It's not often you get to meet and converse with a living legend. I'm not talking about the modern celebrity nation, where someone who is famous becomes even more famous by coming out. What are they really risking? Getting paid lots of money instead of lots and lots of money for acting, singing, writing, etc.
We need these celebrities, to put a face on a certain segment of GLBT America. We need them to be role models, and media stars. We need them to not fear being gay, and to show we are just as excitingand boringas the rest of America can be.
But our movement's true heroes are most often not the ones in the national spotlight, or the ones who believe that they control the gay movement. Our true heroes are those who came out and risked everythingtheir families, their careers, and their lives.
After Renee Hanover moved to Chicago, having grown up in New York, our city's laws and activism would never be the same. Hanover, who turns 74 next month, has been an "activist" since her teen years. She fought for Jewish issues, women's rights, and civil rights before it was fashionable, and as soon as she received her law degree in the late 1960s, she started making an impact on the court system in Illinois.
Hanover was on the ground floor of the formation of many gay political and legal organizations, and she has received dozens of awards for her amazing impact on our everyday lives. She helped host the first gay meeting at the National Lawyer's Guild, and she was the attorney on the case which struck down the state's law against crossdressing. She helped many gay people get their jobs back, including postal workers. She took on cases of men arrested after being entrapped by police. Many of her clients were working class and poor, and she often worked for free.
For myself, as a young journalist trying to cover the volatile and controversial Chicago gay community of the 1980s and 1990s, Hanover was always a beacon of sanity. Her politics do not change with the winds, she stands firm in her commitment to ending divisions between the genders, between the races and classes. Gay political and legal issues were always only part of her agenda.
Sometimes we forget that it is the Renee Hanovers of the world who have the most impact on really changing our lives. She was fighting cases well before anyone in the legal community actually thought we could win. Now many lawyers have taken on gay causesand they are not risking their careers to do so. Renee fought these cases not because it was her "career," but because it was the right thing to do. Because she did it for the "cause," she is in a similar boat with many activists who put aside concerns about money to do the right thing for the community.
Now Renee is moving to Southern California, to be in better weather and nearer her family ( she's a greatgrandmother ) . Chicago is losing one of the most important GLBT fighters of the past century. I would rank her in the Top 5 among this city's most important people of the 20th century. And if you count the fact that she worked on gay issues for more than four decades, she might be the most important person impacting the laws and lives of gay people today.
She may not be on the cover of Time, but Renee has been saying "Yep, I'm Gay" for longer than most of our modern celebrities have been alive.
The community has a chance to say goodbye to Renee this Sunday, March 12, 4 8 p.m. at Star Gaze, 5419 N. Clark. RSVP to Outlines, ( 773 ) 871 7610. Free food, but most important, lots of memories to cherish.
I know I will miss Renee immensely, and so will Chicago. Come help us say thank you, and goodbye.