Black LGBTQ+ History was the focus of a Life is Work-hosted presentation, Black Queer History: Celebrating the Black LGBTQ+ Community in Chicago and the Midwest Through the Archives, on Feb. 26 at the organization’s resource center location in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.
Gerber/Hart Library and Archives Operations Director Erin Bell led the discussion. She first detailed Gerber/Hart’s work, then reflected on the contributions made by four notable Black LGBTQ+ Chicagoans: Rev. John T. Graves, Lorraine Sade Baskerville (and the organization she founded, called transGenesis, Guy Estinvil and Vernita Gray.
Varying amounts of historical information exist for these four. Bell noted, for example, that the only information available about Graves is his signature on a Society for Human Rights charter application, that he was the organization’s first and only president and was a clergyperson at St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Bell spoke about Baskerville’s “passion and drive” and that she “accomplished so much.” She added that Baskerville knew she was transgender at a young age and stated, “I didn’t care, I knew who I was” in reference to wearing girls clothes to school.
Baskerville decided to become a social worker after one of her cousins died due to AIDS complication when they were a teenager in the 1980s. Bell also highlighted Baskerville’s advocacy for transgender people and especially transgender sex workers and that she founded the now-defunct first trans-led, trans-founded, trans-serving social services organization in Chicago transGenesis organization in 1995 among other accomplishments. She also spoke about some of the work transGenesis did to help the community.
Estinvil came to the United States from Haiti in 1975 when he was 17, said Bell. She added that he became an author focused on religion, philosophy, political theory, gender and sexuality, erotica and his immigrant experiences. Bell said Estinvil decided to give his archives to Gerber-Hart before he died to ensure that it would be available for people at an earlier date.
Bell spoke about Gray’s decades-long LGBTQ+ activism that included running a queer/trans-focused hotline out of her apartment which she also opened up for queer unhoused people. She added that Gray was the editor of Chicago’s first lesbian-focused newspaper Lavender Women in 1971 and also wrote poetry that she shared via readings at the now-defunct Mountain Moving Coffeehouse. Bell spoke about Gray’s work at the Cook County Attorney’s office and her role as the LGBTQ+ community liaison for that same office in 1999. She added that Gray was an early proponent for same-sex marriage equality and lobbied for this right with her then partner Pat Ewert. Bell added that Gray and Ewert became the first lesbian couple to marry in Illinois once it became legal.
