“At a time when it was difficult to be taken seriously as a female artist or musicians, and lesbians had a difficult time finding halls that would rent to them, printers that would print openly lesbian fliers, and most lesbians were afraid to come out of the closet, the women’sContinue Reading

Throughout the month of June, Gerber/Hart will be releasing newly digitized recordings of Chicago Pride Parades and parade rallies going back to the first one in 1970. This collection is missing a few years, especially after 2000. If you have a recording of a Chicago Pride Parade and would likeContinue Reading

For a full list of new online resources and virtual programming go to gerberhart.org/virtual-resources. Episodes of The 10% Show, a monthly Chicago-based cable access news magazine that ran between 1989-1990. Video Potpourri : a selection of videos from Special Collections Virtual Panels and Interviews appear in the events list.

Emerging as an outgrowth of the AIDS pandemic and the activism it brought forth, the 1990s saw a new wave of advocacy sweep through queer communities in Chicago and across the country. Political hostility, gay-for-pay media representation, and ongoing threats of physical violence pushed queer identities to the margins ofContinue Reading

In the 1970s and 1980s, as the women’s liberation movement was gaining momentum, lesbians worked both within and outside of the feminist movement to create a better, more inclusive world for all women. In Chicago, lesbians organized community centers, music festivals, bookstores, newsletters, publishing presses, and health centers that createdContinue Reading