Browse Exhibits (14 total)

Robert Castillo is a Chicago LGBTQ+ rights activist. He has been a member of many organizations centered around his identity as a queer Latino man, and he was a key organizer for the passage of the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance and in the marriage equality movement in Chicago and San Francisco, as well as contributing to the passage of a gender identity amendment in Chicago human rights policy. Castillo did much of this work alongside his long-time partner and husband, John Pennycuff. This exhibit highlights those aspects of his work as they are reflected in his collection, but he is widely involved in Chicago activism.

Other organizations Castillo has been associated with include ACT UP/Chicago; Ambiente Pa’lante, which he co-founded; LLEGO; and American Veterans for Equal Rights. 

The collection encompasses a wide array of materials, including but not limited to: ACGLI files; documents related to marriage equality and civil rights activism; film and event promotional materials; CDs, cassettes, and VHS tapes with music, news tapings, films, and erotica; banners, posters, clothing, and flags; and other miscellaneous memorabilia. 

How do you share information on a crisis whose existence is considered too obscene to speak about? 

During the AIDS crisis, queer activists in Chicago fought to bring educational ads onto the CTA that were queer positive, sex positive and life affirming. Facing harsh opposition from local officials, religious leaders, and the Illinois State Senate, activists used creative campaigns and larger than life political actions to force the city to address the crisis.

Focusing on ACT UP Chicago's 1989 Target CTA protest as well as the city wide debate over Kissing Doesn't Kill bus posters in 1990, this exhibit captures the efforts of many activists to claim Chicago's public space for queer people. By showcasing Gerber/Hart's extensive poster collection, Chicago's contemporary queer communities can better understand our fight for visibility and recognition.

Gerber/Hart holds several collections of transgender-oriented magazines and fiction booklets which exemplify transgender community throughout the latter half of the 20th century.

Windy City Performing Arts (WCPA) is a not-for-profit musical organization whose lesbian, gay, and lesbian-and-gay- sensitive members join together for the purpose of making an artistic and social statement through musical excellence.

LGBTQ people experienced discrimination throughout the twentieth century. There were many efforts to combat this discrimination, but one key strategy was the development of a language of rights to present to people in power. From the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, various contingencies in the homophile and gay liberation movements struggled to develop a common language with which to argue for rights for homosexuals. Part of this struggle was the inclusion of lesbians under the term “gay.” This exhibit chronicles the efforts of three national groups to develop a language of gay rights between the mid-1960s and late 1970s in the United States. It also highlights how these various groups used that language to express their desire for change on a national level.