Repeal of the Champaign and Urbana Cross Dressing Laws, December 1971
On October 30th, 1971, Champaign police broke-up a Halloween party of mostly gay men at 614 W. Springfield in Champaign. I left the party alone and was walking home, when a squad car passed by with three drag queens from the party in the back seat. I changed destinations and walked quickly to the Champaign Police Station.
Dramatization of scene at police station[1]
On Tuesday, November 2nd, the Champaign-Urbana Gay Liberation Front held a meeting in the Illini Union to determine our response to the arrests.
Dramatization of first GLF meeting after drag arrests[2]
Despite disapproval by most members of the GLF, I attended the Champaign City Council meeting two weeks later and asked them to repeal the cross-dressing law.
Dramatization of my speech before Champaign City Council on cross-dressing arrests[3]
There is a long road between making a nice presentation to a governing body and getting a law changed. For that reason, the next Gay Liberation Front meeting turned out to be quite dramatic.
Dramatization of GLF meeting after speech before Council on drag arrests[4]