Chicago Knights Motorcycle Club
"That was probably '76, '77. There was an active club scene going on in Chicago at that time. There were four or five MC clubs in existence. There was Chicago Knights, Chicago Pride, there was the Rodeo Riders, there was M.O.B. ( Men of Brotherhood ) . I think the group had already been in existence for at least five years before I got there. I joined the club through people that I knew in the leather bars in Chicago. When I lived in Washington, D.C. I belonged to a club out there, the Scorpions Motorcycle Club. So when I moved to Chicago it made it easier to have a group of people around me. Suddenly, as a new kid on the block, there was a common bond. It helped my way into the gay community here.
"Jim Flint was involved with the Chicago Knights. He was very instrumental in the Toys For Tots program. We would raise money in the holiday season and we chose different organizations and hand delivered the money to those organizations. One year we wanted to give money to Cabrini Green, for toys, and so we went to Jesse White and he had us deliver directly to the families, and that was the one and only time I walked through Cabrini Green. But it was that kind of an organization, where we were directly involved in what we were raising and where the money went. We did try to give money to the Salvation Army and they refused it because of who we were. We got quite a bit of publicity over that, even Mike Royko wrote about it in one of his columns, in terms of 'why wouldn't they take the money, and what about the people that need help?' The general public opinion was very much in our favor. Since then I have never given the Salvation Army a dollar, but that's just my personal thing." Harley McMillan.
Salvation Army ...
"I was very involved. I was secretary, and I was involved in the Salvation Army scandal. That was 1982, and we used to put on an annual show called Toys For Tots and that year we raised $35,000, when normally we raised about $15,000, so we had a meeting to decide if we were going to give larger amounts to our usual charities, or start adding charities. I said, 'Why don't we give some money to the Salvation Army.' I was joking, of course. The joke was that they take care of drunks and we were all drunks and we might need them some day.
"So we decided to donate $1,400 to the Salvation Army and we sent them a check with a letter, and because it was Toys For Tots we asked that the money be used for one of their youth activities. So the first of the year comes and we're trying to close the books and the check we sent them still hadn't been cashed, so we sent them a letter ... no response, the next month and the next month, no check was cashed. It wasn't until August, we got a letter from them, with the check uncashed, and saying they couldn't accept our money because we were a gay organization.
"Of course, we were furious, and one of the people we contacted was Mike Royko and he did a column about it in the Sun-Times. Anyway, Mike interviewed the Salvation Army and their logic was that if they accepted money from us, that would mean they would have to turn their young boys over to us. That's what they said. Presumably, they have no problem accepting heterosexual money and turning their young girls over.
"It got us a lot of donations, people sending us their money, saying, 'This was earmarked for the Salvation Army, but we can't give it to them in clear conscience, so we're giving it to you.' And, of course, we had a lot of organizations calling and saying, 'We'll take your money, we don't care if you're gay.'
"I have to say, that the Salvation Army don't feel that way now, they're very supportive of gay people, but at the time it was a scandal. It was just one individual in the Salvation Army that created a ripple." Gene Janowski
[ Actually, the Salvation Army is still known for some anti-gay decisions, including in San Francisco where they pulled out of city contracts rather than comply with the domestic-partner law. ]
Memory Check
The Chicago Knights Motorcycle Club was founded in May 1971. On Nov. 22, 1975, the group sponsored a Toys For Tots Benefit at the Baton. This is believed to be the first instance of a Chicago gay group being involved in this annual charity drive.
On Nov. 28, 1976, the Chicago Knights Motorcycle Club, six other motorcycle clubs plus a group of independent bikers did a show at the Baton to raise funds for Toys For Tots. Numerous acts took to the stage, and as GayLife put it "wigs and gowns found themselves competing with tattoos and mustaches."
The evening raised $1,000 worth of toys and $2,000 in cash. The proceeds went to the Northwestern University Settlement House, an alumni-operated community center for children. Jim Flint was emcee.
1982 Timeline: Jim Piehl, president of the Chicago Knights, delivered the check to the Salvation Army in April, stating that it was a gift from the lesbian and gay community. In June he inquired why the check had not been cleared, and was told that vacationing officials would handle the matter when they returned. On July 22, Piehl returned to Army headquarters and said that by law the Knights must clear their books before they began another fundraiser in October. He was told that he would receive a phone call within a week. They didn't call.
Lt. Col. Earl A. Polsley wrote on Aug. 24 and returned the check. The next day Piehl talked to Polsley who backed down and said he had made an honest mistake in returning the check and wanted to correct it. Piehl demanded an apology to the gay community. None was given and so the Chicago Knights issued a press release on Aug. 27. Mike Royko's column appeared in the Sun-Times Sept. 1, 1982.
Future historians take note: The memory section in this column contains just thatmemoriesand are only to be used as a starting point for your research. Send your stories to Sukie de la Croix at Windy City Times/ Outlines. He also interviews by phone or e.mail sukiedelacroix@iname.com
What A Difference
A Gay Makes
( Sept 24-30 )
1995: 5 Years Ago
U.S.: PFLAG raise more than $250,000 at its annual convention in Washington. D.C. The money goes to Project Open Mind, a PFLAG multimedia advertising and public relations campaign. Italy: Italian gays stage a national demonstration in Verona to protest a new City Council resolution that labels homosexuality "depraved behavior" and "obsessive neurosis similar to alcoholism." Denmark: Eigel Axgil, half of the first legally married gay couple in the world, dies aged 71.
1990: 10 Years Ago
U.S.: A recent survey of lesbian/gay telephone hotlines determines that most hotline volunteers are white males. The survey, conducted by directors of Washington's Whitman-Walker Clinic, collected data from 50 hotlines across the nation. It found that 74 percent of the staff are men and 89 percent are white. Similarly, about three-quarters of the callers were male. Texas-based television evangelist Larry Lea, who describes himself as a "spiritual warrior," talks about his upcoming prayer session for Halloween: "This area has been the launching pad of a lot of things we consider unbiblicalfree sex, the homosexual movement, acid rock. There are strong spirits of perversion and greed."
1985: 15 Years Ago
U.S.: Meeting in Los Angeles, the national convention of the Episcopal church in the United States elects a new presiding bishop. Bishop Edmund Brown of Hawaii is said to be the most progressive and pro-gay of Episcopal Bishops in the country. Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe opens on Broadway. A readership poll conducted by The Advocate says lesbians and gay men are forming monogamous relationships like never before. According to the survey, the couples are spending disposable income on the home, buying VCRs and home furnishings. Going to bars and movies are no longer priorities. In Cleveland, Ohio, 150 lesbians and gay men gather to show support for a teacher fired from a Catholic High School for engaging in "deliberate homosexual acts and desires." Robert Navis was not fired for being openly gay, but for living openly with his lover. Hot porno videos include Night Flight starring Mark Miller, Kurt Marshall, Ron Pearson and Buster to name a few, and The Big Switch, a 90-minute long bisexual feast. Canada: Customs officials seize several magazines and books at the U.S. borders, confiscating six weeks of deliveries directed toward two bookstores. Among the publications taken are: Bad Attitude, a Boston-based lesbian magazine; The Leatherman's Handbook No 2; and "Independence Day" and "Another Runner in the Night," both of which are romance novels. Ireland: The European Supreme Court, the Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, France, agrees to hear a case brought by Dublin English Professor David Norris against the government of Ireland. Norris, a former president of Ireland's National Gay Federation, charges that anti-gay laws in Ireland violate constitutional rights to free association and privacy, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.
1980: 20 Years Ago
U.S.: Straight Hearts Delight by Allen Ginsberg is in bookstores. The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund receive a $5,000 grant from the Playboy Foundation. The grant is in support of Lambda's ongoing litigation efforts, in particular its work in People v. Onofre, which challenges the New York State consensual sodomy law. Canada: The daughters of Errol Flynn file suit to clear their father's name, after a biography Errol Flynn: The Untold Story by Charles Higham claims the move star was a Nazi spy and a bisexual.