WCT: You're the first openly gay local nighttime news anchor. Do you feel any pressure to be a role model, or is there any weight with that designation?

BE: That's a really good question. [Actually,] I do. When you're the first in anything, there is certainly an added pressure to succeed—and I feel that pressure, and I put that pressure on myself. That being said, it's almost exacerbated because I never thought I'd have this large a role. Growing up in conservative western Michigan, I never allowed myself to dream this big. READ MORE

Gay history podcast has new host: Studs Terkel

For four years, Eric Marcus has been the voice of Making Gay History, introducing listeners to both the infamous and the overlooked of LGBTQ history through his extensive personal archive of audio interviews. But for the podcast's eighth season, Marcus will cede interview duties to a more seasoned personality: the late Chicago broadcaster and friend of the LGBTQ+ community Studs Terkel (1912-2008). For the latest season, Making Gay History has partnered with the Studs Terkel Radio Archive to produce eight episodes featuring Terkel's interviews with LGBTQ icons such as Lorraine Hansberry, Quentin Crisp and Jill Johnston.  READ MORE

BLACKlines 1996-2004, En la Vida 1996-2004, Identity 2004-2006
BLACKlines newspaper started in February 1996, and remained a monthly newspaper produced by Outlines for many years. It started after Robert Ford of Thing 'zine died. A Black gay man, Ford had created a wonderful queer 'zine for Chicago and the U.S., and his death left a void for the local Black LGBTQ community. So Outlines asked the community if it wanted us to run a Black newspaper, and in a unanimous vote at the Generator nightclub, the plan was agreed to. It would be run by and for Black LGBTQs. A few months later, the Latinx community asked for the same, and En La Vida was born in July 1996. In the early 2000s, the papers were merged into a glossy monthly, Identity, but eventually it too had to fold. There was not a sustainable advertising model to keep them going.  READ MORE