On the afternoon of Oct. 11, a contingent of about 35 people met at 3311 N. Halsted St. for an induction ceremony by Chicago Legacy Project for activist Henry Gerber.
As the short program began, Legacy Project Co-Creator and Executive Director Victor Salvo called Gerber, “The LGBTQ activist who no one knew existed, but…every activist since his passing has stood on his shoulders.”
Gerber was born Heinrich Joseph Dittmar on June 29, 1892, in Passau Bavaria, later changing his name when he emigrated to the United States with his family in 1913.
Michael Rashid of Gerber/Hart Library and Archives said at the induction ceremony, “Henry was always getting into trouble for being himself, and he got committed to a mental hospital in 1917 for his homosexuality. Living his true self was an act of activism and we are all a part of his story, and we should be proud.”
When World War I broke out, Gerber was given the choice of being interned as an enemy alien or enlist in the Army. In the Army, he was assigned to work as a proofreader and printer with the Allied Army of Occupation in Coblenz, where he served for three years before his discharge.
While in Germany, Gerber learned about the work of both Magnus Hirschfeld and his Scientific Humanitarian Committe and the Bund fur Menschenrect by Friedrich Radszuweit and Karl Schulz, which was engaged in work to reform anti-gay German law (particularly Paragraph 175, which criminalized sex between two consenting men).
Gerber traveled often to Berlin delving into its thriving gay subculture, later returning to Chicago after the war. Once on American soil, he set about establishing The Society for Human Rights, known as the SHR, by filing an application as a non-profit in the state of Illinois.
Joining Gerber as president of the organization was an African American clergyman named John T. Graves, bi-sexual vice president Al Weininger and several other members who kept a low profile. The group also produced Freedom and Friendship, a newsletter.
The state granted the charter in December 1924, making SHR the oldest documented gay organization in the nation while Freedom and Friendship became the first gay publication in America. However, few SHR members were willing to receive mailings of the newsletter, fearing that postal inspectors would deem the publication as obscene under the Comstock Act (all gay-interest publications were deemed obscene until 1958).
This was all to change a short time later, when Weininger’s wife outed them to a social worker, calling the group “degenerate.” The police interrogated Dittmer, Graves and other office holders while the Chicago Examiner reported the story under the headline, “Strange Sex Cult Exposed.” Gerber was tried three times, but his charges were eventually dropped.
Still the damage was done. The SHR was destroyed, Freedom and Friendship produced only two editions, and Gerber lost his post office job and was broke, since his legal fees ate through his savings. Gerber later re-enlisted in the military, serving in the Army Recruiting Bureau in the production of recruiting magazines. Hew became an early member of the Washington chapter of the Mattachine Society.
Speakers at the induction ceremony included Kathy Ott, Gerber’s grandniece, who said she knew very little about her great uncle’s life outside of memories of him bringing her small presents and candy when she was a little girl. Michael Ahrens, Chicago’s Counsel General of Germany, also spoke at the ceremony and embraced Gerber’s Bavarian roots.
On closing the presentation, Salvo said, “Looking back on this, we ask ourselves aren’t we lucky…we’re not in the Weimer Era (when homosexuality was illegal), but we are… I had reservations for putting on this ceremony, because you never know when the Gestapo will show up in the form of ICE agents and the National Guard.”
After the ceremony, participants and guests were invited to a small party at Sidetrack where brats and strudel were served.
Photos by Vern Hester
