Gary Chichester’s name is on the permit for the first official Pride Parade in the world, which took place in Chicago in June 1971. He and his homemade flag haven’t missed a Pride Parade since.
“It’s my favorite holiday,” Chichester said. “People are so incredibly free and happy to be free. It makes me feel so proud every year to think back to how it started with just few hundred people and has grown into all of the love and smiles you see at pride parades now.”
Chichester has spent his life fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, establishing resources for the community, and helping queer people develop confidence in their identities. He founded the Chicago Gay Alliance, which was dedicated to garnering political rights for queer people and established the first LGBTQ+ community center, in 1971.
Now, Chichester is dedicated to preserving LGBTQ+ history and ensuring it can be shared with future generations. He’s a founding member of the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame, which has recognized the queer community’s contributions to city since 1991.
He’s currently working to establish a national landmark in Bughouse Square, where the first Pride Rally in the world took place June 27, 1970. About 200 Chicagoans gathered to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Riots, one day before New York City’s first march.
“A lot of young folks don’t realize that they wouldn’t have the rights they have now if it wasn’t for the people years ago who created the movements that make our lives better now,” Chichester said. “Our history is so important because people are trying to erase us. If we don’t know our own history, then nobody’s going to remember at all.”
A lifelong Chicagoan, Chichester decided to be open about his sexuality as a teenager. He grew up in the northwest suburbs and became politically active shortly after moving to the city with his partner.
The couple lived near Lincoln Park, and they went to the 1968 Democratic National Convention out of curiosity. They came across the large anti-war protests and saw the police using tear gas and hitting people in the crowd with clubs. Later that week, Chichester joined the protests and was hit with a tear gas canister himself.
“Seeing that opened my eyes and radicalized me,” Chichester said. “It made me question why this was happening because protesting war is not a bad thing. It disgusted me how the city and police handled the situation, and I started being more open about my homosexuality.”
Just a year later, Chichester learned of the Stonewall Riots through a friend who was living in New York City at the time.
“It was exciting to see that we were actually fighting back against everything that was going on at the time,” Chichester said. “I joined in on protests in Chicago through the Gay Liberation Front. I wasn’t as radical as some of the students who were out fighting in the streets, but they showed how to do things a different way, and I appreciate that.”
As Chichester continued joining protests and organizing with other queer people, he noticed that many of the people he met weren’t comfortable in their identities. This led him to create the Chicago Gay Alliance, and the same sentiment evolved into the spirit of pride events.
“We noticed that a lot of the university students weren’t as open, and we felt that people needed to learn to accept themselves before they could go and demand their rights,” Chichester said. “The idea of pride became a big thing because if you’re not proud of yourself, you’re not going to get any respect from the surrounding community.”
While advocating to change laws and end police harassment, the Chicago Gay Alliance created a support system for members. The group opened a community center in a run-down house where they created a library, hosted potluck dinners, organized protests and published newsletters. “It was a perfect place for a small, fledgling bunch of hippies having gay liberation,” Chichester said.
The group also operated a phone line where people could call when they wanted advice or needed help accessing resources or finding queer bars. The phone line was expanded by a group called Queer Horizons, which later evolved into the Center on Halsted.
Chichester recalled helping to organize the first Pride rally in Bughouse Square. Protesters marched through Michigan Avenue on a “buzzing” Saturday afternoon, disrupting tourists and shoppers.
“We wanted to be seen,” Chichester said. “Half our situation was that people didn’t know that there are queers everywhere, and that added to their hatred of us. People didn’t understand that we were among them, we were their brothers and sisters and friends.”
The next year, Chichester acquired a permit for the city’s first Pride Parade. That same week, similar parades took place in New York City and Los Angeles, but Chicago was officially the first parade in the world.
About a 1,000 people showed up, Chichester said. More than 50 years later, millions of people celebrate Pride events throughout the world.
“I’m proud of how it all worked out,” Chichester said. “The idea was basically to let people know we’re here, and we’re kind of angry about how you’re treating us. Chicago doesn’t always get credit for having the first rally in the world, and then the first parade. We have a deep history when it comes to fighting for LGBTQ+ rights and creating new laws, but it’s usually ignored.”
When Chichester’s partner moved to San Francisco to join a commune, Chichester started working at queer bars to earn some extra money. He was friends with Chuck Renslow, a well-known cornerstone of the community who opened many of the city’s first gay businesses and some of the first leather bars in the world, as well as published GayLife. He regularly provided funding for LGBTQ+ organizations, and “is often listed in various program books as Sponsor, Patron, Contributor, or Friend,” according to the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.
“I had never tended a bar in my life, but [Renslow] was like, ‘You can start tomorrow,’ and before I knew it, I was a bartender at Gold Coast, one of the most well-known, classic leather bars in the city and world.”
Renslow nurtured Chichester’s interest in politics and encouraged him to stay engaged in the ever-growing number of queer organizations throughout the city. Chichester said he “always had [Renslow’s] support and permission” to raise money for LGBTQ+ causes and get involved in protests.
“It was exciting because we could work, we could play, we could be political,” Chichester said. “It was a good time, and we also got things done.”
As Chichester built a career in special event planning and entertainment, he regularly helped organize community events for organizations like Howard Brown Memorial Clinic and Chicago AIDS Benefit Committee, among others.
Of all the efforts he’s been a part of, Chichester said he was especially proud to work with Mayor Harold Washington and Mayor Richard M. Daley as a member of the City of Chicago’s Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues.
“It was exciting to be able to sit down with the mayor and the police superintendent and make them listen to us,” Chichester reflected. “The council fell by the wayside for a while after Daley, but I’m glad that it’s been started up again because it’s very important to have a seat at the table and for our voices to be heard.”
In more than 50 years of organizing, Chichester has watched the LGBTQ+ community evolve to address the most existential of challenges. The HIV/AIDs epidemic demonstrated the collective power and strength of the community, as people came together to care for each other without much support from the broader public and government, Chichester said.
“Early on, there were a lot of separate spaces, but when AIDs started, lesbians made a point of banding together with gay men, and they’re the reason we got through that,” Chichester said. “We had no support from the government, but we watched out for ourselves for so long. We started our own agencies. It’s amazing how we can collectively gain power and take care of ourselves, even if others won’t help us.”
It worries Chichester that there’s a growing movement to roll back many of the rights and resources that he and other queer activists fought for, but he said he’s “always kind of liked a fight.”
“It keeps me energized,” Chichester said. “I’ve always been someone who’s refused to put up with bullshit. You have to show people you’re not going to take it. We have to continue making sure they’re treating us like human beings. We have to fight back.”
He encouraged young activists to connect with older generations and let their stories inform future organizing efforts.
“Don’t just accept the fact that you can do all these things now,” Chichester said. “Everything you can do is because of other people. We all have many shoulders that we’re standing on. Chicago has a very vibrant history, and it’s important for activists to connect intergenerationally and learn from each other.”
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