Many people believe that the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights in the United States began with the Stonewall Riots of 1969, but there is a much longer history of activism and community building in the pre-Stonewall era. Even before the earlier Homophile Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, sexual and gender minorities found creative ways to carve a space for themselves in a deeply oppressive society.

In 1924, Henry Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the US, right here in Chicago. Inspired by the Homosexual Emancipation movement in Germany around the turn of the 20th century, the Society for Human Rights offered a small but critical source of connection between homosexual men long before the rise of the gay liberation movement or today’s modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement.

Join us to celebrate the centennial anniversary of this organization with a conversation about Henry Gerber’s life, the history of the early gay rights movement in the US, and the ongoing influence of the Society for Human Rights and Chicago’s central place in queer history.

$12; $8 members

This program is provided in partnership with the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives.