LCR Chicago Social Event

This is a reminder that Log Cabin Republicans Illinois/Chicago will have an afterwork social event tomorrow, Tuesday, May 8th.  The host for the evening will have their home open at 7:00 pm.  We will socialize after work at our host’s home at 2529 N. Halsted, Apt 2S and then walk across the street to the Kingston Mines to “lose the blues in Chicago” around 9:00PM.

The Black Tie Event

What Republican event would be complete without a formal event requiring Black-Tie.  This even held at the Hyatt Regency was as elegant as it was anticipated. Food, auction and fun!

Former President of Log Cabin Patrick Guerriero and Michael Carr

Rev. Steven F. Kindle “A Change of Heart”

Rev. Steven F. Kindle, a straight minister, of Clergy United shared his personal story about how he changed his mind on the issue of homosexuality and the Bible. Rev. Kindle passionately spoke defending gays and lesbians and countered religious bigotry used against them.

He started out by repeating his introduction, “being gay is just one of the inconsequential aspects of the ‘human experience’”. He then went on to say, “Log Cabin is the most vital gay and lesbian organization in America today”. His point that the Church is not quite responsible for begining but for maintaining homophobia throughout the centuries was appropriately received the by the crowd.

Log Cabin Chicago Lobby Day

Religious Freedom and Civil Union Bill - What an empowering event it was on Wednesday, April 18 to take part in democracy in action at our Illinois state capitol in Springfield. A group of 5 Log Cabin Illinois members met early in the day in the Capitol cafeteria to strategize, plan out the schedule and divide up responsibilities. Three of the five had been up until 12:30 am the night before to put together the very comprehensive packets of materials to hand out to the state senators and representatives the next morning.

The five of us started out together by going to visit our host for the morning, Senator Christine Radogno. She had contacted several senators to come to her office at 9:30 am and visit with us so that we could tell them what we thought about the civil equality legislation now making its way into the state House. The Senators were very attentive and even asked several good questions.

We then left about a dozen packets of our materials so that Senator Radogno’s assistant, Tara, could hand them out to some of the Senators that couldn’t make it there to see us.

Then we moved our “operations” to the House side. We visited as a 5 person group for about an hour and only reached 6 legislators, because eash one was so interested in hearing our information and asking us questions about the HB1826. After the meeting with the sixth legislators, we decided to split up in order to be able to personally see each representative who had voted in favor of adding “sexual orientation” to the Illinois Human Rights Bill in 2005. This worked well and everyone went their separate ways with lobby packets in hand. After an hour of personally seeing all the legislators we wanted to see plus a few more, we met up with the Equality Illinois people who were finishing their lunch and then were going to go do their own lobbying.

Several Log Cabin Republican members had taken the Equality Illinois busses down to Springfield that morning, so they met up with us at that point and then we went out to disperse the rest of the Log Cabin Lobby Day packets.

After we were finished with this, I went up to the House Chambers to help several of our members to speak to call their representatives out of session in order to speak to them about HB1826. Our members truly brought a passionate entreaty to their Representative and basically told them what it means for them that the rep vote for the bill. I was able to help them with some of the more technical information while talking to their reps, such as “no GOP legislator who has voted for inclusive and civil equality legislation has lost their re-election bids in the last two election cycles”. I was also able to help point out some Illinois poll and survey numbers that prove the point that a vote for civil equality will not hurt the legislator on election day. Our reps really responded to this information and asked us some more questions. The biggest statement we heard from all the reps, both Republican and Democrat alike, was “we really need to hear from our constituents on this issue”, and “we haven’t been educated on these issues from the LGBT proponents yet”.

Well, folks, the time is now and the place is here to write a letter to your legislators to let them know you need them to vote for HB1826. Take a look at the “Talking Point” section on the www.logcabinchicago.org website and go to the “Take Action” button write a letter to your legislator. They have asked, they need and they want your input!

Log Cabin Chicago Holds its Monthly General Meeting

On April 3rd, the Red Lion on Lincoln Ave. hosted LCR Chicago during it’s monthly general membership meeting.  We had about 6 new faces attend April’s meeting, which is very encouraging!  Most of them found out about Log Cabin via our website, some through friends and one found us through Meetup.com, how exciting!  First came the website (www.logcabinchicago.org) helping us reach out to the wider LCR Chicago community, now we’ve expanded our reach using this blog and internet based social networking.  There are certainly more gay Democrats in this Democratic stronghold, but we’re going to be doing everything we can to reach out to the gay conservative community in Chicago and make sure they know they have the support and tools they need to affect change.

We’re not going to start posting the minutes of the meeting, they’re just not that fun to read.  However, we are planning on marching in the Pride Parade this year.  We marched in the Chicago Pride Parade for as long as I can remember, but for the past few years we have marched with Judy Baar Topinka’s float.  This year we’re going to have our very own presence in the parade!  We haven’t quite worked out the details, but we have a few ideas.  Let me know if you’d like to help us out with planning our Pride Fest activities!

In lue of next month’s meeting one of our members will be organizing a social event.  Some members will be preparing for the National Log Cabin Convention, so we thought that a local membership meeting and a convention in the same month might be a bit much, even for the most enthusiastic Log Cabiner. If you havn’t already signed up for the convention, I encourage you to do so.  The speakers have been inspirational in the past, and the line up for the event in Denver is looking like it will hold its own. Don’t worry it’s not all about the speakers and workshops, there is a great deal of socializing as well!

National President Visits Chicago, receives media attention

Patrick Sammon, our National president, visited Chicago on March 24th. A number of other dignitaries were present including, former state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, Cook County Comm. Tony Peraica, and state Sen. Christine Radogno. The Chicago Free Press covered the event giving LCR some greatly appreciated coverage. The CFP Editorial board captured the benefit of LCR to the gay community in a piece titled “Two Parties are Better Than One.” To quote the editorial, “…don’t scoff at what the Log Cabin Republicans do. They’ve been fighting lonely battles for years. Now it’s looking like they’re ready to start winning their share of those battles. Good for them. Even more, good for the Republican Part. And good for us.”

I’ll link to scans of the pieces mentioned above soon, and eventually link to the articles one CFP’s site relaunches. The Chicago Free Press is in the process of revamping their web-presence.

Welcome!

This is the first blog of many.  Log Cabin board members will reflect on the topics of the day as they effect the gay Republican community here in Chicago.  We’ll also summerize chapter meetings, conferences and social events for those that just couldn’t make it.