Kinsey Sick’s Irwin Keller has an interesting Chicago connection. In mid-1987, he and other University of Chicago GLBT students were subjected to threats and harassment, including through the U.S. mail—which meant police became involved. At least one of the perpetrators was believed to be a staff member of the right-wing campus paper Midway Review. Keller, co-chair of the Gay and Lesbian Law Students Association, was quoted in The Chicago Maroon student paper as follows: ‘I was horrified at the posters and embarrassed for the University community. These flyers show that there is a sick individual out there who needs help very badly. The posters would have been merely pathetic, if not for those horrible AIDS references. In this time of crisis, any mention of AIDS with anything but compassion is obnoxious and inexcusable.’ I wrote about the incident in the May 7, 1987 Windy City Times. Later that month, Outlines newspaper was founded, where I continued reporting on the activism of U. of C. students—two of those harassed worked for Outlines. I, too, was threatened by a group calling itself ‘The Great White Brotherhood of the Iron Fist.’ Their terror on campus and off (especially in Hyde Park, where U of C is based) continued into the next school year.
Keller’s mother is still very active in Chicago-area PFLAG, as was his father until his death.