Thank Nixon, Historian Says

Longtime LGBT historian John D'Emilio posed an interesting proposition April 15, during Chicago History Museum's final installment of its OUT at CHM series. While most historians credit 1970s gay activists with building the strong LGBT communities we have today, such as Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, D'Emilio suggested that the hard work of activists actually had very little impact - at least in Chicago. Instead, the local LGBT community can thank former President Richard Nixon.

D'Emilio, one of the first activists in the U.S. to work on gay scholarship, explained that he recently stumbled upon evidence that Nixon's election may have inadvertently led to the development of Chicago's strong LGBT community.

Activists began researching and documenting queer history about a generation ago. Inspired by gay activism and the feminist movement in the 1970s, activists found that "knowledge is power and ignorance reinforces ignorance," D'Emilio said. Activists found that researching LGBT history helped combat the silence that reigned over gay issues.

Historians started revealing a vibrant LGBT history, such as the existence of strong social networks during the Harlem Renaissance, pre-Stonewall activism and more. The history of Chicago's LGBT community matches other cities except when it comes to the decline of police harassment in the mid-1970s. D'Emilio's recent work regarding Chicago LGBT history during this time has made him rethink what he was once confident of.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Chicago was very oppressive. The police constantly raided the city's LGBT bars and city newspapers routinely referred to gays and lesbians as "perverts," "degenerates" and other offensive terms.

In the early 1970s, Chicago started too see radical gay activism, such as noisy demonstrations. By mid-decade, police harassment, especially at gay bars, plummeted. However, Chicago is unique in that the decline of bar raids had very little to do with activism.

"Gays and lesbians weren't primarily responsible for it," D'Emilio said.

The systemic police harassment of gays and lesbians was part of a much larger story. Chicago politics is notorious for its history of corruption, and the politics of Richard J. Daley, who was mayor during the 1970s, was no exception.

City officers played a large role in the web of corruption in Chicago. Bar owners were expected to pay off officers in order to avoid raids (although there was no guarantee). Those hired to investigate corruption and bribery were also part of the machine.

According to D'Emilio, gays and lesbians who demonstrated outside of the police department did not have the capacity to create change. However, one man did: Richard Nixon.

During this time, Daley was considered the second most powerful Democrat in the U.S. Democratic presidents did not dare look into Chicago's corruption. But Nixon, a Republican, was not afraid of Daley. His election changed everything. The U.S. Attorney General and Department of Justice were eager to investigate Chicago's corruption.

"The Nixon Administration was intent on dismantling Daley's credibility," D'Emilio said.

The investigations led to the indictment of several officers, commanders and one of Daley's prot�g�s. Many gay bar owners testified. After two years of publicity surrounding the charges of corruption and extortion, police harassment declined.

"It was no longer possible for police to intimidate and harass gay bars," D'Emilio said.

The drop in police raids had a lasting impact on the city. Because LGBT people could now gather in public, a community started to grow.

"It's a decline in police harassment that allowed a neighborhood like Lakeview to develop," D'Emilio said.

D'Emilio hopes that people aren't discouraged by the findings, especially those who worked hard to advance the local LGBT community. Instead, he hopes this information will allow the community's history to be embedded in a larger context, as interconnected with a larger history and not located outside this larger history in a "lavender bubble," he added.