#Articles about the first gay pride parade series#
There was also a series of events that fired-up Chicago's budding gay movement: nine Gay Libbers defied city statutes by dancing with same-sex partners at a straight dance Mattachine Midwest newsletter editor David Steinecker was arrested by Sgt. Over the cold winter of 1969/1970 the topic of homosexuality pervaded the local media: Charles Booth of ONE of Chicago was on the Channel 7 show "Exposure" hosted by Sheri Blair Studs Terkel interviewed Mattachine Midwest members Jim Bradford, Valerie Taylor and Gay Lib's Henry Weimhoff on his radio program and an article provocatively titled "Homosexual Revolt" graced the pages of the Chicago Daily News.
In another development, a University of Chicago student named Henry Weimoff started a Gay Liberation group on campus. And yet, in spite of the seemingly stagnant waters, there were tell-tell signs of a maelstrom stirring, as two months after Stonewall a raid at the Annex bar prompted a scuffle between patrons and police – at the time it was unheard of for Chicago gays to resist arrest. John Manley continued his purge on gay men in the rest room near Lincoln Park Conservatory and the cops, still out of control from the Chicago Democratic Convention the previous year, busted numerous gay bars, including the 21 Club, the Blue Pub and the Alameda.
The 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City were ignored by Chicago's newspapers and it was harassment as usual for the city's gay citizens: lesbians wearing men's shirts were arrested for cross-dressing an over-zealous pretty-boy cop named Sgt.