September 15-21, 2016

Gay life in Chicago this week, back in...

1985

An ad in Gay Chicago reads. "NEW RELEASES Now Only 49.95 'The Biggest One' and 'Stud' plus 'The Big Switch,' 'Beyond Hawaii,' 'Buster-The Best Year,' and 'Hunk.' All videos $29.95 to $59.95 None Higher at Chicago Old Town Video, 1345 N. Wells St. Open 24 hours every day."

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IMAGE: Benefit Auction at Little Jim's – Gay Chicago March 10, 1983

MUSIC PLAYLIST courtesy of DJ Michael Fowler of the Men's Room/Loading Dock: 1) "Baby on Fire" – Automix and P.K. Seigel; 2) "Future Brain" – Den Harrow; 3) "Angel Eyes" – Fair Control; 4) "Can't You See" – Vicious Pink; 5) "Someone for Me" – Whitney Houston; 6) "Please Don't Go" – Nayobe; 7) "Light Up My Heart" – Angie St. Philip; 8) "Keep Your Love Alive" – Phil Sharada; 9) "Shining" – Sahara; 10) "Crazy for Your Love" – Attack; 11) "Shockwave" – David Knopfler; 12) "Feel the Fear" – Clio; 13) "Disco Future" – Fresh Color; 14) "Chance to Desire" – Radiorama; 15) "Whisper to a Scream" – Bobby O and Claudja Barry; 16) "Polynesia" – Mikron; 17) "All of You" – Debra Kinley; 18) "Voulez Vous" – Flirts; 19) "Fall Down/Spirit of Love" – Tremaine; 20) "Cry" – Godley and Crème.

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IMAGE: Baskets – Gay Life August 20, 1982

An article by Tracy Baim in Gay Life begins:

"An unusual raid took place Thursday night, Sept. 12, at Carol's Speakeasy, 1355 N. Wells, and customers and employees alike are still shocked at what they witnessed.

"Thursday night is wrestling night at Carol's, and members of the Windy City Wrestling Club were on the mats when, at about 11 p.m. more than a dozen men came through the front and back doors with guns pointed and flashlights shining.

"What followed has been described as a massive violation of civil rights, in which detailed backgrounds and photographs were taken of all of the customers, estimated at more than 40. Just two people were arrested at the bar, one customer and one bartender, and two other men were arrested later that night in a related bust.

"Three of the arrests were for drug related offenses. The fourth was for obstruction of police.

"The raid was the operation of MEG, the Metropolitan Enforcement Group, which is a statewide agency formed to combat drugs.

"Several people contacted Gay Life to describe the 'unbelievable' scene in which they were players. In addition, at least one man has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU's director is considering taking up the case. Kit Duffy, the mayor's liaison to the gay and lesbian community, is also investigating the circumstances which surrounded the raid."

1994

In the bars and clubs, the Rudy de la Mor Show is at Gentry, 712 N. Rush St.; "New Boys in Town Party" is at LA Connection, 3700 N. Halsted; Dajae! Is performing hits from her new album "Higher Power" at Vortex, 3631 N. Halsted with DJ's Psycho Bitch and Terri Bristol; it's the Grand Opening of Bentley's, 3322 N. Halsted, boystown's alternative to the bars, serving fat free desserts, decadent Pastries, Cappuccino, and Espresso; there's a Great Legs Contest at North End, 3733 N. Halsted; Night of 100 Naked Men is Wednesday September 21 at the Aloha Bikini Bar, 3702-08 N. Halsted; and Temptations, 10235 W. Grand Ave., proudly presents Genderama, male to female, female to male gender impersonation floor show.

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IMAGE: Gay Chicago Cover – Gay Chicago June 4, 1981

PRIDE Youth, the Evanston-based organization that offers support services to LGB teens, celebrates its fifth anniversary of its drop-in center at the Unitarian Church, 1330 Ridge Ave., Evanston. Admission is free to all those aged 13-18.

2010

An article in Windy City Times by Rex Wockner begins:

"Strongly pro-gay Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who has led the city for 21 years, announced Sept. 7 that he will not run for a seventh term.

"Apart from a series of run-ins with ACT UP/ Chicago in the late '80s and early '90s, Daley has been nothing short of a hero to most of the city's LGBT community.

"In 1989, he became the first mayor to ride in the Chicago gay pride parade while in office.

"Two years later, Daley set up the nation's first municipally sponsored Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame and proceeded to personally hand out the awards nearly every year since.

"In 1998, he redecorated the city's gay business strip, North Halsted Street, with a series of giant Flash-Gordonesque retrofuturistic rainbow pylons. When some residents objected to the official gayification of the street, fearing for their property values, Daley thundered, 'I won't let the homophobes run this city!' He has been a supporter of same-sex marriage since 2004.

"Daley went on to serve as honorary co-chair of Gay Games VII in 2006 and, in 2007, was honorary chair of the capital campaign to get the city's new LGBT center built.

"At the Games' opening ceremonies, Daley said: 'Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community have contributed to Chicago in every imaginable way—in business, education, the arts and neighborhood development. They deserve to have the city of Chicago standing on their side, and it will continue to do so, as long as I am mayor of this great city.'

"Daley was pro-gay before it was cool. He decided long ago that gays make neighborhoods better, and that seemed to be that for him. He never wavered. His spoken defenses of the city's gays were straightforward and from the gut."

Homework

Anybody know where DJ Michael Fowler is now?

Who remembers the raid at Carol's Speakeasy?

Who remembers the brief Aloha Bikini Bar where Cell Block is now?

Gay Chicago Photo Rewind

Sherman Heinrich photographs Tim Sullivan and Shirley Moon, owners of Berlin nightclub for Gay Chicago April 10, 1986

Ron Ehemann is nominated to the Chicago Human Relations Commission in Gay Life March 10, 1983

Raven Rodriguez photographs Market Days for Nightlines August 8, 2001

Thanks go to publishers Michael Bergeron for Chicago Gay Crusader, Ralph and Craig Gernhardt for Gay Chicago, Grant Ford and Chuck Renslow for Gay Life, Malone Sizelove for Babble/Gab, David Costanza and others for Chicago Free Press, Jeff McCourt for Windy City Times, Stacy Bridges and Mark Nagel for GRAB, and Tracy Baim for all the publications at the Windy City Media Group, which aided the above research. St. Sukie de la Croix is an internationally published reporter, playwright, photographer and historian. He is also the author of Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall published by the University of Wisconsin Press.