LGBT History In Illinois
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LGBT History In Illinois
The U.S. state of Illinois has an active LGBT history, centered on its largest city Chicago, where by the 1920s a gay village had emerged in the Old Town district. Chicago was also the base for the short-lived Society for Human Rights, an early LGBT rights advocacy organization (1924). In 1961 Illinois became the first U.S. state to decriminalize certain forms of homosexual activity. Gay and lesbian culture developed in Chicago thereafter, and the 2006 Gay Games were held in the city. Civil unions have been recognized in Illinois since 2014. 19th century In 1827, Illinois became the first state to criminalize the act of fellatio, ruling it as an act of sodomy. In the same year, a law was passed that prohibited people convicted of sodomy from voting or serving on a jury; this was the first American state to restrict civil rights of people convicted of sodomy. In 1862, the transgender man Albert Cashier enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry Regiment. Cashier fought in numerous ba ...
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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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Pearl M
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. More commercially valuable pearls are perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, ''pearl'' has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable, and valuable. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as ''natural'' pearls. ''Cultured'' or ''farmed'' pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls ...
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Gerber/Hart Library
The Gerber/Hart Library and Archives (or "The Henry Gerber– Pearl M. Hart Library: The Midwest Lesbian & Gay Resource Center"), founded in 1981, is the largest circulating library of gay and lesbian titles in the Midwestern United States. Located in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, it houses over 14,000 volumes, 800 periodical titles, and 100 items in the archival collection. The Gerber/Hart Library and Archives were inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1996. Although a private non-profit, the library has received public funding for its continuing operation from Illinois' "Fund for the Future," including a $25,000 grant in 1999. Location Gerber/Hart was originally located in the offices of Gay Horizons (now known as the Center on Halsted). In 2012, the library moved into its current location in Rogers Park, a neighborhood in northern Chicago, IL. It is housed in the Howard Brown Health Howard Brown Health is a nonprofit LGBTQ healthcare and soc ...
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Urbana, Illinois
Urbana ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents in 2020. Urbana is notable for sharing the main campus of the University of Illinois with its twin city of Champaign. History The Urbana area was first settled by Europeans in 1822, when it was called "Big Grove".McGinty, Alice"The Story of Champaign-Urbana" Champaign Public Library When the county of Champaign was organized in 1833, the county seat was located on 40 acres of land, 20 acres donated by William T. Webber and 20 acres by M. W. Busey, considered to be the city's founder, and the name "Urbana" was adopted after Urbana, Ohio, the hometown of State Senator John W. Vance, who authored the Enabling Act creating Champaign County. The creation of the new town was celebrated for the first time on July 4, 1833. Stores began open ...
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University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the founding campus and Flagship#Colleges and universities in the United States, flagship institution of the University of Illinois System. With over 59,000 students, the University of Illinois is one of the List of United States public university campuses by enrollment, largest public universities by enrollment in the United States. The university contains 16 schools and colleges and offers more than 150 undergraduate and over 100 graduate programs of study. The university holds 651 buildings on and its annual operating budget in 2016 was over $2 billion. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also operates Research Park at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a research park home to innova ...
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Gay Chicago
''Gay Chicago'' is a defunct LGBT online news organization in Chicago, Illinois, which ceased publishing in print form on September 21, 2011. ''Gay Chicago'' replaced ''Gay Chicago Magazine'' which was founded in 1976 by Ralph Paul Gernhardt and published under the former Gernhardt Publications. It was a weekly LGBT news and entertainment publication. It started as a pocket-sized publication but in 1988 was enlarged to tabloid format. ''Gay Chicago News'' was also published in 1977. Craig Gernhardt holds all the archives of every edition since 1976, including over 200,000 photos of the LGBT community from 1976 to 2001, when digital became the wave of the future. Most of the archived rare photos have never been seen by the public. Under the leadership of Ralph Paul Gernhardt, the former magazine sponsored the Gay Games and local gay sporting teams. On March 2, 2011, ''Gay Chicago Magazine'' reorganized as an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, Gay Chicago Foundation, and trans ...
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Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, adjacent to Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 26th-most populous municipality in Illinois, with a population of 54,318 as of the 2020 census. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in 1902, when it separated from Cicero, Illinois, Cicero. It is closely tied to the smaller town of River Forest, Illinois, River Forest sharing a chamber of commerce and a high school, Oak Park and River Forest High School. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife settled in Oak Park in 1889, and his work heavily influenced local architecture and design, including the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. Over the years, rapid development was spurred by railroads and streetcars connecting the village to jobs in nearby Chicago. In 1968, Oak Park passed the Open Housing Ordinance, which helped devise strategies to integrate the village rather than resegregate. Today, Oak Park remains ethnically diverse a ...
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Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie, Illinois, Skokie to the west, Wilmette, Illinois, Wilmette to the north, and Lake Michigan to the east. Evanston had a population of 78,110 . Founded by Methodist business leaders in 1857, the city was incorporated in 1863. Evanston is home to Northwestern University, founded in 1851 before the city's incorporation, one of the world's leading research university, research universities. Today known for its ethnically diverse population, Evanston is heavily shaped by the influence of Chicago, externally, and Northwestern, internally. The city and the university share a historically complex long-standing relationship. History Prior to the 1830s, the area now occupied by Evanston was mainly uninhabited, consisting largely of wetlands a ...
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Eugene Sawyer
Eugene Sawyer Jr. (September 3, 1934January 19, 2008) was an American businessman, educator, and politician. Sawyer was selected by the Chicago City Council as the 53rd Mayor of Chicago, Illinois after the sudden death of then–mayor Harold Washington. Sawyer served for the remainder of the term, from December 2, 1987 until April 24, 1989. A member of the Democratic Party, Sawyer was an alderman, and the second African-American to serve as mayor of Chicago. Early life and career Born to Bernice and Eugene Sawyer Sr. in Greensboro, Alabama, the oldest of six children, Sawyer spent summer vacations in Chicago with his aunt during his childhood. Sawyer attended Alabama State University, where he joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He graduated from Alabama State in 1956 with bachelor's degree in chemistry. He had a brief stint as a chemistry and mathematics teacher in Prentiss, Mississippi, before moving to Chicago to do laboratory work in 1957. Shortly after moving to Chicag ...
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Harold Washington
Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st mayor of Chicago. In April 1983, Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city’s mayor at the age of 60. He served as mayor from April 29, 1983, until his untimely death in 1987. Born in Chicago and raised in the Bronzeville neighborhood, Washington became involved in local 3rd Ward politics under Chicago Alderman and future Congressman Ralph Metcalfe after graduating from Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Law. Washington was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983, representing Illinois's first district. Washington had previously served in the Illinois State Senate and the Illinois House of Representatives from 1965 until 1976. Biography Ancestry The earliest known ancestor of Harold Lee Washington, Isam/Isham Washington, was born a slave in 1832 in North Carolina. In 1864, he enlist ...
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Jane Byrne
Jane Margaret Byrne (née Burke; May 24, 1933November 14, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 50th mayor of Chicago from April 16, 1979, until April 29, 1983. Prior to her tenure as mayor, Byrne served as Chicago's commissioner of Consumer protection, consumer sales from 1969 until 1977 under Mayor Richard J. Daley, the only female in the mayoral cabinet. Byrne won the 1979 Chicago mayoral election on April 3, 1979 becoming the first female mayor of the city, and causing an upheaval in beating the city's political machine. She was the first woman to be elected mayor of a major city in the United States, as Chicago was the second largest city in the United States at the time. Byrne narrowly lost her bid for renomination in the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Partisan primary, primary for the 1983 Chicago mayoral election, in which she faced a long-expected challenge from Richard J. Daley's son Richard M. Daley, with both Byrne and Daley losing to Haro ...
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Chicago Pride Parade
The Chicago Pride Parade, also colloquially (and formerly) called the Chicago Gay Pride Parade or PRIDE Chicago, is an annual pride parade held on the last Sunday of June in Chicago, Illinois in the United States. It is considered a culmination of the larger Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in Chicago, as promulgated by the Chicago City Council and Mayor of Chicago. Chicago's Pride Parade is one of the largest by attendance in the world. The event takes place outside and celebrates equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, which is also known as the celebration of LGBTQ rights. Background The first parade was organized on Saturday, June 27, 1970, as a march from Washington Square Park ("Bughouse Square") to the Water Tower, but then many of the participants spontaneously marched on to the Civic Center Plaza. For many years, the parade was held only in Lake View East, a neighborhood enclave of the Lakeview community area. Recent parades have ex ...
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