Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-02-22
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Lambda Legal marks 50 years with Bon Foster Civil Rights Celebration
by Carrie Maxwell
2023-05-20

This article shared 1670 times since Sat May 20, 2023
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Lambda Legal marked its 50th anniversary with The Bon Foster Civil Rights Celebration May 19 at the Art Institute of Chicago. The event honored Windy City Times Owner and Co-Founder Tracy Baim.

The celebration was named after Chicago attorney and civil rights activist Robert Bonvoulier "Bon" Foster, who died in 1991 from complications due to AIDS. Foster gave Lambda Legal a large sum of money specifically to open a regional office in Chicago.

Guests were greeted with an opening reception featuring cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and a five-piece jazz performance by Sun Ensemble. Ahead of the speeches, a video was shown chronicling the work Lambda Legal has done over the past five decades. The video ended with the message that Lambda Legal has had and will continue to have an "unprecedented past, unstoppable future."

Event co-chairs Chappell Communications Group Founder and Principal and media commentator Terrence Chappell, Feeding America Vice President of Development Daniel Nisbet and Lambda Legal National Board of Directors Executive Committee member and Ice Miller law partner Diane Bell welcomed the packed house to the event.

Chappell spoke about how, especially in the past year, the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ+ community are at risk, and "they are really coming for all of us." Nisbet called on supporters to continue funding Lambda Legal's "vital mission."

Bell recalled how Lambda Legal "had to sue the state of New York in order to be recognized as a not-for-profit, and for its very right to exist." She added that what started as a small group of lawyers in New York City has grown to a nationwide team fighting for LGBTQ+ rights and the rights of everyone living with HIV. Bell said that their mission is all about "bringing down injustice … "representing love in the face of hate and the values of a free and equal democracy."

State of Illinois Human Rights Commission Chair and former Lambda Legal Midwest Regional Director Mona Noriega introduced Baim. She added that, "We cannot assume our safety nor can we assume legal precedent that establishes and protects our rights are guaranteed."

Noriega reminded attendees of how important it is to "have a press that covers issues that are relevant to our lives," which was the reason Lambda Legal recognized Baim for her decades of work as a journalist. She went on to chronicle Baim's journalism career, which began at the age of 10 with a family newsletter and continued throughout her school years, to her first paid reporter job at GayLife newspaper after Baim graduated from college. Noriega highlighted Baim's co-founding of this publication, starting other publications and, more recently, rescuing The Chicago Reader from going out of business and founding the Chicago Independent Media Alliance, among other non-journalism endeavors over the years.

"As we witness the killing or jailing of journalists trying to report world events, we must cherish and protect a free press," said Noriega. "We must thank and honor those who report on, find value and validate our queer lives, and we must especially protect the individual journalists who take the hits, who might miss out on their social and family life covering a news story, who stay up nights writing to meet a deadline, and [work] even harder to endure are all the criticisms and even threats to their lives. Yup, Tracy has done all of it. She has consistently reported on the beauty and tragedies of life and of queer life and that is why today we honor her at this year's Bon Foster Civil Rights Celebration."

Baim was greeted with cheers and a standing ovation. She called this honor "amazing" and recalled her many decades of covering the work Lambda Legal has done for the community.

"I have seen what a critical building block it has been to our movement," said Baim. "Without Lambda Legal, including the Midwest office launched by Mona and … the amazing Pat Logue, our movement … might have just collapsed. So, thank you for honoring me with this award. I was especially excited because I covered the early days of the Midwest Office before there was an actual office.

"I covered the fight to have access for a gay contingent in the Bud Billiken Parade, from the press conference outside of the Chicago Defender, where my mother had worked decades before, to marching at the head of the contingent taking photos and feeling the love of the people on the sidelines. It was a great risk for those who marched, but 98% of the people were actually very supportive.

"It has been an honor to document this community, and the work of Lambda Legal, from my days at GayLife, to Windy City Times, Outlines, Blacklines and En La Vida, Windy City Radio and again when I got Windy City Times out of foster care."

Baim spoke about her beginnings as an editorial assistant at GayLife in June 1984, where she immediately covered the AIDS (then known as Gay Related Immune Deficiency) crisis, serial killers who were targeting the gay community, hate crimes, trans rights and lesbian culture; she said, "Everything old is new again."

She added that "as an openly gay journalist, my options were pretty limited. There were very few openly gay reporters in the country. Randy Shilts is the only one I could name [back then]. But I did find a home, and that was at GayLife. The mainstream did not matter to me, even though my parents were [working] in [the mainstream press]. It wasn't for me. What mattered was covering this community. The good and bad, the culture and sports, the murders and looming pandemic … It was all worth it. There was never a dull day, and I knew early on how important these stories were to get down. Because almost no one else was covering our community the way the gay press was."

Baim said the next chapter of her professional life will be focused on her archives, which she will be turning into books and other forms of media. She added that this is now her "life's work, to collect it all for the next generation who is being censored in other places.

"Being a journalist gives me such an incredible cat-bird seat to this community. It's really the best seat in the house … And that's why I can say with complete confidence that this award means something special to anyone who has received it, including me. Because without Lambda Legal, and Lambda Legal Midwest's office … our family feuds would have probably been worse."

Baim ended her speech with a request for the audience to sing to the lyrics of The Rainbow Connection which they did and then gave her another standing ovation.

Following Baim's remarks, Lambda Legal Director of Constitutional Litigation Camilla Taylor spoke about the organization's past, present and future, including fighting in court against the current onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ laws being passed in GOP-controlled states. Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings said that it is more important than ever to support the work the organization does in the courts, because there are over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have been introduced in 46 states this calendar year.

Additionally, Lambda Legal's Board Chair Lauren Mutti, Illinois Department of Human Rights Director and former Lambda Legal Midwest Regional Director Jim Bennett and former Lambda Legal Midwest Regional Director and attorney Christopher Clark also spoke.

To close out the festivities, DJ Rae Chardonnay spun tunes, and Lilith Towers regaled the guests with a Drag Queen Story Hour, where she read from the original work, The Tale of Lambda Legal.

See lambdalegal.org/ .


This article shared 1670 times since Sat May 20, 2023
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Lambda Literary names winners of the Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize
2023-06-08
--From a Lambda Literary press release - Lambda Literary is pleased to announce Ryka Aoki and Aaron Hamburger as the winners of the 2023 Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize. Dedicated to the memory of author and journalist Jim Duggins, this prize ...


Gay News

HRC declares state of emergency for LGBTQs, issues report and guidebook
2023-06-06
--From a press release - WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — officially declared a state of emergency ...


Gay News

HRC issues 'state of emergency' for LGBTQ+ Americans
2023-06-06
On June 6, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) officially declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States for the first time in its history, which spans more than four decades. According to a ...


Gay News

Rooftop Out of the Office Pride kickoff honors Legacy Project
2023-06-06
On May 31, the LGBTQ networking organization Out of the Office hosted its Pride kickoff and annual fundraiser in the I/O Bar atop the Godfrey Hotel, 127 W. Huron St. The event paid tribute to Legacy Project, the Chicago-based ...


Gay News

LGBTQ leader Julio Rodriguez honored at Equality Illinois' annual Pride Kickoff Brunch
2023-06-05
Longtime LGBTQ+ activist Julio Rodriguez was the main honoree at the fifth annual Pride Kickoff Brunch held by Equality Illinois at Venue West, 221 N. Paulina St., June 4. Among those officials on hand to help ...


Gay News

WORLD Japanese bill, 'HRC Equidad CL,' center closes, UN expert, amFAR gala
2023-05-26
LGBTQ+-rights activists criticized a new bill submitted to the Diet (Japan's national legislature) aimed at "promoting understanding" of equality issues as a "meaningless gesture," Japan Today noted. Japan's coalition government ...


Gay News

Leading LGBTQ+ groups raise alarm to business community on coordinated anti-LGBTQ+ attacks; call on Target to lead
2023-05-25
--From a press release - Organizations calling on Target and all businesses to stand up against anti-LGBTQ2S+ extremism in statement below: Family Equality, GLAAD, GLSEN, The Human Rights Campaign, National Center For Lesbian Rights, National LGBTQ Task Force, National Black J ...


Gay News

San Francisco's Harvey Milk School celebrates birthday of its namesake
2023-05-23
Students at the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in San Francisco's LGBTQ Castro neighborhood took to the streets Monday, May 22, and marched on Harvey Milk Day. The day of special significance in California honors the ...


Gay News

About Face Theater hosts Leppen Leadership Awards
2023-05-23
On May 14, About Face Theater presented its Leppen Leadership Awards to members of the LGBTQ+ community for their activism and service. The organization normally awards two individuals a year but decided to expand this year, ...


Gay News

SAVOR 'Round Table II' brings chefs, nonprofits together to discuss collective vision
2023-05-21
On May 15, the Avondale restaurant eden, 2734 W. Roscoe St., was the site of a rather extraordinary gathering of Chicagoland chefs, nonprofit CEOs and other business leaders in a moving discussion that centered on building ...


Gay News

Modern Military Association of America appoints interim Executive Director
2023-05-18
--From a press release - WASHINGTON, (May 17, 2023) — LGBTQ+ military nonprofit Modern Military Association of America (MMAA) announced today that nonprofit management expert Rachel Branaman, will step into the role of interim executive ...


Gay News

Gloria Allen to be honored on National LGBTQ Wall of Honor on June 22
2023-05-15
The International Imperial Court System and the National LGBTQ Task Force are honoring seven legends of the LGBTQ+-rights movement as 2023 National LGBTQ Wall of Honor inductees at NYC's historic Stonewall Inn on June 22, per ...


Gay News

GLAAD ceremony honors celebrities and welcomes TGNC state reps
2023-05-14
On May 13, GLAAD announced recipients for the final 18 of this year's 33 categories of the 34th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York City. Maren Morris accepted GLAAD's Excellence in Media Award, introduced by ...


Gay News

UIC's 'lavender' graduates step out into the world
2023-05-12
On May 2, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) held its 17th annual Lavender Graduation Ceremony in front of a crowded room of queer graduates and their friends, allies and families. The event was held in ...


Gay News

Howard Brown Health identifies Monkeypox (Mpox) resurgence
2023-05-05
--From a press release - (Chicago, IL, May 5, 2023) — Howard Brown Health has identified a resurgence in cases of Monkeypox (Mpox) in the Chicago area. As of this morning, the agency has diagnosed seven new cases of mpox since ...


 


Copyright © 2023 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives. Single copies of back issues in print form are
available for $4 per issue, older than one month for $6 if available,
by check to the mailing address listed below.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.
All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transegender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor
Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.