LGBTQ+ Pride Month
June“Nobody believes we can do it—reporters, opponents—except ourselves."
– Henry Gerber

After Gerber returned from Europe, in 1924, he founded the Society for Human Rights. SHR became the first known homosexual organization to be formed in the United States. In addition to founding SHR Gerber also started the first known American homosexual publication, Friendship and Freedom.
The Society for Human Rights was short-lived, as police arrested several of its members, for moral turpitude, shortly after it’s inception. The Chicago police arrested Gerber and tried him three times. While Gerber was found not guilty, the legal fees cost him his life savings and his job at the post office. Shortly thereafter he reenlisted in the military where he served for 18 more years. In 1945 he received an honorable discharge. Throughout this period Gerber maintained contacts within the fledgling homophile movement and continued to agitate for the rights of homosexuals. Gerber wrote (mostly under a pseudonym though sometimes under his real name) articles for a variety of magazines, including one called Chanticleer, in which he would sometimes make the case for homosexual rights.
In 1992, he was inducted posthumously into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. In 2001, the Henry Gerber House was designated a Chicago landmark.
VIDEOS THAT EXAMINE GENDER IDENTITIES, DEFINITIONS AND EXPERIENCES
SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES
To read and learn about other icons: www.lgbthistorymonth.com.
To learn or experience more about the LGBTQ+ experience, here at SLCC: www.slcc.edu/lgbtq
Salt Lake Community College
Taylorsville Redwood Campus
4600 South Redwood Road
Salt Lake City, UT 84123