Milwaukee Pride Parade

10/15/2026

Gay liberation and the sexual revolution came with an unexpected cost: a significant spike in STDs. In summer 1974, a massive syphilis outbreak hit Milwaukee, with a record-breaking 75 cases reported.

The city's Social Hygiene Clinic was already overwhelmed. But there was an even bigger problem: nobody knew exactly how big the outbreak was, because so few people were willing to be tested or diagnosed.

Most gay men would rather suffer in silence than seek care. The social consequences of seeing a doctor-- being outed, shamed, reported, arrested -- were simply too much to risk. In addition, very few out gay men had jobs that provided medical insurance, and most (if not all) closeted gay men would not share their sexual histories with their family doctors. In fact, honesty was so uncommon and unexpected that healthcare providers couldn't achieve any real sense of population health at all.

The end result? Symptoms went ignored. Treatment was delayed. Research and advancement was impossible.

If anyone sought care, it was usually a "back alley" doctor hawking dangerous "black market" drugs. Meanwhile, more and more people were getting syphilis every day.

"Specialized and separate facilities are needed.... many gay men will not use the city clinic," said Gay Peoples Union leader Alyn Hess. "These men deserve better. If the men do not feel safe with us, we must go where the men feel safe."

Hess was a lifelong advocate for sexual freedoms. He proposed that healthcare providers should be embedded within q***r spaces, i.e., the city's gay bathhouses and bars, where they could intercept sexual decision-making with a message of self-care.

This idea seems so logical and reasonable today. In 1974, it was a shocking change in the care delivery model. Some healthcare providers felt it was immoral and unethical to "support" homosexual behaviors. GPU reminded those providers that their oath applied to ALL patients -- without cost, judgement, discrimination, or injustice. As a result, Milwaukee's Club Health Spa was one of the first gay bathhouses in the entire nation with its own STD screening clinic.

GPU founded the Venereal Disease Examination Clinic (lower level, 225 E. St. Paul) with a $2,500 grant from the City of Milwaukee Health Department. These funds were expected to sustain the clinic for nine months: just enough to get through the epidemic, but not enough to become a permanent healthcare provider. The free clinic was operated in partnership with 16th Street Community Clinic, which still operates today.

GPU widely encouraged check-ups at the first sign of a symptom. Their motto was "your health is the most important thing you own." They used playful advertising in GPU News, using sexy images and sassy language, to tell the community they would be understood, accommodated, and treated without judgement. Later, GPU expanded this traveling testing program to visit Club Baths Milwaukee, The Factory and the Broadway Health Club, with a permanent home at the Farwell Center (1568 N. Farwell Ave.) from 1975-1980.

Over time, the GPU VD Clinic evolved into today's Brady East STD Clinic, which continues to deliver no-cost/low-cost, culturally competent, judgement-free sexual health and wellness services. Lessons learned at the GPU VD Clinic were incredibly important: when the AIDS crisis hit Milwaukee, it was a grass-roots team of volunteers who advanced the first known community response. The Milwaukee AIDS Project, born of BESTD, evolved into the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (now Vivent Health, a national healthcare system.)

Fifty-two years ago, nobody ever imaged the dream of the GPU VD Clinic would still be alive and well in Milwaukee -- or that it would shape similar programs across the nation. We applaud the proud pioneers who took a stand for honest, accessible, high-impact LGBTQ healthcare. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

10/14/2026

Who here still remembers the GPU?

When it comes to Gay Peoples Union, it is impossible to choose just ONE moment that changed Wisconsin LGBTQ history.

Throughout its first decade, GPU may have caused 30 moments all on their own. The group launched so many groundbreaking, transformative, and change-making programs that weren't just firsts for Wisconsin. In some cases, they achieved firsts for the entire country.

Fifty-five years ago this week, Gay Peoples Union released GPU NEWS, a monthly publication that eventually reached thousands of subscribers across the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America.

GPU NEWS was the first LGBTQ print publication in Wisconsin -- and it was entirely planned, written, and published by volunteers -- at a time when most cities did not have any LGBTQ press at all.

The magazine had its roots in "Take Heed!" a campus newsletter published by UWM's Gay Liberation Organization, but this was no mere newsletter. GPU News contained national news, arts and culture reviews, political commentary, letters to the editor, and opinion pieces. It was one of the first true *nationally distributed* q***r publications in the United States.

Most importantly, GPU NEWS contained advertisements, events, photographs, and classifieds that offer a rare and beautiful glimpse into what LGBTQ life was like in Milwaukee in this long-lost era. In 1980, GPU started a companion newsletter (Milwaukee Update) which offered opportunities for local activism and advocacy work.

Sadly, GPU News -- and Gay Peoples Union as a whole -- were exhausted by 1981. The January 1981 issue of GPU News was its last.

As Alyn Hess put it, "living, breathing, sleeping, dreaming, and fighting for gay liberation 24/7 for ten years nearly killed us." There was no respite or relief for these activists. GPU had never really invested in succession planning or leadership development, so once its first generation of leaders burned out, there was no one to take the reins. GPU's April 15, 1981 eviction from the Farwell Center was extremely destabilizing. With no home base, very few volunteers, and severely overworked leadership, GPU collapsed in the early 80s. While the GPU Crisis Hotline survived, every other resource was consumed entirely by the AIDS crisis, which redirected the community's focus from progress to survival.

Today, we thank GPU for leading our world forward for ten incredible years -- while teaching today's LGBTQ nonprofits a hard lesson about strategic sustainability. We also thank Our Lives Magazine for continuing Wisconsin's legacy of homegrown, grass-roots, volunteer-driven LGBTQ journalism.🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Every single issue of GPU News is available (digital on-demand) at our website: https://tinyurl.com/gpunews71

10/14/2026

More in WI

The first step towards equality was being seen.

The next step was being heard.

In January 1983, Governor Tony Earl recruited Dick Wagner and Kathleen Nichols (both Dane County Supervisors at the time) to host local listening sessions with LGBTQ people in every corner of Wisconsin.

Based on their field reports, Earl created the Governor's Council on Gay and Le***an Issues, which met for the first time in April 1983.

“Many here are unaware of the size, richness, and sophistication of the le***an and gay community. They are unaware in part because long habits of dislike, disapproval, and discrimination—largely the result of ignorance—have made it necessary for g**s and le***ans to conceal a part of themselves and lead double lives," said Earl.

The Governor's Executive Order hoped the Council would "eliminate discrimination against and victimization of le***ans and g**s in Wisconsin.” Wagner and Nichols co-chaired the 14-member team, which surfaced major community concerns, including the state's anti-discrimination laws, police harassment, and the growing specter of AIDS.

"Everywhere we went people felt open to victimization by hostile groups and that they could not expect equal treatment," said Nichols.

In June 1983, the Governor's Council reconvened with a commitment: creating a coordinated statewide response to AIDS.
At the time, there was no national plan of any kind; in fact, the president would not mention AIDS for two more years. Long before the federal government responded, Wisconsin leaders were already confronting AIDS from every possible angle: discussing the potential risks of patient confidentiality, developing workplace and school privacy guidelines, advocating for the rights of the HIV+ incarcerated, considering how social stigma would impact testing and diagnosis efforts, and recognizing that a "second epidemic" of homophobia was developing in the shadow of AIDS.

Conservatives mocked Governor Earl for his "Granola administration -- made up of nuts, fruits, and flakes." Critics sought to abolish the Gay Rights Law, claiming it was attracting too many homosexuals to Wisconsin. AIDS panic led to talks of quarantine, isolation camps, even visible tattoos to mark the infected. The second epidemic of homophobia arrived -- and the symptoms were very, very ugly.

Governor Earl was not re-elected to a second term. While the Governor's Council achieved its goal of giving voice -- for the first time -- to a long-silenced community, at an extremely critical moment in history, it did not survive Earl's departure.

Capitalizing on the backlash against his liberal predecessor, Governor Tommy Thompson abolished the council as soon as he took office in 1987. Later that year, Nichols and Wagner marched at the 2nd March on Washington for Le***an and Gay Rights, determined that Wisconsin would still move forward -- no matter what.

While the federal government operated with indifference or outright hositlity, Wisconsin approached the emerging crisis with humane compassion. As a result, Wisconsin surpassed the national standards for AIDS care from the beginning -- and theat legacy of exceptional care continues today at Vivent Health.

We thank the Governor's Council members for their noble service to building a more inclusive and equitable Wisconsin.

10/12/2026

In Wisconsin, the histories of Native nations—including the Menominee, Oneida, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, and others—are part of a much larger history of Indigenous resilience.

Colonization, which forced religious and language conversion through racist and oppressive policies, devastated native heritage.

European settlement brought Christian missionary efforts, forced assimilation, discriminatory laws, and boarding schools that separated Indigenous children from their families and communities. Western religious and social systems condemned gender diversity and same-sex relationships. Over time, these pressures contributed to the suppression of Indigenous traditions, the disruption of generational knowledge transfer, and reverence for Two Spirit identity being replaced with toxic homophobia.

But repression is not the same as erasure. In recent decades, Indigenous people have been reclaiming their hidden heritage for themselves.

Two Spirit heritage creates an opportunity for Indigenous LGBTQ people to reconnect with their communities, ancestors, and cultural identities on their own terms.

In Wisconsin, elders, historians, advocates, community leaders, and Two Spirit people are building a more equitable and inclusive future.

On June 13, the first-ever Wisconsin Two Spirit Pow Wow was hosted in Keshena. Over 1,500 people attended this landmark event. It was not a historical reenactment; it was a historical recovery. It was an act of cultural resilience, healing, and intergenerational reconnection. And it was nothing less than magical!

Two Spirit people have lived on these lands longer than we will ever know. Their voices deserve to be heard, their cultures respected, and their futures supported.

After centuries of erasure, Two Spirit heritage is finally able to be seen, known, and celebrated.

10/12/2026

Never forget

10/12/2026

You’re all more beautiful than you know.

10/11/2026

Come out, come out wherever you are! October 11th is National Coming Out Day.

What’s your coming out story?

10/11/2026

The Wisconsin LGBT community has a lot to be Proud about, and this is one of the biggest

Today is a massively significant date in Wisconsin LGBTQ history.

On October 11, 1987, over 750,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Second National March on Washington for Le***an and Gay Rights. They came to demand equality, challenge discrimination, and confront a government that had failed to protect them. The first public display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt made the devastating human cost of the epidemic impossible to ignore.

But the significance of the Great March extended far beyond Washington D.C. — and its impact was felt right here in Wisconsin.

Five years earlier, Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to outlaw discrimination based on sexual identity. Considering the catastrophic losses in just five years — Wisconsin had already lost over 300 lives (including pediatric and heterosexual patients) to AIDS — the victory of the “Gay Rights State” felt like ancient history.

The 1987 march restored hope, reignited the fires of protest, and inspired a new wave of local activism.

In Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Le***an/Gay Pride Committee (now Milwaukee Pride) organized in 1987, leading to the city’s first widely attended pride celebration in 1988.

In Madison, activists inspired by the march established the Madison Pride March Committee, which became GALVAnize (Gay and Le***an Visibility Alliance) and eventually evolved into OUTreach.

Milwaukee’s ACT UP chapter, established in 1990, brought direct-action, unapologetically confrontational strategies to the fight for AIDS justice.

These were politically, culturally, and emotionally volatile times. Organizers were rebuilding the infrastructure of a movement that had been severely destabilized by the AIDS crisis. Community organizing, fundraising, education, care, and political pressure became essential forms of collective survival.

The Great March also inspired two annual remembrance events that continue to this day: National Coming Out Day (c.1988) and National LGBT History Month (c.1994)

The enduring lesson of October 11, 1987, is that national movements become transformative when people bring their energy home with them. This passionate moment in history laid the foundation for decades of progress to come.

Today, as we remember the Second March on Washington, we are reminded that leadership is all about showing up — consistently and relentlessly — and refusing to give up.

Today, we honor those who marched on Washington 39 years ago today.

Were you one of them?

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

10/10/2026

We stand on the shoulders of giants

How did it feel to be young, out, and gay when Wisconsin became the first Gay Rights State in the nation? "Electrifying," say those who were there.

In 1983, four young men at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided the time was right to be seen. They founded the Ten Percent Society, creating a place where LGBTQ students could find friendship, belonging, visibility, and power.

Their first Harvest Ball drew hundreds. Their activism helped advance campus nondiscrimination protections. And their determination helped lay the groundwork for generations of students to live free, safe, authentic lives on campus.

It’s a story of courage in the face of prejudice, community in the midst of crisis, and building a lasting legacy that continues today at The Pride Society. More than four decades later, the leadership of Matthew Alexander, Callen Harty, Mark Prestegard, and Larry Acherman continues to inspire Madison.

One moment in time can inspire transformative change and create limitless impact. Today, we celebrate the remarkable legacy of the Ten Percent Society — and the four pioneers who helped change Wisconsin LGBTQ history. STORY: https://bit.ly/tenpercent26

10/09/2026

Anyone here remember her or the Olivia Collective?

Women’s music was a movement all its own in the 1970s, one about social change, feminist solidarity, and self-empowerment. And, more often than not, it was about le***an love and pride.⁠ Musician Meg Christian was a “founding mother of women’s music” and a central figure in the le***an feminist movement of the 1970s.

In 1973, Meg and a collective of like-minded le***ans founded Olivia Records. It was a groundbreaking independent record company *for* women and *by* women. What the Olivia collective lacked in capital and experience, they made up for in talent and vision. Both on stage and behind the scenes, Olivia provided an antidote to the straight boys’ club of the music industry, and they put women’s music on the map. Here, Meg performs at the 1975 NOW (National Organization for Women) conference. To learn more about Meg’s life and impact, revisit her episode from season 8, produced in partnership with (link in bio). ***an
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Image: Bettye Lane / ***anherstoryarchives.