The Chicago Commission on Human Relations' Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, in a press release, has named the 2008 list of individuals and organizations for inclusion in the only known government-sponsored hall of fame that honors members of the LGBT communities.
Pictured: The Rev. Gregory Dell, Guy Warner, Jesus Salgueiro and Art Smith, some of this year's Hall of Fame inductees. Photos by Hal Baim
Jane Addams will be honored as an individual inductee this year.
Chosen nominees will be inducted at the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame's 18th annual ceremony, which will be held 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13 in the Sidney R. Yates Gallery at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph.
Those honored in 2008 are:
Individuals:
—Jane Addams (1860—1935), 1931 Nobel Prize winner, for her pioneering work in founding Hull House in 1890, which created a lasting model for social change and diverse thought.
—Suzanne Arnold, 52, for her long-term work in the local and national lesbian and gay sports community, including her terms as co-chair of Team Chicago, female vice co-chair of the Federation of Gay Games, and co-chair and sports co-director of Gay Games VII in Chicago.
—Kevin G. Boyer, 45, for his service to the LGBT communities, including his work as president of Gerber/Hart Library, co-creator of national Gay and Lesbian History Month, co-founder of the Chicago Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and vice co-chair of Gay Games VII in Chicago.
—Michal Brody, Ph.D., 60, activist and author, for her work as a founding member of the groundbreaking Chicago Gay Liberation group in 1969, a founding member of Chicago Lesbian Liberation in 1970, and in 1985 writing 'Are We There Yet?,' a landmark book of Chicago lesbian history.
—Sam Coady, 43, for his advocacy for LGBT workplace equality and for his long-term contributions to the LGBT sports communities, including founding the Chicago Hoops Classic—the largest and longest-running LGBT basketball tournament in the world—and co-chairing Gay Games VII in Chicago.
—Eddie Dugan (1944—1987), showman and patron of the arts, for defining and helping to invent the disco phenomenon in Chicago by launching with great fanfare, in June 1973, the legendary Bistro—a precursor of the hoopla that later surrounded Studio 54 in New York—and later nightlife venues in Chicago.
—Murray Edelman, Ph.D., 65, a founder and central figure of the Chicago Gay Liberation group, for helping to bring the modern gay liberation movement to Chicago and doing crucial work to develop a visible and militant LGBT activism during the early years of the movement in Chicago.
—Stephen Jones (deceased 1980), entertainer and health advocate; known widely in Chicago's gay community as his 1970s drag persona 'Nurse Wanda Lust,' for serving as the poster person for venereal-disease testing and for his groundbreaking promotion of sexual health awareness.
—Joe La Pat (1943—2008), entrepreneur, for his generosity and wide-ranging support for Chicago's LGBT community, including early key support for Proud to Run, Strike Against AIDS, Chicago House, Gay Games VII—especially for international athletes who participated—and the Center on Halsted.
—Jesus Salgueiro, 47, and Art Smith, 47, artist and celebrity chef respectively, as an openly gay couple, for creating Common Threads, an international children's charity that fosters a familial environment where children learn to value each other and discover universal understanding and mutual acceptance.
—Guy Warner, 66, activist, for his calm and steady leadership in the early years of Chicago's LGBT communities, including his key work in the 1970s with Mattachine Midwest, which reinvigorated the organization, and his founding of a pioneering group for parents of lesbian and gay people.
Organizations:
—Artemis Singers, the first women's singing ensemble in the U.S. to explicitly label itself a 'lesbian feminist' chorus, for 29 years dedicated to performing music written or arranged by women and thus highlighting historical, political, and personal events and experiences common to women.
Friends of the community:
—Katherine (Kit) Duffy, 64, for her advocacy for LGBT rights, including her 1984 appointment by Mayor Harold Washington as the first mayoral liaison to Chicago's LGBT communities and her role in securing the 1988 passage of an ordinance barring discrimination against gays and lesbians in Chicago.
—The Rev. Gregory R. Dell, 62, for his support of recognizing the unions of same-sex couples in the face of a church trial and suspension from his pastoral duties, and for his ongoing support of social justice for sexual and other minorities.
