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

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

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

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

Now that I was planning to chain myself to the podium at the next Champaign City Council meeting, I was censured by the Gay Liberation Front and persona non grata in the entire Champaign-Urbana gay community. Not content to leave bad-enough alone, I decided to raise the stakes yet again.

Dramatization of GLF meeting over Thanksgiving holiday where I speak despite censure

In addition to chaining myself to the podium, I was going to out a city father, one, I might add, who was reputed to have mob connections. That is demonstrated clearly in the following dramatization.

Dramatization of meeting with William Stanley in Illini Union on December 1st, 1971