In fact, the parade itself has actually gotten smaller as a reduced number of parade float entries were accepted this year, from 250 down to 200 entries. I think it has to do with more LGTB coming out, and with the growing number of friends and supporters the community has gained over the years.” “We’re seeing this at gay pride parades in other cities around the country. “The parade itself hasn’t grown-the amount of spectators has grown,” added Pfeiffer. To develop the new parade route-which has been lengthened by five additional blocks-Pfeiffer met with police and fire departments, emergency management leaders, Streets and Sanitation officials, and local businesses. That whole parcel of real estate was locked up tight in that area and people, not to mention emergency vehicles, couldn’t get in or out.” “Traditionally, parade entries made a 360-degree turn off of Halsted onto Broadway, and then south on Broadway. “As you recall, in previous years there was a V in the parade heading north on Halsted,” explained Richard Pfeiffer, who has organized the parade since the 1970’s. And yes, the parade will continue to feature plenty of T&A.) In other words, parade officials are getting rid of the pride parade’s “V.” (No, get your minds out of the gutter. Several changes have been put in place this year in an effort to promote safety at the Sunday, June 24 event-including a new, linear route.
Halsted St.Openly gay, active-duty sailors, a new influx of gay-straight alliance groups from area high schools-and a police force that promises to hand out more tickets than ever for excessive drinking will all be part of the pomp and circumstance of this year’s 43rd annual Chicago Pride Parade.ĭue to the sometimes unwieldy crowd of 750,000 spectators at last year’s parade (particularly at the intersection of Halsted and Belmont), officials were forced to shut down the parade early, leaving some 35 marching groups cooling their heels, and ultimately, unable to step off and join the parade. The park’s stone and metal pavilion is reminiscent of the third coliseum’s castle-style turrets and crenellations. You still can see a trace of the third coliseum in the form of Coliseum Park, facing its former site, now a lay Buddhist building. A Black insurance broker insured the dance at the Chicago Coliseum after other agents refused to do so for fear of police raids. The organization had hosted dances twice before at the University of Chicago but got kicked off the university’s campus for violating dance attendance limits and moved to the coliseum, making the dance public.
Later, the same coliseum was where Chicago’s first public gay dance, in the 1960s, was held by Chicago’s Gay Liberation Front.
The city’s third coliseum, on South Wabash Avenue, hosted drag balls in the 1930s that drew diverse crowds and eventually were sponsored by African American business owners, according to historian Tristan Cabello. Clark St.Ĭhicago’s three coliseums, no longer in existence, were indoor arenas used for sports and exhibitions- and, from the 1930s, drag balls and gay dances. Remembering Gerber, in Camp’s eyes, is a way to commemorate LGBTQ ancestors. In 1925, the police raided Gerber’s house, arrested him and shut down the society.Įven though the legal case against Gerber ultimately was dismissed, it cost Gerber his $600 life savings and his job at the post office for “conduct unbecoming a postal worker.” Gerber, a Bavarian immigrant lauded as the grandfather of the American gay movement, created the group in 1924 and named it the Society for Human Rights in an effort to organize gays nationwide.
It was designated a national historic landmark in 2015 - the second in the nation, after the Stonewall Inn, to get that designation because of its significance in LGBTQ history. Granted that status by the city in 2001, it’s where Henry Gerber secretly organized the nation’s first gay emancipation group. The Henry Gerber House is one in a row of protected landmark Queen Anne-style houses in Old Town.