lgbt chicago remembers orlando shooting victims
photo credit // ross forman
Tracy Baim: 'Our community is very used to coping with death and dying. But we are equally fabulous at life and living.'
Orlando is only the latest tragedy to strike at the heart of the LGBT community, and in the wake of the attack, Windy City Times publisher Tracy Baim writes of a resilient community of individuals that despite the senseless acts always remains "fabulous at life."
"A history of violence courses through the veins of the LGBTQIA community—in Chicago, nationally and internationally," Baim writes in an editorial published June 13 in the Windy City Times. "The victims and survivors have come from every letter of the LGBTQIA alphabet, every race, class, religion, ethnicity, ability and age."
Baim recalls the headlines of Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena, the murder of more than 20 transgender women in 2015, and the AIDS Crisis.
"We cared for our own, fought for our own, fed our own, found illegal drugs for our own, and buried our own," she writes.
Baim is publisher and executive editor of Windy City Times, Chicago's only LGBT newsweekly. She has covered the LGBT community for 32 years.
"I am not sure how all this death has not gotten to me," she writes.
"But it was always, always, always more. It was drag queens, leather queens, softball dykes, basketball dudes, radical political activists, philanthropists, professionals, politicians, poets, musicians, artists, writers, actors, dancers, seniors and street kids. It was everything, and it could usually drown out the horrible headlines."
Baim concludes, "We have conquered so much, and grown and shown the world our pride will not die. It can't be murdered, it can't be shoved back in the closet, it can't be stymied by any amount of hatred that is thrown at it.
"Our community is very used to coping with death and dying. But we are equally fabulous at life and living."
Read full editiorial by Tracy Baim on Windy City Times
"A history of violence courses through the veins of the LGBTQIA community—in Chicago, nationally and internationally," Baim writes in an editorial published June 13 in the Windy City Times. "The victims and survivors have come from every letter of the LGBTQIA alphabet, every race, class, religion, ethnicity, ability and age."
Baim recalls the headlines of Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena, the murder of more than 20 transgender women in 2015, and the AIDS Crisis.
"We cared for our own, fought for our own, fed our own, found illegal drugs for our own, and buried our own," she writes.
Baim is publisher and executive editor of Windy City Times, Chicago's only LGBT newsweekly. She has covered the LGBT community for 32 years.
"I am not sure how all this death has not gotten to me," she writes.
"But it was always, always, always more. It was drag queens, leather queens, softball dykes, basketball dudes, radical political activists, philanthropists, professionals, politicians, poets, musicians, artists, writers, actors, dancers, seniors and street kids. It was everything, and it could usually drown out the horrible headlines."
Baim concludes, "We have conquered so much, and grown and shown the world our pride will not die. It can't be murdered, it can't be shoved back in the closet, it can't be stymied by any amount of hatred that is thrown at it.
"Our community is very used to coping with death and dying. But we are equally fabulous at life and living."
Read full editiorial by Tracy Baim on Windy City Times
