sarah (née Rozet) and Charles Mather Smith. She was raised in a wealthy, privileged home, the daughter of the Bradner-Smith Paper Company president. As was typical of women of her social class, she did not attend university. As a young woman, she participated in activities usual to her social standing, as part of the Social Register and traveled extensively in Europe. She became involved in Hull House in 1890, shortly after its founding, becoming one of its major f ...
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