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Halsted (now Bobby Love's) opened the Women's Center, 3523 N. north of Belmont: Augie's lesbian bar, 3729 N. By 1974 the first seeds of gay life sprouted on Halsted St.
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In 1972 an estimated 1,000 people braved hurled eggs and rocks as they set out from the lake, heading west along Belmont and then south on Broadway to the Free Forum for the rally this would stay the route for some years. Troy Perry visited and preached at Chicago's Good Shepherd Parish MCC and gay groups sprang up all over the city, including the African-American Third World Gay Revolutionaries, the S&M Hellfire Club, and the Chicago Unity Council of Homophile Organizations. Chicago Gay Lib had picketed the Astro restaurant at Clark and Diversey for their refusal to serve gays Father Robert Behnen gave the first gay mass for 12 people at the home of Wayne E., an ex-Benedictine monk the Rev. In the year since the first parade, gay social and political life in Chicago had exploded: the Chicago Gay Alliance had formed and opened a Community Center at 171 W. Clark St., and a triumvirate of drag bars, Chesterfield, 2831 N. Although at the tail end of it, Clark and Diversey was and had been the gay neighborhood since the mid-'60s when Chicago's gay nightlife centered around a clutch of bars in the area: the Century, 2810 N. Surprisingly nobody was arrested, though in the next Chicago Gay Lib newsletter, Rich Larsen noted: "By the time the group reached the Civic Center the pig brigade accompanying us numbered eight squadrons and two meat wagons." The 2nd parade in 1971 moved north and was less political and more festive, starting at Diversey harbor, going west to Clark St., then south to the Free Forum at LaSalle St. Some marchers, caught up in the moment, circle-danced around the Picasso sculpture.
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to the Civic Center (now Daley Plaza) for more speeches. After inspiring speeches, waving banners and chanting "Gay Power," the marchers headed out on foot along sidewalks, down Dearborn to Chicago Ave, east to the Water Tower, then south on Michigan Ave. One year after the Stonewall uprising, Chicago's 1st Gay Pride Week took place with events ranging from a Gay Dance at the Aragon Ballroom, to Chicago Circle Campus workshops on topics ranging from "How Women of Gay Lib Relate to Women's Liberation" to "Legal Issues Concerning the Draft." The celebratory week culminated in 150-200 lesbians and gay men gathering at a Pride Rally and March In Bughouse Square. Manley and charged with "criminal defamation" and Gay Lib won their first victory by forcing the owners of the Normandy bar to allow same-sex dancing.
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There was also a series of events that fired-up Chicago's budding gay movement: nine Gay Libbers defied city statutes by dancing with same-sex partners at a straight dance Mattachine Midwest newsletter editor David Steinecker was arrested by Sgt. Over the cold winter of 1969/1970 the topic of homosexuality pervaded the local media: Charles Booth of ONE of Chicago was on the Channel 7 show "Exposure" hosted by Sheri Blair Studs Terkel interviewed Mattachine Midwest members Jim Bradford, Valerie Taylor and Gay Lib's Henry Weimhoff on his radio program and an article provocatively titled "Homosexual Revolt" graced the pages of the Chicago Daily News. In another development, a University of Chicago student named Henry Weimoff started a Gay Liberation group on campus. And yet, in spite of the seemingly stagnant waters, there were tell-tell signs of a maelstrom stirring, as two months after Stonewall a raid at the Annex bar prompted a scuffle between patrons and police – at the time it was unheard of for Chicago gays to resist arrest. John Manley continued his purge on gay men in the rest room near Lincoln Park Conservatory and the cops, still out of control from the Chicago Democratic Convention the previous year, busted numerous gay bars, including the 21 Club, the Blue Pub and the Alameda.
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The 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City were ignored by Chicago's newspapers and it was harassment as usual for the city's gay citizens: lesbians wearing men's shirts were arrested for cross-dressing an over-zealous pretty-boy cop named Sgt.