Jon-Henri Damski was a cornerstone of Chicago's LGBTQ community who helped reveal our lives and world in over 1,000 newspaper columns from 1977 to 1997. His words helped define us.
He chronicled the changing attitudes about being gay, the media's coverage of LGBTQ issues, police harassment, porn theaters, the local take on national and international politics, transient hotels, queer theory, rock and roll, outing, crime and violence, mentoring, tricking, marriage and HIV. In short, he covered it all. His beat was the world but his stomping grounds were Chicago's gay ghetto known as "New Town" which ran from Fullerton to Irving Park with east/west borders as the lake and Halsted.
A vast curiosity prompted his eagerness to explore. He was a philosopher and a journeyman in constant search of the deeper truth. His playful, provocative and insightful columns tended to explore issues rather than preach about them. He had his point of view, but never let it blind him. Damski believed that a cornerstone of LGBTQ journalism was a need to remain an advocate for freedom and a willingness to remain open. His "business" card said it all. It was a caricature of Damski with the words "Gay Writer/Queer Thinker."
In 1989 Damski addressed his importance in his typically bemused way. "I have never thought that I was the voice of the community; the trouble was that until New Town was big enough, I was the only columnist..."
He wasn't a native of the area. Damski was born March 31, 1937 and raised in the Seattle area. He received his BA degree in English from Whitman College, his master's from Brandeis University in The History of Ideas, and his Ph.D. from The University of Washington in Classics. He briefly taught Latin and Roman History at Bryn Mawr College.
His gift to the community happened by chance, or perhaps it was fated. At any rate Damski came to Chicago in 1974 for an academic conference and though he didn't get a job appointment, he remained here. He claimed he stayed because he lacked the funds to return to either coast, but the real reason was that Damski loved this town. As his journal from that year states, "in Chicago even fags walk like Americans."
He began his extensive journalism career by sending epigrams and observations to GayLife and Chicago Gay News, the two main bar rags of the era. Gay Chicago accepted his submissions first. Soon he was working as a columnist for the paper, writing both his Nothing Personal as well as his "Bits & Pieces" columns. It's important to note that, from the start, Damski wrote under his real name which was very atypical for a gay journalist in the late '70s. He was also perhaps the first out gay columnist to have his photo accompany his work.
After his stint at Gay Chicago, Damski switched papers, moving to GayLife before eventually transitioning to Windy City Times and, finally, Nightlines and Outlines. At the time of his passing in 1997, Damski was believed to be the longest-running columnist on gay and lesbian issues in the United States. Despite his prolific career he never missed a deadline or ran out of topics to discuss. Week after week his columns he pounded out articles on his Underwood manual typewriter in his single-room occupancy domicile at The Belair Hotel on Diversey and Pine Grove.
Jon-Henri spent a great many of his days walking the streets, talking to people, getting to know them, and finding out what was important in their lives. A familiar face in the Lakeview neighborhood, he could often be seen in his beloved Cubs hat—chatting, stopping for coffee, dining or holding court at The Wheel Around ( now Stella's ) restaurant, and befriending a diverse cross-section of the public. He knew all the politicians, the homeless, the hustlers, the bar owners, the activists, the elderly and almost everyone else. He was genuinely interested in people and that compassion came through clearly in his work.
That concern was also evident in his political involvement. As a member of the Gang of Four ( along with Laurie Dittman, Rick Garcia and Arthur Johnston ) , Damski's lobbying efforts helped to pass the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance in 1988 ( banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, public accommodations and credit transactions ) . In 1989 he received The Liberty Bell Award from the Chicago Bar Association for his efforts in getting the Human Rights Ordinance passed. He was an original inductee in the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1991. Damski was also a founding member of The Illinois Federation for Human Rights, now known as Equality Illinois.
In 1993 Damski was diagnosed with cancer. Upon hearing the news his response was to increase his output so that he would "be in the middle of his work instead of at the end of it." In addition to his weekly column he also began his collaboration with John Michael Vore of Firetrap Press. In a short time he published "X-Ray Reports" ( a collection of poetry that came in a medical folder along with his X-ray ) , and "Damski to Go" ( with his pithy remarks, and graphics by Vernon Huls, printed on rainbow slips of paper and put in a Chinese take-out container ) . During this period he also compiled "Angels into Dust," a selection of his columns which were primarily character sketches of various denizens of New Town he had known. It was published just prior to his passing.
A few years later Firetrap released "Dead/Queer/Proud," a collection of diverse Damski essays over the years. In the introduction of the book Neal Pollack wrote, "I didn't always understand everything Jon-Henri said, or everything he wrote. Like his schizo mind, his writing sometimes goes off on odd tangents. Secret shards of knowledge burst out, seemingly disconnected to the previous paragraph. Popular references get knocked off-center by the obscure, by what was unspoken."
After his terminal diagnosis and a year prior to Jon-Henri's eventual passing friends gathered to give him a farewell party at the AIDS Care Chapel. It was perfectly in character. If Damski were going to have a memorial service, he wanted to be part of the celebration.
Jon-Henri Damski died of complications from malignant melanoma on Nov. 1, 1997 at the age of 60. An icon was gone, but he left so much behind in the form of people he had known personally as well as those he had touched through his writing. Damski also left behind a bounty of those superb columns which remain an insightful porthole into our community at a crucial stage in its development. There is nostalgia in these pieces, but it is mixed with a resonance and wisdom that remain as pertinent today as on the day they were pounded out on that magical Underwood manual typewriter.
