Tag: Justice

My Kinda Town-

Immigration crackdown inspires uniquely Chicago pushback that’s now a model for other cities

By  SOPHIA TAREEN and CHRISTINE FERNANDO Updated 10:14 AM CST, November 16, 2025

CHICAGO (AP) — Baltazar Enriquez starts most mornings with street patrols, leaving his home in Chicago’s Little Village on foot or by car to find immigration agents that have repeatedly targeted his largely Mexican neighborhood.

Wearing an orange whistle around his neck, the activist broadcasts his plans on Facebook.

“We don’t know if they’re going to come back. All we know is we’ve got to get ready,” he tells thousands of followers. “Give us any tips if you see any suspicious cars.”

Moments later, his phone buzzes.

As an unprecedented immigration crackdown enters a third month, a growing number of Chicago residents are fighting back against what they deem a racist and aggressive overreach of the federal government. The Democratic stronghold’s response has tapped established activists and everyday residents from wealthy suburbs to working class neighborhoods.

They say their efforts — community patrols, rapid responders, school escorts, vendor buyouts, honking horns and blowing whistles — are a uniquely Chicago response that other cities President Donald Trump has targeted for federal intervention want to model.

“The strategy here is to make us afraid. The response from Chicago is a bunch of obscenities and ‘no,’” said Anna Zolkowski Sobor, whose North Side neighborhood saw agents throw tear gas and tackle an elderly man. “We are all Chicagoans who deserve to be here. Leave us alone.”

Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council, walks with a Chicago Public School’s student walkout in protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents around Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Talia Sprague)

The sound of resistance

Perhaps the clearest indicator of Chicago’s growing resistance is the sound of whistles.

Enriquez is credited with being among the first to introduce the concept. For months Little Village residents have used them to broadcast the persistent presence of immigration agents.

Furious blasts both warn and attract observers who record video or criticize agents. Arrests, often referred to as kidnappings because many agents cover their faces, draw increasingly agitated crowds. Immigration agents have responded aggressively.

Officers fatally shot one man during a traffic stop, while other agents use tear gas, rubber bullets and physical force. In early November, Chicago police were called to investigate shots fired at agents. No one was injured.

Activists say they discourage violence.

“We don’t have guns. All we have is a whistle,” Enriquez said. “That has become a method that has saved people from being kidnapped and unlawful arrest.”

By October, neighborhoods citywide were hosting so-called “Whistlemania” events to pack the brightly colored devices for distribution through businesses and free book hutches.

“They want that orange whistle,” said Gabe Gonzalez, an activist. “They want to nod to each other in the street and know they are part of this movement.”

Midwestern sensibilities and organizing roots

Even with its 2.7 million people, Chicago residents like to say the nation’s third-largest city operates as a collection of small towns with Midwest sensibilities.

People generally know their neighbors and offer help. Word spreads quickly.

When immigration agents began targeting food vendors, Rick Rosales, enlisted his bicycle advocacy group Cycling x Solidarity. He hosted rides to visit street vendors, buying out their inventory to lower their risk while supporting their business.

Irais Sosa, co-founder of the apparel store Sin Titulo, started a neighbor program with grocery runs and rideshare gift cards for families afraid of venturing out.

“That neighborhood feel and support is part of the core of Chicago,” she said.

Enriquez’s organization, Little Village Community Council, saw its volunteer walking group which escorts children to school, grow from 13 to 32 students.

Many also credit the grassroots nature of the resistance to Chicago’s long history of community and union organizing.

Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said Chicago area residents were so familiar with their rights that making arrests during a different operation this year was difficult.

So when hundreds of federal agents arrived in September, activists poured energy into an emergency hotline that dispatches response teams to gather intel, including names of those detained. Volunteers would also circulate videos online, warn of reoccurring license plates or follow agents’ cars while honking horns.

Protests have also cropped up quickly. Recently, high school students have launched walkouts.

Delilah Hernandez, 16, was among dozens from Farragut Career Academy who protested on a school day.She held a sign with the Constitution’s preamble as she walked in Little Village. She knows many people with detained relatives.

“There is so much going on,” she said. “You feel it.”

A difficult environment

More than 3,200 people suspected of violating immigration laws have been arrested during the so-called “ Operation Midway Blitz.” Dozens of U.S. citizens and protesters have been arrested with charges ranging from resisting arrest to conspiring to impede an officer.

The Department of Homeland Security defends the operation, alleging officers face hostile crowds as they pursue violent criminals.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who’s brought controversial tactics from operations in Los Angeles, called Chicago a “very non permissive environment.” He blamed sanctuary protections and elected leaders and defended agents’ actions, which are the subject of lawsuits.

But the operation’s intensity could subside soon.

Bovino told The Associated Press this month that U.S. Customs and Border Protection will target other cities. He didn’t elaborate, but Homeland Security officials confirmed Saturday that an immigration enforcement surge had begun in Charlotte, North Carolina.

DHS, which oversees CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has said operations won’t end in Chicago.

Interest nationwide

Alonso Zaragoza, with a neighborhood organization in the heavily immigrant Belmont Cragin, has printed hundreds of “No ICE” posters for businesses. Organizers in Oregon and Missouri have asked for advice.

“It’s become a model for other cities,” Zaragoza said. “We’re building leaders in our community who are teaching others.”

The turnout for virtual know-your-rights trainings offered by the pro-democracy group, States at the Core, doubled from 500 to 1,000 over a recent month, drawing participants from New Jersey and Tennessee.

“We train and we let go, and the people of Chicago are the ones who run with it,” said organizer Jill Garvey.

Awaiting the aftermath

Enriquez completes up to three patrol shifts daily. Beyond the physical exertion, the work takes a toll.

Federal agents visited his home and questioned family members. A U.S. citizen relative was handcuffed by agents. His car horn no longer works, which he attributes to overuse.

“This has been very traumatizing,” he said. “It is very scary because you will remember this for the rest of your life.”

CHRISTINE FERNANDO

Music For Peace

Bee has a fine one for us all!

Peace Song November – Peacekeeper

My selection is one many young adults at the time took as an anthem; it was a very real every day concern then, and that concern does seem to be back with us now, though maybe people aren’t as concerned as before. There is good reason for concern, and for de-proliferation, and peace.

And now, the music. I’m putting both the German version (best one!) and the English language version, which is also just fine to dance to. “You can’t dance and stay uptight.”

Gutless Dems Snatch Defeat From Jaws Of Victory | Digby | TMR

From Gene Weingarten On Corruption & Crime

The Teapot Noem® Affair by gene weingarten
Read on Substack

Welcome to the Weekend Gene Pool. You know the drill. We give you a topic, you spill your guts, we betray you by publishing it next week with snarky comments.

We’ll get to that in a minute. But first, a brief nod to what seems to be a burgeoning scandal in the Trump regime, one that was almost totally ignored yesterday, drowned out by more salacious semi-details in The Epstein Chronicles. I’d considered waiting a bit to address this new scandal-in-progress but I came up with the perfect name for it, and I wanted to stake that claim, which I have done with the headline above.

Here is the story.

Until Watergate, the existing American scandal standard was “The Teapot Dome Affair,” though “-dome” never entered the lexicon as “-gate” did for required scandal suffixery. (Tragically, the 1959 steel scandal never became “Chromedome.”)

Teapot Dome was a rather simple affair. Warren Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, a man who looked like an angry and constipated Mark Twain,

Albert Fall - Secretary of the Interior, 1921-1923 - Top 10 Worst Cabinet Members - TIME

… took bribes from oilmen amounting to hundreds of thousand of dollars’ worth of cash and cows — he was also a rancher — in return for leasing them government oil reserves in the West that included the Teapot Dome field in Wyoming, which was no beaut of a butte; it was said to look something like a teapot, with its spout, but only as designed by those architects of Herman Goering’s priapic tables.

Teapot Dome, the U.S. Marines and a President’s Reputation | WyoHistory.org
Teapot Dome
This penis table... : r/WTF
Priapic Table

Eventually, Fall, the fall guy, fell. He did a year of hard labor in the teapot can.

—

Kristi Noem — former governor of South Dakota — is also a Westerner, and also a rancher, and also a member of the president’s Cabinet and as such also controls huge domestic budgets, and also is connected by photographs to large mountains.

The beginnings of the Teapot Noem® Affair were revealed yesterday by ProPublica. Here are the headlines:

Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts

The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for the taxpayer-funded campaign.

…

The majority of the money — $143 million — has gone to a mysterious LLC in Delaware. The company was created just days before it was awarded the deal.

—

Honestly, you don’t need to know more than that. Or maybe you do. I myself didn’t read any further because the Epstein news of the day seemed to imply the possibility that Donald Trump once gave Bill Clinton a blow job. That story seems pretty, um, inflated, but you know. Eyeballs.

More on Kristi “Twisti” Noem later in the week, I am guessing.

—

Today’s Gene Pool challenge is based on something that happened to me last evening. I was in my car, traveling west on Massachusetts Avenue, a bustling two way thoroughfare in D.C. I turned right onto 15th Street SE, a one-lane, one-way street going my way. This street had a bike lane, which was, of course, also one-way in the same direction as the street. I checked to my left for bikers. There were none. So I turned right. This turn was legal and prudent. And that is when I almost killed a young woman and a girl I presumed to be her daughter, who looked to be about seven. They were on an electric scooter. The girl was standing in front of her mom, between mom and the handlebars.

The scooter was going the wrong way in the bike lane at twilight. It was rolling to a stop for the light, but moving faster than I was.

I had to jam on my brakes and veer to the left to avoid them. Then I did something I almost never do. I butted in to something that was Clearly Not My Business. I pulled to the curb and got out of my car. They were still at the light.

I said, “Ma’am, this is not my business, but I think you’re risking both of your lives by driving the wrong way in a bike lane on a one-way street at night. I almost hit you. I don’t think you should do this.”

She stared at me, blandly. She did not seem offended.

“Okay,” she said.

The light changed.

She roared off, at maybe 20 miles an hour, down the bike lane, the wrong way on a one-way street, into the darkening, menacing night.

—

So, that is your challenge for the day. What is some advice — buttinsky or otherwise — that you once gave with the best of intentions that either backfired or was ignored to someone’s detriment, or yours?

Send ’em as always, here. (snip-a bit MORE and a little poll on the page)

Pres. Wilson Throws a Night Of Terror, First Peacetime Conscription In U.S., SANE Is Founded, & More, In Peace & Justice History for 11/15

November 15, 1917
About 20 women peacefully picketing for universal suffrage (right to vote), who had been arrested in front of the White House a few days earlier, were subjected to beatings and torture at Occoquan workhouse in Virginia.
The National Women’s Party and other organizations had been picketing the White House and President Woodrow Wilson as he traveled around the country ever since the inauguration of his second term.


Mary Winsor
The incident became known as the “night of terror.”
Wilson had led the country into the European war (later called World War I), by characterizing the U.S. mission as “making the world safe for democracy.” The women demonstrating outside in Lafayette Square called attention to the need for complete democracy at home, where half of its citizens lacked complete voting rights.
Many women, including Lucy Burns and Alice Paul, had been arrested several times, usually for obstructing the sidewalk, and imprisoned before. When a judge learned of the abuse he freed the women. Public outrage over their treatment increased sympathy for the suffrage movement.
.
left: Lucy Burns in Occoquan Workhouse, Washington, DC right: Alice Paul, New Jersey, National Chairman, Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage; Member, Ex-Officio, National Executive Committee, Woman’s Party, ca 1915
Amazing resources from the Library of Congress on women’s suffrage  (It’s still all there-go see!)
November 15, 1940
75,000 men were called to Armed Forces duty under the first peacetime conscription.

Draft inductees leaving Wilmington, Delaware in November, 1941
November 15, 1943
Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler’s head of the SS (Schutzstaffel or protective rank), Gestapo, the Waffen SS and the Death’s Head units that ran the concentration camps, made public an order that “Gypsies”-more properly, the Roma-and those of mixed Roma blood were to be put on “the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.”

“Gypsy” prisoners arriving at a Concentration Camp

Himmler was determined to prosecute Nazi racial policies, which dictated the elimination from Germany and German-controlled territories of all races deemed “inferior,” as well as “asocial” types, such as hardcore criminals. “Gypsies” fell into both categories according to the thinking of Nazi ideologues and had been executed in droves both in Poland and the Soviet Union. The order of November 15 was merely a more comprehensive program, as it included the deportation to the Auschwitz death camp of “Gypsies” already in labor camps.
The Gypsies in Germany 
Gypsies: Forgotten Victims of the Holocaust  
November 15, 1957
U.S. Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) was founded. Thirty years later on November 20, SANE merged with the Nuclear Freeze organization (dedicated to freezing all nuclear weapons testing worldwide) at a joint convention in Cleveland to form SANE/FREEZE. Its successor is known as Peace Action, the largest U.S. peace organization.

Sane Nuclear Policy poster, 1960
SANE history-Peace Action
November 15, 1969
Following a symbolic three-day “March Against Death,” the second national “moratorium” against the Vietnam War opened with massive and peaceful demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Organized by the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (“New Mobe”), an estimated 500,000 demonstrators participated as part of the largest such gathering to date.
 
It began with a march down Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House (while Pres. Nixon watched the Purdue-Ohio State football game on TV) to the Washington Monument, where a mass rally with speeches was held.
Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Peter, Paul and Mary, and four different touring casts of the musical “Hair” entertained the demonstrators. The rally concluded with nearly 40 hours of continuous reading of known U.S. deaths (to that date) in the Vietnam War.
November 15, 1986
A government tribunal in Nicaragua convicted American Eugene Hasenfus, a CIA operative, of delivering arms to Contra rebels and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. He had been arrested when his plane was shot down by Sandanista troops. He was pardoned a month after his conviction (his last name means “rabbit’s foot” in German).

 Hasenfus under arrest

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november15

A Date & An SoS That Will Live In Infamy, 1st Airplane Takeoff From A Ship, & 10 Million Did Not Sign, On This Date In Peace & Justice History

November 14, 1910
Eugene Ely performed the first airplane takeoff from a ship. His Curtiss pusher flew from the deck of the U.S.S. Birmingham in Hampton Roads, Virginia.By January he would execute the first (takeoff and) landing on a warship, the U.S.S. Pennsylvania. Captain Washington I. Chambers of the Navy Department had been interested in the military uses for the seven-year-old invention.
Naval flight training started shortly thereafter.

More of the whole story. 
November 14, 1954
“Ten Million Americans Mobilized for Justice” began a campaign to collect 10 million signatures on a petition urging the Senate not to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin). The motion of censure against Senator McCarthy was for obstructing a Senate committee and for acting inexcusably and reprehensibly toward a U.S. soldier appearing before his own committee.
McCarthy had used his Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee to publicly denounce thousands as subversive, especially within the federal government, many without any justification. The political views of most were painted as treasonable and conspiratorial, rather than differing political views.
The petition effort fell about nine million signatures short.
More on Joe McCarthy 
November 14, 2000
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, simultaneously co-chair of George W. Bush’s Florida presidential campaign organization and the public official responsible for the conduct of the election itself, certified Governor Bush’s fragile 300-vote lead over Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election.

Katherine Harris
Florida Judge Terry Lewis gave Harris the authority to accept or reject a follow-up manual recount from some counties where the count was open to question. Harris rejected the manual recounts.

Stacy Davis Gates, President Of A Union That Works:

All About the Badass Black Woman Standing Up Against Trump and His War on Chicago

Chicago Teachers Union leader Stacy Davis Gates defends public schools and Black families against Trump’s attacks.

By Asheea Smith Published November 12, 2025

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates speaks to the City Club of Chicago at Maggiano’s Banquets on Grand Avenue on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

In the heart of Chicago, one Black woman has emerged as a powerhouse in the American labor movement: Stacy Davis Gates, President of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and leader of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT). At a time when public education, health care, and resources feel under siege, Davis Gates has positioned herself at the intersection of activism, advocacy, and community leadership — standing up to President Donald Trump’s political attacks by defending families and public education.

A steadfast advocate for Chicagoans, the union boss has her eyes set on the prosperity of Black residents in her city by any means necessary, leading a fearless charge against militarized operations including ICE and the National Guard — deployed under Trump’s direction. And since Chicago’s been targeted by the administration, Davis Gates hasn’t flinched in the face of terror. (snip-so much MORE-go read it; it’s not long)

(Updated) Thank You, It’s Your Day. We Appreciate You!

And I wish to clarify. Because I push peace so much, some could understandably surmise that I “hate the US military”, which I most assuredly do not, for many reasons, not the least of which is that the US military are human beings who, for their reasons, chose the military path for at least a while.

No, I am thankful. So many did so much for so many more, and I appreciate that. I appreciate even more that the ones who survived to be with us today, are here with us today. I have respect for those who serve in that capacity; sometimes they’re put in positions of great danger and possibly having to take the life of someone else, yet they survive and come back. I am embarrassed that the US (we the people) have yet to fulfill the package veterans ought to expect for serving, and I work so that maybe one day, we will fulfill that. The US military is a special calling for those who are called, and it’s a risk for those who join feeling they have little other path when they begin. So, please accept my thanks even if you don’t feel as if you have it coming. To me, you do, because you did it and you’re here. I always hesitate to say “happy Veteran’s Day,” because it doesn’t strike me as a happy day, but more of a solemn observance day for people who did/do work that not all of us are cut out to do. That leaves thank you, and it is sincere.

Now enjoy the damn cartoon! 🙂

Veterans Day 2025

“Apparently, Sunday night is the new big news night.”

The Overnight News by Joyce Vance
Read on Substack

Apparently, Sunday night is the new big news night. To keep us up to date on today’s developments, it’s a rare Monday morning update.

Late last night, Trump issued pardons. However, it’s an unusual list that leaves us reading tea leaves, because these aren’t individuals being prosecuted by the federal government or even people who are at risk of being prosecuted, given the current administration—those are the people who usually want and need a pardon. These pardons don’t apply to ongoing state prosecutions of fake slates of electors in places like Arizona and Nevada.

These names still don’t appear on the White House’s official pardon list. News of the pardons came from a tweet made by Trump’s man at DOJ, Ed Martin. And it wasn’t subtle: “No MAGA left behind.”

The list names a cast of familiar characters, including Rudy Giuliani, Boris Epshteyn, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, Ken Chesebro, Michael Roman, Christina Bobb, Kelli Ward, and Jenna Ellis. They are all people who advanced Trump’s effort to claim victory after losing the 2020 election. But that’s not the full extent of it. The document Martin posted purports to be a broad pardon, akin to those following the Civil War that pardons everyone involved (although here, there is no requirement to take a loyalty oath to the United States as there was following the war). It’s part of Trump’s ongoing effort to rewrite the history of January 6 and the insurrection and a signal that anyone who serves him will be protected and rewarded.

Late last night, the First Circuit rejected the administration’s request for a stay of a lower court order requiring it to make SNAP payments from emergency funds. That left the ball in the Supreme Court’s hands. Justice Jackson promptly issued a briefing schedule that requires both sides, as well as any amici, to file their briefs on the matter today. This proceeding is limited to the question of whether the district court’s order that the administration must proceed with November SNAP payments should be stayed (paused) while the lawsuit proceeds.

The First Circuit panel made the stakes plain in its opinion: 42 million people, or one in every eight Americans, rely on these benefits to keep hunger at bay.

From the First Circuit’s decision

First thing Monday morning, Justice Jackson issued a briefing order requiring the DOJ to file its response to the First Circuit’s decision by 4:00 p.m. and giving the plaintiffs until 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning to respond. The government is “the applicant” at this stage of the case.

Federal Law enforcement abuses in Chicago. The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal over Chicago federal Judge Sara Ellis’ preliminary injunction restricting the use of force against protesters and journalists. If you stop for just a moment and zoom out, the utter lunacy here comes into focus. The government is fighting for the right to use excessive force against peaceful protesters. Why not take the obvious position that while it disagrees with the Judge’s assessment of the facts, it intends to fully comply with the law regarding treatment of people exercising their First Amendment rights? But that is not the government’s view of the matter.

Finally, marriage equality is safe, at least for now. The Supreme Court issued its list of grants and denials on cases from Friday’s conference this morning. The case I wrote to you about last night, involving Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis, who objected to issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples, was on the denial list, so the Court will not hear Davis’ appeal. That means there were not four Justices who wanted to hear the case, which, as I mentioned, doesn’t have particularly attractive facts for undoing longstanding precedent. This denial doesn’t tell us anything about whether the Court might be interested in undoing gay Americans’ rights if the “right” case comes along.

Last night, I started the newsletter by writing, “It’s going to be another blockbuster, high-stakes legal week. If you feel a bit overwhelmed, like I did Friday night at dinner when legal opinions were breaking out everywhere while I tried to have a meal with friends, remember that I’ll be here for you all week to try and keep things organized and understandable.” I didn’t expect it to be this soon, but the courts, for a change, are moving at lightning speed. Thank you for being here with me and reading Civil Discourse.

We’re in this together,

Joyce

1st Gay Rights Organization Founded This Date In Peace & Justice History

(I don’t know what this formatting is about. This is the 3d try, so here it is as it is.)

November 10, 1924
The Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the U.S., was founded in Chicago by Henry Gerber, a German immigrant. He had been inspired by Germany’s Scientific Humanitarian Committee, formed to oppose the oppression of men and women considered “sexual intermediates.”
Henry Gerber–founder of the Society for Human Rights
More on Henry Gerber

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november10

From the link “More on Henry Gerber”:

HENRY GERBER

INDIVIDUAL | Inducted 1992 [Posthumous]

The founder of Chicago’s Society for Human Rights in 1924, the first gay rights organization in the United States, Henry Gerber was born in Bavaria as Joseph Henry Dittmar on June 29, 1892, and arrived at Ellis Island in October, 1913. With members of his family, he moved to Chicago because of its large German population. After working briefly at Montgomery Ward, he was interned as an alien during World War I. He wrote that although this was not right, he did receive three meals a day. From 1920 to 1923 he served with the U.S. Army of Occupation of Germany and during this time, he came into contact with the German homosexual emancipation movement. He subscribed to German homophile magazines and was in contact with Magnus Hirschfeld’s Scientific-Humanitarian Community in Berlin. In 1924, Gerber returned to Chicago and was hired by the post office. Gerber’s return to Chicago was amidst a backdrop of urbanization and an emerging gay subculture.

Following what Gerber had seen in Germany, he felt the need to establish an organization to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. With several friends, Gerber formed an organization which was later incorporated as The Society for Human Rights, a nonprofit corporation in the State of Illinois. The organization published a newsletter, Friendship and Freedom, which was distributed to its small membership.

In July, 1925, the society came to an abrupt end. The wife of one of the co-founders reported her husband, a reputed bisexual, to her social worker who contacted the police. Following a police raid, Gerber and several others were arrested and prosecuted for their deviancy. After three costly trials the case against Gerber was dismissed. Gerber lost his entire life savings defending himself and was fired from his job at the post office for conduct unbecoming a postal worker.

After his ordeal, Gerber moved to New York City where he reenlisted in the U.S. Army and served for 17 years. During the 1930s he managed a personal correspondence club and wrote articles in gay publications under a pseudonym. The correspondence club became a national communications network for gay men. In the 1940s, Gerber exchanged a number of letters with Manuel Boyfrank of California. Boyfrank was enthusiastic about organizing to combat homosexual oppression. Gerber offered his assistance, but refused to risk his job again. He continued his assistance through personal correspondence and numerous articles.

On December 31, 1972, Gerber died at the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home in Washington, D.C., at the age of 80. He lived to see the Stonewall Rebellion and the start of a new era of activist gay and lesbian liberation organizations.

© Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. All rights reserved.