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CHICAGO – Just in time for Pride Month, Strawdog Theatre Co. presents an updated staging of the Oscar Wilde classic, “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Strawdog policy … the tickets are FREE (donations encouraged), but you must put in a reservation by clicking EARNEST.
Pride2024: Gary G. Chichester on Top Chicago LGBTQ+ History Sites
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 26, 2024 - 8:48am
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Bughouse Square Chicago … First Gay Liberation March, June 27, 1970
Photo credit: File Photo
The 2024 Chicago Pride Parade is Sunday, June 30th, 2024, beginning an hour earlier than usual at 11am. For details, go to PrideChicago.org. To access the Facebook Page of Gary G. Chichester, click here. CELEBRATE Pride!
© 2024 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com
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CHICAGO – Happy Pride Weekend! HollywoodChicago.com kicks it off with a revisit to one of our favorite interview subjects, LGBTQ+ activist Gary G. Chichester. But this time we gave him an assignment … provide his personal list of the top Chicago historic LGBTQ+ sites in the city. The results are in the YouTube video below.
Bughouse Square Chicago … First Gay Liberation March, June 27, 1970
Photo credit: File Photo
Gary Chichester helped organize Chicago’s first Gay Liberation March on June 27th, 1970, and followed that up the next year by helping to organize the first Pride Parade. Chichester has seen it grow to be the most popular parade event in Chicago, drawing one million people to the Uptown and Chicago’s Proudest Neighborhood.
 Gary G. Chichester in the Chicago History Museum Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com |
The gay scene of 1970 in Chicago was underground, with the riots and uprising of New York City’s Stonewall Inn only one year old. To honor that event, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago were the first cities to have gay pride marches in 1970 … with Chicago leading the way on June 27th, a couple hours before the San Francisco march, and a day before the others.
As the march became a parade in 1971, Gary Chichester became involved by co-founding the Chicago Gay Alliance that same year, which created the first gay and lesbian community center in the Windy City (he talks about it in the video). Also on his resume is helping to organize that first Chicago gay pride, and practicing activism through The Chicago Gay Health Project, the Gay Rights National Lobby, the NAMES Project, Strike Against AIDS and the City of Chicago’s Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues, among so much more. He was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1992. Chichester was the Grand Marshal of the Pride Parade in 2022.
In a Podtalk interview by Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, Gary Chichester answers a few questions to warm up …
In a World Premiere Video, Gary G. Chichester talks about the top important spots for him in Chicago LGBTQ+ history …
CLICK HERE for more Chicago LGBTQ+ history from Gary G. Chichester.
 | By PATRICK McDONALD |
