Harassment at the Wigwam, April 1972

The Cast - Major players identified. Actual historical figures on left.

Steve Allcock, Disabled Activist C-U Gay Liberation Front	Steve Hancock
Jeff Graubart, Activist/Treasurer C-U Gay Liberation Front	Dave Rosen
Kathy McCabe, Activist C-U Gay Liberation Front	Gloria McMaster
William Stanley, Activist C-U Gay Liberation Front	Winston Stanfield III
Roger Walther, Activist/President C-U Gay Liberation Front	Roger Hamilton

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In light of the recent repeal of the cross-dressing laws in Champaign and Urbana, power in the local GLF had shifted from the "consciousness-raisers" to the direct-action activists. Kathy McCabe and Ed Lisowski were out. William Stanley and I were in. My censure by the organization was quickly forgotton on the heels of the Champaign victory. I was elected treasurer and my roommate, Roger Walther, elected president.

On March 31st, 1972, management of a campus bar called the Wigwam which catered to hippies, radicals and growing number of gays and lesbians, began a campaign of harassment against its gay and lesbian clientele. Ash trays and beers were dumped on patrons by the manager, accompanied by homophobic slurs.

When we found out, our new militant GLF called an emergency meeting.

Dramatization of GLF emergency meeting in response to Wigwam harassment

The Gay Liberation Front voted to have a "Stonewall" at the Wigwam. I found this cool yellow helmet at the Woolworths with the word GAY printed accross the front that I wore for the occaision. Why it was made and for whom, I have no idea. It was the only helmet on the toy shelf.

On April 8th, over 20 of us marched over from the Illini Union to the Wigwam and took up four or five tables. As it turned out, the manager responsible for the attacks was not present and we were all treated with the utmost courtesy. Slowly we began to filter out, considering it a victory, until there were just four of us left. And then, it happened.

Dramatization of late night April 8th at the Wigwam

The anti-gay attacks that occurred late that night outraged all of us in the Gay Liberation Front. We decided to call for a boycott of the Wigwam and scheduled a picket for Thursday, April 13th, Saturday, April 15th and Sunday, April 16th, 1972. The picket on Thursday night went without incident. But we got a lot of favorable publicity. On Friday April 14th, the Student Senate voted to support the boycott. On Saturday, April 15th, The Daily Illini, the student newspaper wrote an editorial supporting the boycott.

Wigwam protest participants. Note misspelling of famed financial advisor Suze Orman at number 22

The picket on Saturday night, April 15th, would lead to events that changed my life and had repercussions for the nationwide gay liberation movement.

Dramatization of April 15th picket of the Wigwam

The picket on Sunday night was cancelled as anti-war riots broke out in campus town and a curfew was ordered. The two assailants who attacked the Wigwam picket had escaped and I was almost feeling bad for not stabbing the blond headed guy as he beat up my friend Bill Stanley.

But what happened on Monday, April 17th, turned that feeling into an obsession, left pshycological scars that lasted years, feeelings of violent rage that have even now returned as I write The Quest for Brian some 35 years later.

Although the link is to a dramatization of those events, I made every effort to be as historically accurate as possible.

Dramatization of April 17th encounter with Wigwam assailant

The experience Bill Stanley and I had at the Urbana police station was a defining moment that will be reflected in the remainder of this exhibit. For further insight on how this incident might have changed our movement, I hope you will read The Quest for Brian when it is published.

I was a naive secretly patriotic middle-class white boy. Here is an audio renactment of the ugly words used by the Urbana copy that shattered my world.

Contact Person

Jeff Graubart jeffgrau@rcn.com