According to longtime gay activist Rick Garcia, nearly every piece of pro-LGBT legislation to be passed in Illinois has the fingerprints of an Edgewater resident on it. Of course, many of those fingerprints are Garcia's himself, who lives in Edgewater.
Panelists at a June 18 Edgewater Historical Society meeting all agreed; LGBT life in the neighborhood has long been exceptional.
"You've got a bunch of people who are committed to the [political] process," said Kit Duffy, who served as the first LGBT community liaison under Mayor Harold Washington. "It's different than other parts of the city." She went on to say that LGBT residents never took no for an answer.
Panelists said that many gay people moved to Edgewater because of low rent and because a host of empty storefronts meant ample opportunities for gay bars and businesses. The neighborhood quickly became a hotbed of political activism, led by its LGBT community.
According to the panelists, Edgewater LGBT activists not only produced and battled for life-changing LGBT legislation there. In many cases, they enlisted their communities in the fight for equality all over the city.
It was then-48th Ward Ald. Kathy Osterman who Garcia sought out when the famous "Gang of Four" needed help passing the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance. (The "Gang of Four" was the nickname the Chicago Tribune gave to the four activists who won the ordinance's passage in city council.) Garcia shrugged when Osterman asked him how many "yes" votes he thought they would have. He didn't know.
"She said, 'if you can't count, you better get out of the political business,'" Garcia said, laughing.
Osterman taught the team to count votes and jumped into the fight for the ordinance, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Years later, the City inducted Osterman into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame for her role in getting the ordinance passed.
However, it wasn't just Osterman who turned the tides for the ordinance. Opposition to it went far beyond politics.
Most aldermen who opposed the ordinance did so for religious reasons, said Laurie Dittman, who was one of the "Gang of Four" with Garcia, Art Johnston and the late Jon-Henri Damski.
The team found unlikely allies in two Edgewater nuns who followed Garcia from Epworth United Methodist Church to City Hall to lecture unsupportive aldermen, starting with 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke.
"We had to get 26 votes and take care of the Catholic problem," Garcia said. "Nuns from Edgewater helped to take care of the Catholic problem."
To put pressure on aldermen who were facing election, LGBT activists started to register gay and lesbian voters. Norm Sloan, an Edgewater resident, registered most of them on an ironing board under the El tracks. The volunteer registrar produced 10,000 new gay voters, and the ordinance passed in 1988 under Mayor Eugene Sawyer.
Part of what set Edgewater apart, said state Rep. Greg Harris, is that the community has historically been led by women.
"This ward developed a matriarchy in its political establishment," he said. "The majority of support that we had were always women."
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy said that it was the women's-rights movement that produced strong female leaders in the 48th Ward because women faced their own battles for reproductive justice at the time.
Garcia said that until recently, straight men tended to be less comfortable with homosexuality and were therefore less supportive politically. Edgewater's female aldermen were on step ahead of others on the city council.
Greg Harris pointed out that while progress has been made, the fight is far from over, especially for young LGBT people.
"We all talk about how great and how liberated we are," said Harris. But, he said, 21,000 youth remain homeless in Illinois, "most because of their sexual orientation."
Duffy, who served as the city's first LGBT liaison under Mayor Harold Washington, said that the battles once waged by LGBT activists are changing. When asked how elders would keep pace with LGBT youth movements, Duffy said it's up to youth to lead and elders to support.
"I think we have edged past the era of identity politics," Duffy said. "There's going to have to be this broad realignment."
Greg Hinz, political editor of Crain's Chicago Business, moderated the panel.
The Edgewater Historical Society hosted the panel as part of their summer exhibit on LGBT history, "Edgewater Pride: Oppression to Expression, A Celebration and Chronicle of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender Communities." The exhibit runs through Sept. 25 at the Edgewater Historical Society, 5358 N. Ashland. More information is available at www.EdgewaterHistory.org .
