Tracy Baim

Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow book out

New ‘Leatherman’ book: The story of sexual renegade and businessman Chuck Renslow

 

Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow available May 10, 2011

on Amazon and at selected bookstores.

 

CHICAGO — A prominent Chicago gay activist and entrepreneur is the subject of an in-depth biography, Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow, by journalists and authors Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen. The book contains more than 300 images, including murals and drawings by Dom “Etienne” Orejudos, posters for International Mr. Leather (IML), and photos from the Gold Coast, Pride Parades, IML contests, physique magazines and more.

 

The book is published by Prairie Avenue Productions, 414 pages, $24.99 black and white (ISBN 1-46109602-2), $79.99 color (1-46111908-1). It is available on Amazon.com. People can search for the title or link: http://www.tinyurl.com/renslow. It will also be available from Women & Children First and Unabridged bookstores.

 

Living as an openly gay man in 1950s Chicago was no easy task. For Chuck Renslow, that was only his first of many bold moves. Just out of high school he began what was to become a six-decade empire, starting more than two dozen businesses in Chicago, as well as a few in other cities. He has owned bars, discos, photo studios, health clubs, bathhouses, gay magazines and newspapers, hotels, restaurants, and bookstores. Throughout it all he dealt with Mafia and police payoffs, anti-gay political policies, harassment from censors, and even controversy within the gay community.

 

In the mid-1950s, after having a portrait and then cheesecake studio, Renslow began experimenting with beefcake photography and began Kris Studio. With his longtime lover, the artist Dom Orejudos aka Etienne and Stephen, at his side, Renslow created Kris Studio a leader in male physique photography, resulting in such magazines as Triumph, Mars and The Rawhide Male, producing thousands of erotic images as well as several films.

 

In 1959 Renslow took over the Gold Coast Show Lounge and transformed it into one of the most lowdown libidinous gay leather bars in the world. With Etienne’s murals adorning the walls, a leather/Western/uniform dress code for patrons, and a dark Pit that featured all sorts of goings-on, the Gold Coast set the standard for raunchy kink and gay sexual liberation. It was the birthplace of motorcycle clubs and sex groups, but above all a place for people to meet, connect, and explore themselves and their sexuality.

 

The Gold Coast was also the birthplace of the first leather contest, which in the span of a few short years evolved beyond the bar’s capacity and became International Mr. Leather in 1979. More than three decades later, it continues to be one of the world’s most popular gay events.

 

Renslow was also one of the pioneers in taking a bathhouse beyond merely the borders of a mere sex club. Man’s Country became something truly unforgettable in the 1970s - a sex-and-entertainment complex with a variety of rooms, shops, and a Music Hall that attracted top names touring in the “K-Y circuit,” from Sally Rand to Wayland Flowers to Rusty Warren and Charles Pierce.

 

Renslow was a dynamic force in Chicago politics under mayors starting with Richard J. Daley, and he ran as a delegate for Sen. Ted Kennedy’s 1980 presidential run. He danced with another man at a 1977 inaugural ball for Jimmy Carter. Renslow helped protest against unfair policies, fought censorship and entrapment, and battled Anita Bryant. He even served as a field contact for the pioneering work at the Kinsey Institute, as well as performing sexual acts for Kinsey researchers. He knew entertainment celebrities from Marlene Dietrich to Rudolf Nureyev, from Divine to Grace Jones, and from Sylvester to Quentin Crisp. In their heyday Chuck Renslow’s annual White Parties were celebrations beyond compare.

 

When Chicago’s gay community faced the loss of its newspaper, Renslow bailed out and ran GayLife. He gave the community a voice at the critical time when AIDS was first discovered and began its devastation of the community. Though Renslow had always donated to gay causes, with the emergence of the epidemic he drastically increased his contributions and helped host major benefits for AIDS organizations.

 

Seeing such loss and the frequent erasure of these vibrant lives, Renslow knew he had to do something more. His co-founding of the Leather Archives & Museum (with Tony DeBlase) and his tireless devotion to the institution have helped ensure that the voices of so many who have lived and loved and ultimately passed can be heard for ages to come by all those who wish to listen. It was but another way to serve his community.

 

Through it all Renslow has also been Daddy of the Family, a unique created group of lovers, tricks, and friends who were bound by sex and oftentimes love and by a goal of providing comfort and support to one another.

 

Unique and controversial, Chuck Renslow is still doing his work and activism, more than six decades after he first opened shop as a photographer.

 

Authors Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen uncover the truths and myths of a living legend in this compelling new biography about the man many know, but few understand.

 

Senior editors of the book are William B. Kelley and Jorjet Harper. Book design is by Kirk Williamson.

 

Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow, by Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen, Prairie Avenue Productions, 414 pages, $24.99 black and white (ISBN 1-46109602-2), $79.99 color (1-46111908-1).

 

 

About the Authors

 

Tracy Baim is publisher and executive editor at Windy City Media Group, which produces Windy City Times, Nightspots, and other gay media in Chicago. She has won numerous gay community and journalism honors, including the Community Media Workshop’s Studs Terkel Award in 2005. Baim is the author of Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage (Prairie Avenue Productions, 2010). She is also the co-author and editor of Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City’s Gay Community (Surrey/Agate, 2008) and is author of Where the World Meets, a book about Gay Games VII in Chicago (2007, Lulu.com). Her most recent book is a novel, The Half Life of Sgt. Jen Hunter, about lesbians in the military prior to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

 

Owen Keehnen’s fiction, essays, erotica, reviews, and interviews have appeared in hundreds of magazines and anthologies worldwide, including the upcoming Windy City Queer from University of Wisconsin Press. His newest novel, The Sand Bar, is due in autumn 2011 from Lethe Press. Keehnen is the author of the horror novel Doorway Unto Darkness (Dancing Moon Press, 2010) and published the humorous gay novel I May Not Be Much But I’m All I Think About (e-gaymag.com). His upcoming collection We’re Here, We’re Queer features more than 100 of his best interviews from the 1990s with LGBT writers, artists, and activists who helped lay the groundwork for the current LGBTQ world. He is also co-editor of Nothing Personal: Chronicles of Chicago’s LGBTQ Community 1977–1997 (Firetrap Press, 2009) and contributed 10 of the essays in the groundbreaking coffee-table book Out and Proud in Chicago (Surrey/Agate, 2008). Keehnen has written for Penthouse Forum and Men’s Style and was author of the Starz books, a four-volume series of interviews with gay porn stars.

 

 

 

Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=28517

My new book about Obama is out; below is the press release.

Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage is a new book by long-time Chicago-based journalist Tracy Baim. The book presents an in-depth look at Obama's trajectory on gay issues, and will be available on print-on-demand through Amazon.com and ebook readers. It is also available through CreateSpace, https://www.createspace.com/3481486

Baim, co-founder of Windy City Times newspaper, has compiled documents, photos, and interviews with Obama for a close look at how his views on LGBT issues have changed over the years, as well as the accomplishments and stumbles of his presidential administration. In the first book ever published on this important topic, Baim is joined by some of the most respected LGBT journalists, bloggers, and activists from around the US.

The book includes articles by Chuck Colbert, Lisa Keen, Karen Ocamb, Bob Roehr and others; essays by Wayne Besen, Sean Cahill, John D'Emilio, Kerry Eleveld, Rod McCullom, the Reverend Irene Monroe, Michelangelo Signorile, Pam Spaulding, Timothy Stewart-Winter, Andrew Tobias, and Phill Wilson; and dozens of interviews with Chicago and national gay movement leaders. Senior editors are Toni Armstrong Jr., Jorjet Harper and William B. Kelley. Kirk Williamson designed the book.

Baim will read from and sign copies of the book in Chicago Wed., Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m. at Women & Children First Bookstore, 5233 N. Clark St., and Wed., Oct. 27, 6 p.m. at the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St. 

DADT. ENDA. DOMA. These four-letter words are familiar to everyone involved in the struggle for gay civil rights. Like it or not, they form the core of the national "gay agenda." When Barack Obama ran for president, he promised repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell military gay ban and passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He also said he would push for repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, even though he was personally against same-sex marriage.

Obama and the Gays presents a clear, lively, in-depth review of Barack Obama's policies on gay issues, from the early days of his political career through his meteoric rise to prominence—all in the context of the political landscape of the times—and examines the role the gay community has played in Obama's victories. Obama and the Gays also documents the actions and reactions of influential gay organizations and gay community leaders to Obama's speeches, positions, and decisions that directly affect the lives of our LGBT citizens.

The website for the book is www.ObamaAndTheGays.com .

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 new books look at AIDS history

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=24741

The first cases of what would later become known as AIDS ( Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ) were diagnosed almost 30 years ago.

During a time of economic recession and the rise of the "moral majority," the gay community had to fight an uphill battle against not just the disease but also homophobia, complacency, inadequate research and healthcare systems, and gays often even against one another about what approach to take as their friends were dying.

Two new books with Chicago connections take a closer look at the trajectory of AIDS as it impacted the mainstream and gay communities.

University of Illinois at Chicago scholar Jennifer Brier's Infectious Ideas book focuses on the federal and global epidemic, including a detailed account of President Ronald Reagan's criminal neglect and politicizing of the disease. Her book does not address Chicago's response, but instead looks closer at New York, San Francisco, and the overall U.S. and "global south" response.

Meanwhile, former ACT UP/Chicago member Debbie Gould has a more personal connection to the epidemic, and that is evident throughout her book Moving Politics. She looks closely at the Chicago, New York and San Francisco ACT UP chapters, and gives a detailed accounting of both the rise and fall of the ACT UP movement.

The books, both recently published, come at a time when AIDS/HIV activists and donors are fatigued by both the long-standing epidemic and the new recession. They can be used as tools for activists working on same-sex marriage and other issues, and perhaps the book can inspire a new generation to continue the fight against HIV and AIDS complacency.

Reviews of these two new books are at the links: http:// www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=24764 and http:// www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=24758 . This Friday, Feb. 5, Chicagoans can remember the work of AIDS activist Danny Sotomayor. His brilliant editorial cartoons once appeared in gay media including Windy City Times, Outlines and Nightlines. He became a street fighter once he himself was diagnosed with the disease, and he fought with an intensity rarely matched in any movement. He lost his battle Feb. 5, 1992, and his life will be remembered on the 18th anniversary of his death, on Friday, Feb. 5, 6:30 p.m. in a free event at the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, 3015 W. Division. The rarely seen Sotomayor documentary, Short Fuse: Portrait of an AIDS Activist, will be shown.

Deaf queer performer Terry Galloway in Chicago

“No holds barred” is the best phrase I can come up with to describe writer/performer Terry Galloway. On stage and in her new memoir, Mean Little deaf Queer, Galloway is truly a force of nature, full of passion, anger, and mostly a resolve to live life to its fullest, no matter the consequences.

 

Galloway is coming to Chicago for several signings and performances this month, including Nov. 11 at Women & Children First Bookstore, and Nov. 15 at Victory Gardens Theater, performing her piece Out All Night and Lost My Shoes, which is considered one of the foundational texts is the history of disability performance

 

I have read a lot of LGBT memoirs over the years, but few have been as brutally honest as Mean Little deaf Queer. Even the title is an in-your-face claiming of Galloway’s fight for her right to live a creative life despite all the doors slammed in her face. And the little “d” deaf is also on purpose, as the book addresses the issues that embroil the deaf/Deaf communities over identity, with Galloway’s own deafness, which came on gradually when she was a child, viewed against the other forms of deafness. Her book addresses the controversial aspects of surgical responses to some forms of hearing loss, and her own decision to have surgery.

 

I first met Galloway recently during the Austin screening of Hannah Free. We share a mutual friend in her native Texas, and I sent Galloway the script for the film ahead of time since the festival was not providing interpreters. Galloway is a lip reader, and Hannah Free is a hard film to understand that way. Galloway had also agreed to move her booksigning to the next day, to avoid competing with the film, so I attended her event at the crowded women’s bookstore in Austin. This was no normal bookreading, it was a book performance, with Galloway thoroughly engaging her fans.

 

Her fearless performance certainly made me uncomfortable, as does her book, but in a good way. She does not hold back about her own “bad” behavior as a child and adult, and it serves her story very well. An autobiography can sometimes seem sugar coated, but Galloway wants us to understand her completely, and I feel by the end of the book I do “get” her more than most writers who pick and choose the best of their lives to showcase.

 

Mean Little deaf Queer starts with Galloway’s childhood, much of it spent in Germany where her father was a spy for the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps after World War II. She learned a lot about the “other” in a country full of fear and death. She started to experience visions, and slowly began to lose her hearing, as a result of a medication given to her mother at a U.S. military hospital. As a child coping with the awful-looking devices meant to help her eyesight and hearing issues, she started to develop her performing skills, including a fake drowning to get attention and sympathy.

 

Her queerness, too, was with Galloway as a youngster, as she played with the boys and was intimidated by the girls. She again holds nothing back in writing about her young adult years, speaking of her frequent sleeping around with both genders, and her love of many gay men who died of AIDS complications.

 

Of her sexual escapades, Galloway writes: “One side effect of my deafness is that I’m always presuming a physical intimacy, usually where there is none. … I can’t tell you the number of ill-conceived affairs I’ve had as an adult that started with me putting my hand on someone’s collarbone (which conducts sound like a hollow reed) and fastening my gaze on their lips as if it were all I could do not to bite. It was an inadvertent pickup technique I ought to have found (but didn’t) shameful and misleading.”

 

While in Austin, Galloway helped found the still-famous Esther’s Follies, a wacky troupe that does just about anything on stage. And from Galloway’s telling, she did just about anything offstage as well.

 

Galloway’s ability to tell a story, to lead you from one interesting event to the next, is wonderful, and the book is very well edited. I highly recommend Mean Little deaf Queer for those who fit any of those words, and especially for those who don’t.

 

Galloway will be in Chicago with her long-time partner in life and art, Donna Marie Nudd, who is a native of the Chicago area.

 

Galloway’s Chicago-area appearances:

 

Wed., Nov. 11: Women and Children First Bookstore, 7:30 p.m., reading of Mean Little deaf Queer and signing.

 

Friday, Nov 13: Access Living, An Evening with Terry Galloway (performance, reading, videos).

 

Sunday, Nov. 15: Victory Gardens, Out All Night and Lost My Shoes, 7:30 p.m., part of the theater’s Fresh Squeezed series, 2433 N. Lincoln, $20 advance, $25 day of, 773-871-3000, www.victorygardens.org.

 

Monday, Nov. 16: University of Illinois, Chicago, An Afternoon with Terry Galloway (performance, reading, videos), 12:30 p.m., at U of I Chicago. 

Monday, Nov. 16: University of Illinois, Chicago, Videos from The Mickee Faust Club's Gimp Parade (a compilation of disability-themed video shorts) and a talk-back. 

NOTE: Upcoming Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed performers include Michael Kearns Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m., doing his solo show intimacies. Kearns is Hollywood’s first openly gay actor and also has spoken out about living with HIV. On Dec. 7, look for An Evening with Charles Busch and Julie Halston: the original Vampire Lesbians of Sodom are together again. Next year, Tim Miller returns to Chicago, along with Holly Hughes, in March.

 Published in Windy City Times Nov. 4, 2009. www.windycitymediagroup.com.

Women & Children First Marks 30 Years

The LGBT community of Chicago has gone through massive changes these past 30 years, with non-profits and businesses providing the necessary building blocks for a more stable future. But few institutions have survived as long, and done as much for our community as Women & Children First Bookstore.

We often think of non-profits when it comes to supporting those in need, especially during tough economic times. But our community’s small businesses have been equally vital in providing a safe space and support. That support comes in many forms, and what Women & Children First has done is immeasurable. But I will try to provide some reasons here in asking for your support of the store as it marks its 30th anniversary with a celebration this October.

First, back in the 1970s when they opened, and still to some extent today, the store was a safe haven for authors and readers. They nurtured many writers now prominent today, without regard to sexual orientation. And while they are a feminist bookstore, owners Ann Christophersen and Linda Bubon never shied away from including lesbians, bisexuals, gay men and transgendered as featured writers. Some “feminist” groups and businesses used to be afraid of the queer label, but this store always embraced it. Out, proud and in retail. A rare thing back in 1979. 

Second, Ann and Linda have always supported community groups through donations of products, gift certificates, ads in program books, sponsoring sports teams, and providing a place to gather. The bookstore has been a de facto community center, from its early years on Armitage and then Halsted, and now on Clark Street. In fact, Andersonville’s growth as an LGBT-friendly neighborhood is in large part because of the early anchoring of Women & Children First in that area.

Third, as individuals, both Ann and Linda have helped many groups, serving on boards, advisory councils, political committees, and much more. They have helped move the debate on LGBT issues in the mainstream, and have helped fight for small bookstores nationally.

Fourth, as a small business, they are very involved in their local business district, employing people, participating in business networking and strengthening. They are mentors to many other small business owners. I remember back in the 1980s sitting on their Halsted street stoop with Ann, asking for her advice on starting my own paper, Outlines. She was so generous and giving with advice, and they have always supported every crazy adventure and newspaper I have been involved with. They are personal friends and feminist role models to me.

Small businesses are struggling against many great odds. The economic downturn is just one of many burdens. As a bookstore, they face severe competition from big-box retailers and online stores, although Women & Children First is part of a great online database where you can get pretty much any book you see on Amazon.com or other places. As a media company, we face many of these same challenges of competition and increasing costs. It is not easy communicating the value of supporting a “business” vs. pitching someone to donate to a non-profit group--even though our community’s businesses have an equally important role to play for our future: economically, politically, culturally, legally, you name it.

Back in 1995 I started the Chicago Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in part to recognize how important small businesses are to the vitality of our community. Now, more than ever, they rely on your support, and your dollars, to survive.

Please join me in supporting Women & Children First Bookstore as they celebrate their 30^th anniversary this fall. They are hosting a “Celebration and Benefit” Saturday, Oct. 3, featuring national lesbian literary treasures Alison Bechdel (Dykes to Watch Out For and Fun Home) and Dorothy Allison (Bastard Out of Carolina). The event will be at The Breakers of Edgewater Beach, 5333 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60660, with an after-party at Big Chicks, 5024 N. Sheridan. Cocktails and appetizers 5:30-7 p.m., buffet dinner and dance 7-10 p.m. Tickets range from $60 for the buffet and dance to $100 for the entire event. Cocktails include a wine-tasting with Alpana Singh. See http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com or call 773-769-9299. Or send check payable to The Crossroads Fund to Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, Chicago, IL 60640.

 You can see my video interviews with Ann and Linda at:http://www.chicagogayhistory.org/biographies.html

The business owners are also featured in the book I edited and co-wrote, Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay movement (Surrey Books), available at the store.

 

 

 

Out and Proud Editors, Writers at Printer’s Row

Four editors and co-writers of Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City’s Gay Movement (Surrey Books, 2008) will speak on a panel about Chicago’s LGBT history Sat., June 6 at the Printer’s Row Lit Fest. The panel will be 3:30 p.m. at the University Center, Park/Fountain Room, 525 S. State Street.

Speakers at the event are editor and co-writer Tracy Baim, senior writer Marie J. Kuda, senior editor and co-writer Jorjet Harper, and senior editor William B. Kelley. For information on the book, see the companion Web site www.ChicagoGayHistory.org.

You can purchase the book at Women & Children First Books (or on their Web site), and numerous other local retailers.

 

 

 

Pre-Gay LA: Battle scars

reviewed by Tracy Baim

If there seems to be one constant in the movement for LGBT rights, it is that we tend to suffer growing pains at regular intervals, evidenced by fights within organizations and between leaders. This has happened throughout Chicago’s movement, and also nationally. Even within the modern movement for same-sex marriage rights, there are battles over strategy, money and power.

But if you were a part of the early days of the U.S. movement for homosexual rights, you probably didn’t understand how natural these acts of cannibalism are to many groups as they crawl from the primordial soup and begin to walk proud and upright. That probably made those struggles even more emotionally difficult to survive.

The early days of the Los Angeles homosexual movement were no different. Those activists witnessed some of the most brutal battles from within, and at the same time they were facing some of our most difficult enemies from the outside. C. Todd White, in his new book Pre-Gay LA: A Social History of the Movement for Homosexual Rights (University of Illinois, 280 pages, paper, $25, cloth $75) uses a finely tuned microscope to focus in depth on the early years of Los Angeles activism, well before the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York, and before “gay” became the moniker of choice.

There are many ways to document a community’s history. One is to take a broad stroke look back, as I did with the book I edited and co-wrote last year, Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of Chicago’s Gay Movement. In that book, we took a written and visual snapshot of hundreds of events and people who shaped the Chicago movement. Almost any one of the articles in that book could have been expanded into its own book, looking intensely at how that topic shaped the community.

Another other way to look at history is to take one group and navigate all of its blemishes and successes from as many angles as the documents and survivors allow for. This is the role of Pre-Gay LA, an exhaustively researched book about the sometimes-painful fits and starts of LA’s homosexual/homophile movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

White ably takes us from the founding of Mattachine, the first long-lasting U.S. homosexual rights group (as opposed to the short-lived one founded in Illinois by Henry Gerber in the 1920s), through the launch of ONE magazine, the ONE Institute, the Homosexual Information Center, Tangents, the Institute for the Study of Human Resources, and the convoluted (and hard to keep track of) distortions, divisions and mergers behind these LA groups, some which survive to this day.

The saying that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it is quite useful in reading this book. Anyone part of a current LGBT group would do well to read Pre-Gay LA for valuable lessons learned. While it will not prevent schisms in our movement, it does put them in perspective. The key players fought each other both in the court of public opinion and actual courts for decades, potentially damaging themselves and the movement. It’s unclear what lasting damage the battles may have done, and White sees many successes despite the rivalries, but likely many people left the movement in the 1960s because they could not stand the constant fighting. That certainly happens to this day in Chicago: only the strong can survive the pettiness and vindictiveness readily apparent today.

What White gives us is a very valuable lesson indeed. For even after many of these early pioneers battled, they eventually came to some kind of reconciliation. If not fully satisfied, they at least managed some compromise. But many also sacrificed greatly for the movement (emotionally, physically and financially), in some cases for more than 40 years, and are now almost unacknowledged in the 2000s. That is perhaps the most important service White provides with his book: making sure the legacies of these early leaders are not forgotten, for all their strengths and weaknesses.

Even a book as detailed and comprehensive as Pre-Gay LA also opens the door to more questions. I would have loved to have photos to accompany the names and groups, because it was difficult to keep track of everything in such detail, and also because many of them used pseudonyms (and sometimes more than one). Thankfully, there are handy mini-bios of key players and a chart of pseudonyms in the back. Similar to how my book has www.ChicagoGayHistory.org to help complement the limits of any history book, White said many images will be posted on a companion Web site, http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/The_Pre-Gay_Era_in_the_USA.

I also hope researchers are inspired to do in-depth stories about some of the interesting characters White writes about, including female-to-male transsexual Reed Erickson, who helped fund the 1960s movement but who later participated in a lawsuit against the group he funded. Some of the people in the book have been written about in other books, both biographical and autobiographical, but there are probably even more stories to tell. It was a fortunate stroke of timing that White started his connection to this project before some of the primary people died; several did while he was doing his research.

White, an assistant professor of anthropology at James Madison Unversity, has taken a very important closer look at the origins of our U.S. movement. As he describes it, it is part ethnography and part social history, but it is also very accessible to non-academic readers who want to learn more about their own history, one that is mostly still overlooked in our educational system.

My reviewer’s copy of Pre-Gay LA has practically every page turned over with an interesting fact or sage advice from our elders. One quote from Joseph Hanson is especially eloquent: “There have been many, many, many events that have taken us to where we are today. I think pebbles more than boulders have built this mountain, on top of which we stand.”

C. Todd White will speak about Pre-Gay LA at the annual Chicago Printer’s Row Lit Fest, Sat., June 6, noon, at the Books and Media Stage, University Center, Lake Room, 525 S. State Street. Joining him will be Karen Graves, and they will be in conversation with Brian Bouldrey.

Out and Proud Book Event at DePaul

DePaul University is celebrating its LGBTQA month. Barnes & Noble DePaul Center is proud to help usher in LGBTQA Month at DePaul University with a discussion and signing of Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community on Thursday, May 7 at 6 p.m. The book, which I co-wrote and edited, is available from Surrey Books. I will be speaking, along with several of the contributors to the book: Marie J. Kuda, Ron Dorfman, Jonathan Abarbanel, Owen Keehnen, senior editer Jorjet Harper, Jeff Berry and senior editor William Kelley. We will discuss the long and rich history of the city's LGBTQA community in Chicago. The book is lavishly illustrated with color and black-and white photographs, and it draws on a wealth of scholarly, historical, and journalistic sources. Individual sections cover the early days of the 1800s to World War II, the challenging community-building years from World War II to the 1960s, the era of gay liberation and AIDS from the 1970s to the 1990s, and on to the city's vital, post-liberation present. Barnes and Noble DePaul Center is located in Chicago’s South Loop at the corner of State and Jackson. For more information on this event, please call 312-362-8792 or log on to depaul-loop.bncollege.com. For info on the book, see Chicago Gay History's Web Site. 

Out and Proud ... in St. Charles

I had a booksigning for Out & Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Movement in St. Charles today, Oct. 12, 2008. It coincides with an annual scarecrow harvest festival under beautiful skies in this far-west suburban town.

The way the signing came about was interesting. In July, I was visiting with my partner Jean's aunt Clara who lives in St. Charles. She took us to TownHouse Books & Cafe, 105 North 2nd Avenue, St. Charles, Ill. I spoke to a woman working there and it turned out she was aware of the WTTW program the book was a companion to, so she was excited about the possibility of a booksigning. She told me the owners of the store and cafe are gay men, and gave me the contact for David Hunt, one of the owners, to set up an event.

I was a bit hesitant, because there are levels of "open" and just because she knew her bosses are a gay couple, doesn't mean they would want a very out gay author with her book. Well, it turns out David (and his partner Doug) were extremely happy to host a signing, and we set it up for Oct. 12th. Later he learned it was during the harvest festival, but he did not hesitate to keep the event scheduled. We only worried it may keep people away because of the crowded and blocked streets.

While there was not a huge turnout, it was great visibility and David was happy with the books he sold. Doug and David were terrific hosts (as was Steve at Borders on Saturday in Oak Park). Guests included Toni Weaver of PFLAG, Ed and Dick of the northwest burbs, and my partner's aunt Clara. Wanza, Jean and their friend Janie also stopped by, plus a few others.

But mostly I sat out front of TownHouse with a huge gay poster and a big colorful gay book in front of me, smiling to all manner of families. It was an out and proud moment, with no negative comments at all. Some may have said something later, but no one said anything there, and it was quite a "tolerant" moment. A lot of kids very clearly read the signs, and knew it was a gay book.

We are everywhere. We say that frequently and casually, but sometimes it is good to remember how true that is. David and Doug are out in St. Charles running a very successful and welcoming business. My friends live openly there as well. Courage comes in all colors of the rainbow, and in all zip codes of the U.S.

Out & Proud Book Launches

Well, I am going to just slowly get into this blogging world. Testing the waters as a journalist who may write in more detail on a blog than we can in Windy City Times or our other Windy City Media Group titles.

Since it is a busy election season, plus a book I just edited and co-wrote is coming out, I anticipate rare posts for now.

But for full details please visit these sites:
www.windycitymediagroup.com Windy City Media Group
www.chicagogayhistory.org Chicago Gay History

Below are some details on the book, from the press release.

Signings Set for Out and Proud in Chicago
Prominent Historians Jonathan Ned Katz and John D'Emilio to Make Rare Chicago Joint Appearance

CHICAGO -- Lavishly illustrated with almost 400 historical color and black-and-white photographs, and drawing on the scholarly, historical, and journalistic contributions of a breadth of authorities on Chicago's LGBT culture and scene, Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community (Surrey Books, 224 pages) is the first overview of Chicago’s LGBT community and its history. Published as a companion to the WTTW public television documentary of the same name, and to the Web site www.ChicagoGayHistory.org, the book is organized into a few main chronological sections, from Prairie Settlement to the 2000s. Windy City Times Publisher Tracy Baim edited and co-wrote the book, and was joined by more than two dozen other writers.
Several booksignings have been scheduled for the Chicago area in September and October, to promote both the book and the launch of the Chicago Gay History Project Web site (www.chicagogayhistory.org). There will be co-authors at each of these events, depending on their schedules. All events are free except for the Sept. 26 fundraiser.
-- Sept. 18, 2008: Book launch: Thursday, Sept. 18, 7 p.m. at Women & Children First Books, 5233 N. Clark Street, Chicago, 773-769-6729. Come meet many of the writers and photographers featured in this new book.
-- Sept. 26, 2008: History Project fundraiser featuring a rare Chicago appearance by national gay historian Jonathan Ned Katz and Chicago-based historian John D'Emilio. Hosted by Michael Leppen at the Sears Tower Metropolitan Club, 5:30-7:30 p.m., $500 donation. Call 773-387-2394 for details tickets. Sign language interpreter.
-- Sept. 27, 2008: History Project and Community Book Launch, featuring more than a dozen of the writers from Out and Proud, plus Jonathan Ned Katz and John D'Emilio. Hear about the Web site's future and get copies of your book signed. Saturday, Sept. 27, noon-2 p.m., Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted. Sign language interpreter.
-- Oct. 1, 2008: The Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Branch downtown, is hosting a panel discussion of the Web site and book, 6 p.m., Wed., Oct. 1, 6 p.m., 400 S. State Street, Chicago. This free event features panelists Tracy Baim, Marie J. Kuda, Jorjet Harper, William B. Kelley, Pat McCombs and Chuck Renslow, followed by Q&A and booksigning.
-- Oct. 5, 2008: Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore hosts our first suburban Out and Proud booksigning, featuring writer Marie J. Kuda and Tracy Baim, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2-4 p.m., 7419 W. Madison Street, Forest Park, Ill., 708-771-7243.
-- Oct. 11, 2008: National Coming Out Day is the occasion for this signing in Oak Park Saturday 2-4 p.m. at Borders, 1144 Lake Street, 708-386-6927. Hear from Oak Parker Marie J. Kuda, Tracy Baim and other writers about Coming Out Day, the 10th anniversary of the Matthew Shepard murder, and its impact on Chicago.
-- Oct. 12, 2008: A special far west suburban booksigning in St. Charles Sunday, 2-4 p.m., at the TownHouse Books & Cafe, 105 North 2nd Avenue, St. Charles, Ill., 630-584-8600.
-- Oct. 16, 2008: Signing at Borders Books in Lincoln Park, Thursday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m., 2817 N. Clark Street, Chicago, 773-935-3909.
Out & Proud in Chicago begins the work of capturing a history that often has been hidden, or at least elusive. As editor Tracy Baim writes in her introduction, “A few brave people did try to document our community, either as major events were happening or through groundbreaking historical research. These writers, journalists, photographers, filmmakers, academics and historians have tried to find many needles in the haystack, through interviews with pioneers, digging into old university and museum archives, and reading the often-biased coverage of the mainstream media. In some cases, finding out if there was a ‘there’ there meant reading between the lines and piecing together what it was to be ‘gay’ 100 years ago.”
See www.ChicagoGayHistory.org or e-mail editor@windycitymediagroup.com.