Bill Greaves—director and community liaison of the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations’ Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues—represented Chicago at the International MANEO-Conference 2011, “Building a Queer and Tolerant Neighborhood,” in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 30-Dec. 3, according to a press release.
The 150 participants were elected officials, appointed officials, law-enforcement officers, entrepreneurs and representatives of nonprofit social service agencies and non-governmental organizations from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Capetown, Chicago, Cologne, Dublin, Liverpool, Los Angeles, Montreal, Munich, New York, Oslo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto and other cities.
Greaves was invited to make two presentations. They were on the designation of Halsted Street as the first official gay neighborhood in the U.S. and its development as an economic engine and center for LGBT tourism; and on the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame as an official way to capture LGBT cultural history.
Throughout the rest of the conference, Greaves said, “People consistently remarked that Chicago is leading the way and providing a model for others wishing to establish or sustain viable LGBT communities.”
See more at windycitytimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=35180