Chicago, in the 21st century, holds great promise; a culturally diverse city, we are its most diverse subculture. In just short of 50 years since Illinois became the first state to decriminalize the acts of consenting adults in private (17 states still have anti-gay laws), our culture and history have exploded. In the first decade of this century, there has been a swelling documentation of our contributions, not only to Chicago’s history, but to our city’s place in the history of the national LGBT rights movement in the United States.
The century opened with a transnational history conference co-ordinated by George Chauncey at the University of Chicago; ‘The Future of the Queer Past’ (September, 2000) drew hundreds of scholars from all over the world. Concurrent with the conference, a small companion book delineating gay material in the university library archives and related history was also produced. And just this year, we have been featured in our first PBS documentary: ‘Out & Proud in Chicago.’ In the interim the Chicago History Museum hosted Ron Pajak’s ‘Queerborn & Perversion’ (12 years in the making) to a sell-out crowd. The museum also featured its first all-Chicago program chaired by John D’Emilio at its ‘Out at CHM’ series. In other venues, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre presented a gay play written in 1896 by Chicagoan Henry Blake Fuller but never produced before. In 2005, Chicago History magazine ran ‘Standing Up for Gay Rights,’ a well-illustrated 14-page article by John D. Poling that was an outgrowth of his thesis on Mattachine Midwest. Lucinda Fleeson had an article on Chicago’s ‘pansy craze’ of the 1930s published in Chicago magazine. In just a few weeks, the book Out and Proud in Chicago (proposed as a companion book to the WTTW video, but far surpassing it in scope) will be available.
Each of these programs and projects has/had their deficiencies, but it is an exercise in futility to attack a done deal. Errors should definitely be called out, to correct or clarify for future historians who may access the material. But it is does a great disservice to those pioneer producers and authors who have worked so hard, against great odds, to criticize their choices. No one book, conference, film or video can definitively convey our history; each creator must be selective and stand by their own choices knowing the mass of their research lies on the cutting room floor. Pandora’s closet has been flung open; Chicago has stepped out and won’t be pushed back in again.
A new project is underway by Tracy Baim, preserving numerous videotaped oral histories by denizens of our city. This, too, will have deficiencies—not so much from who ends up on the Web site or how it will be structured or used, but from the very format that will make it personal and unique. Telling our stories relies on memory; and memory and facts don’t always agree. Your perception of reality may not be mine, but both will help pin down our elusive history. There is not only room for, but a crying need for, the preservation of our stories. The major obstacle to most projects is under-capitalization. But technology is making easier in some ways for individuals and groups to create and document their own histories, much as the advent of instant printing decades ago allowed an immediacy to the dissemination of information about our organizations, rallies, protests, lobbying, marches and publications. We should dig out those letters, pamphlets, buttons, arrest records, clippings and other ephemera and share our stories; we should applaud those who have already shown we are a part of the history of this great city.
[In case I seem partisan, and in the interest of full disclosure, I have had some involvement in all the above cited projects except the Fleeson and ‘Out at CHM.’ I have been interviewed/videotaped, or made my personal archives available for research, or been a consultant to, or a writer for, (in some cases all of the aforementioned) on the remaining projects. I presented a slideshow on Chicago history at the ‘Future of the Queer Past Conference,’ but had no connection to the companion book.]
Copyright 2008 Marie J. Kuda