Members of UCE Rainbow Alliance—The LGBT group at Unitarian Church of Evanston, 4500 Dempster St.—on June 28 welcomed four Chicago-area activists to discuss the progress made, and challenges that still faced, the LGBT-rights movement.
Panelists included Stu Smith, formerly of St. James Presbyterian Church in West Rogers Park, who also worked extensively with LGBT youth in Lake View; Pastor Rachelle Brown of Achurch4me? Metropolitan Community Church; activist Andy Thayer of Gay Liberation Network; and psychotherapist Mark Hodar, who specializes in issues affecting members of the LGBT community. The session was moderated by A.J. Segneri of the Third Coast Society, which organized the event along with UCE Rainbow Alliance.
The panel was held at Unitarian Church of Evanston, 1330 Ridge Ave. in Evanston.
Discussants largely focused on where LGBT progressives might focus their attention now that gay marriage, which has largely dominated activism discourses for several years, is becoming law of the land in many states.
Brown said that, despite those advances in marriage rights, LGBT citizens still live under fear of discrimination and stigma, for many reasons.
""Queer' is the intersection of race, gender, sexual orientation and class," she noted. "Marriage equality is lovely, and one of the reasons that transgender issues got thrown under the bus was so that marriage equality could happen. And now it's time for the people who got thrown under a bus to say, 'You see these track marks? We're done.'"
Smith added, "Talk to some of the folks that are living in a new gender now, and how they feel when they are out on Halsted. We're making wonderful moves institutionally. But institutional change doesn't [help] individual relationships."
He noted that media and popular culture suggest that the gay rights movement had made spectacular progress, reminding the audience that news outlets that once mocked pride parades now had their own entries. "Things are changing dramatically, but the people who are coming to march are still struggling."
Thayer added that activists need to remain vigilant so as not to allow changing economic tides, or other socio-political turmoil, to have adverse effects on the gay community: "As much as we're elated at the gains of the past few years in the state, we have to remember that things don't just go forward—they [can] go backward."
Much of the discussion also centered on the shifting role of religion in American culture; participants noted that young people were less likely to identify with organized religion and resented its encroachment into the political arena. But Hodar added that some of those same young people might benefit from a greater awareness for their history as well.
"I'd like to see a lot less complacency in the gay community," Hodar said. "I'd like to see people under the age of 25 who know what Stonewall is."
