David Aaron & John Bash
David Aaron (below) and Johnny Bash are live entertainment promoters in Chicago, with long ties to the club scene, going back to the 1970s.
Carol Anshaw & Jessie Ewing
Anshaw (right) is a nationally known writer fo fiction, and Ewing is a newspaper photographer and teacher.
Sam Bezanis
Bezanis has donated his design services to many gay, AIDS and mainstream civil-rights groups, including the ACLU.
Michelle Bonnarens
Bonnarens is a former Chicagoan now living in Germany. Her activism included fighting back against bigots at the University of Chicago in the 1980s.
Val Camilletti
Val has owned Val's Halla records in Oak Park since the 1970s. She is a pioneer in women's music and culture for the Chicago area.
CC Carter
Carter is a poet, writer and cultural activist, especially known for her POW WOW poetry slams.
Aldo Castillo
Castillo is an artist and founder of the Aldo Castillo Gallery. He has been openly gay and openly HIV-positive for many years.
Ann Christophersen
Christophersen is co-founder of Women & Children First Bookstore and a critical volunteer and supporter of LGBT and feminist causes.
Randy Curwen
In the mid-1970s, Curwen was instrumental in getting the Tribune to rewrite its stylebook and treat the subject of homosexuality in a fairer manner.
Vanessa Davis
Davis is a musician, athlete and culture lover.
Randy Duncan
Duncan is a legend in the Chicago dance and choreography scene, known for his skills as well as his generosity.
Jean Durkin & Paula Walowitz
Durkin (left) and Walowitz are partners, and were married in Canada soon after it became legal to do so. They are cultural activists.
Keith Elliot
Elliot is a former dancer who has worked on a wide range of AIDS and gay benefits, including as co-founder of the Dance for Life annual gala benefits
Eugenia Fawcett
Fawcett came out in the 1940s in Chicago as a student at the University of Chicago. She was with her partner Mary from 1955 until Mary's death.
Peggy Garner
Garner is a former Chicagoan now living in San Francisco. During her time in Chicago, she volunteered with numerous groups.
Sanford Gaylord
Gaylord is an actor, creative activist and writer based in Chicago. He was a co-founding member of A Real Read.
Mailik Gillani & Jamil Khoury
Gillani and Khoury are co-founders of Silk Road Theatre, doing pioneering work on diversity issues in the gay and theater communities.
Mailik Gillani
Gillani and partner Jamil Khoury are co-founders of Silk Road Theatre, doing pioneering work on diversity issues in the gay and theater communities.
Diane Gomez
Gomez has been active in both the cultural and sports parts of Chicago's gay community.
Carole Goodwin
Goodwin is an Oak Park-based writer and she co-owned an important bookstore there for many years, Left Bank Bookstall. She is a long-time activist.
Vernita Gray
Gray has been active on gay rights since the late 1960s. She has been part of a wide range of groups and works on anti-violence issues.
Joel Hall & Craig Davis
Davis and Hall are long-time partners working on cultural issues in the community.
Joel Hall
Hall has been a pioneering openly gay activist since the 1970s. He founded the Joel Hall Dancers.
Jorjet Harper
Harper is a writer, editor, musician, artist and more. She has been part of Chicago's lesbian community since the 1970s.
Juarez Hawkins
Hawkins is a Chicago-based lesbian artist who has contributed her work to many causes.
Ted Hoerl & Steve Scott
Both Hoerl (left) and Scott are active theater professionals in Chicago, with long ties to the gay community. They have been together since Nov. 1, 1
Ted Hoerl
Hoerl is an Actor-Director/ Adjunct Professor of Acting CCPA at Roosevelt University. In the 1980s he owned Opal Station, a popular gay bar.
Chris Johnson
Christine Johnson is a co-founder of Metis Press, Publisher of Lesbian Feminist Literature, and a founding member of the national Women In Print netwo
Art Johnston & Jose A. Pena
Johnston and Pena are co-owners of Sidetrack bar, which has been much-honored for its contributions to GLBT and AIDS charities.
Art Johnston
Johnston is co-owner of Sidetrack bar in Chicago, and a long-time activist on GLBT and AIDS issues.
Lola Lai Jong
Lola Lai Jong has been important cultural and activist pioneer on lesbian and Asian Pacific Islander LGBT issues in Chicago and internationally.
Corinne Kawecki
Kawecki and partner Maureen Sweeney have been active in support of LGBT causes for many years, including with the Lesbian Community Cancer Project.
Jamil Khoury
Jamil Khoury and partner Malik Gillani are co-founders of Silk Road Theatre, doing pioneering work on diversity issues in the gay and theater communit
Richard Knight
Knight is a writer, musician, and all-around performer, working in and outside Chicago's gay community since the 1970s.
Danny Kopelson
Kopelson has been a key staff member and volunteer for numerous gay and AIDS organizations, including AIDS Foundation of Chicago.
Eileen Kreutz
Before becoming active in the Chicago lesbian community, including as co-founder of critical groups, Kreutz was part of the peace movement.
Deb Lake & Terri Pease
Lake and Pease have been partners since Oct. 10, 1998. Lake is a minister and author, Pease is a domestic violence and trauma consultant.
Janice Layne
Layne is a writer and activist, working on a range of LGBT and AIDS issues. It was Layne's idea for the LGBT community to march in the Bud Billikin Pa
Michael Leppen
Leppen is among Chicago's most important philanthropists, supporting a wide range of gay, AIDS and human-rights causes.
Lynnell Long
Long is a writer, performer and poet who was part of A Real Reed and a columnist writing on intersex and gender-identity issues for BLACKlines newspap
Judith Markowitz & Susan Franz
Franz and Markowitz are long-time partners and supporters of LGBT community events and organizations.
Judith Markowitz
Markowitz has been active in community culture and events since the 1970s.
Amy Matheny
Matheny is an actor, radio host, and senior account representative for Windy City Media Group. She is executive producer of Windy City Queercast.
Pat McCombs
McCombs has been an integral part of Chicago's LGBT community since the 1970s, when she first fought back against racial carding in the bars...
Susan McConnell
Susan McConnell and partner Beth O'Neil are long-time activists on women's LGBT and AIDS issues.
Steve McDonough
Steve McDonough and his partner Dan Smith have broken new TV ground as the Hearty Boys.
Steve McDonough & Dan Smith
Dan Smith (left) and his partner Steve McDonough have broken new TV ground as the Hearty Boys.
Jill Metz
Metz has practiced law since 1978, with many gay clients. She has volunteered with numerous gay organizations.
Mary Morten
Morten has worked on a diverse range of projects in the feminist and LGBT communities.
Laurie Lee Moses & Katherine S Clusen
Moses (pictured) is a longtime musician part of important LGBT bands and events. She and Clusen have been together since April 2000.
Kathy Munzer
Munzer was a long-time member of the Mountain Moving Coffeehouse collective, producing hundreds of women's music and culture events.
Yasmin Nair
Nair is an academic, activist and writer, and was a member of Queer to the Left.
Ifti Nasim
Nasim was born in Pakistan and has been active on gay Southeast Asian issues in Chicago.
Mona Noriega
Noriega has been active on GLBT and Latina political and cultural issues since the 1970s.
Beth O'Neil & Susan McConnell
Susan McConnell (left) and partner Beth O'Neil have supported women's, LGBT and AIDS causes for many years.
Beth O'Neil
Beth O'Neil was a key part of the founding of women's groups in the 1970s.
Achy Obejas
Obejas is the award-winning author of Days of Awe, Memory Mambo, and We Came all the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?. She was born in Hava
Dwight Okita
Dwight Okita is an openly gay Japanese American writer in Chicago.
Nick Patricca
Patricca is professor emeritus of theater at Loyola University, playwright in residence at Victory Gardens Theater, and artistic associate at Bailiwic
Mary Patten & Debbie Gould
Gould (left) and Patten are long-time friends and activists.
Mary Patten
Mary Patten is a visual artist, videomaker, writer, educator, occasional curator, and long-time community/political activist.
Rick Paul
Paul is founder of Lionheart gay theatre, a pioneering company started in the late 1970s to produce gay works.
Terri Pease
Pease is a domestic violence and trauma consultant.
Jose A. Pena
Pena is co-owner and video director of Sidetrack bar. He is a video pioneer, and donates his time and energy to numerous causes.
Nancy Poore & Chris Johnson
Poore (left) and Johnson were active in Chicago lesbian and print movements from the 1970s-1990s.
Nancy Poore
Poore co-founded Helaine Victoria Press in the 1970s and was active for decades on lesbians issues in Chicago.
Jerry Pritikin
Pritikin is an athlete and photographer who has documented the Chicago and San Francisco gay communities for several decades.
Otis Richardson
Richardson is an artist, filmmaker, and activist with involvement in several key LGBT and African-American LGBT organizations.
Harriet Ross
Ross is an ally of the community, and a former dancer and manager of dance groups. She is a co-founder of the Dance for Life AIDS charity event.
Jane Saks
Saks is Executive Director of the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Columbia College Chicago.
Steve Scott
Scott is active as a director and teacher in Chicago's theater community.
Linda Shear & Windflower
Linda Shear is a former Chicago musician, founder of the first open lesbian band in U.S., and Windflower is her partner.
Linda Shear
Linda Shear is a former Chicago musician, founder of the first open lesbian band in the U.S.
Starla Sholl & Deborah Burkhart
Sholl (left) and Burkhart support LGBT and women's organizations through volunteering and donations.
Starla Sholl
Sholl is a social worker in full-time private practice, with a large LGB clientelle. She has volunteered with several LGBT groups.
Art Sims
Art "Chat Daddy" Sims is a relationship advice expert who helps both straight and gay people. As an openly gay man, he breaks down barriers.
Patrick Sinozich
Sinozich is a nationally renowned director of choral groups, including gay choruses in Chicago.
Art Smith
Smith is a world-renowned chef with a popular restaurant and cookbook, and is well known for his work as Oprah's chef.
Dan Smith
As one-half of the Hearty Boys, Smith and his partner Steve McDonough have broken new TV ground as top chefs and philanthropists.
Max Smith
Max Smith has been a gay activist since the 1970s, including on media, health and political issues.
Coco Soodek & Roxanne Saylor
Soodek (left) and Saylor are active in supporting GLBT political, cultural and health causes.
Byron Stewart
Stewart is an actor, cultural pioneer and diversity trainer.
Kathleen Thompson
Thompson's involvement in the lesbian community includes opening the city's first feminist bookstore in the early 1970s.
Maida Tilchen
Tilchen was an LGBT activist in Bloomington, Ind. in the '70s; a journalist on lesbian pulp novels, women's music and lit, and lesbian Jewish issues.
Stewed Tomatoes & Materville Studios
Martie Marro, Lisa Hernandez, and Katie Jacobson are the wild and crazy girls of OUT Lesbian punk-rock band Stewed Tomatoes.
Paula Walowitz
Walowitz is a performer, singing out lesbian music since the 1970s.
Vera Washington
Washington is an HIV/AIDS counselor, party promoter through Executive Sweet, and longtime worker on LGBT youth issues.
Donna Weems
Weems is a cultural and political activist and long-time Chicagoan who recently retired to Mexico.
Yvonne Welbon
Yvonne Welbon is an award-winning lesbian filmmaker.
Kathleen Rose Winter
Winter was a writer, athlete and activist on LGBT band African-American issues.
Israel Wright
Israel Wright is a well-known photographer and long-time Chicago LGBT community activist.
Yvonne Zipter & Kathy Forde
Zipter (left) and Forde ave been together since 1987 and support various LGBT causes.
Yvonne Zipter
Zipter is an award-winning author and columnist.
Julie Zolot
Zolot was part of the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective, an important feminist organization in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mark Zubro
Mark Richard Zubro has published 20 books in two mystery series set in Chicago, and he’s still writing. One Lambda-winning series features a gay cou

Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community, the book is edited by Tracy Baim and features the contributions of more than 20 prominent historians and journalists. It is published by Surrey Books, an Agate imprint, and is hard cover, 224 pages, 4-color, with nearly 400 photos.
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