Repeal of the Champaign and Urbana Cross Dressing Laws, December 1971

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

Jeff Graubart, Activist C-U Gay Liberation Front	Dave Rosen
Ed Lisowski, Co-president C-U Gay Liberation Front	Doc Willow
Kathy McCabe, Co-president C-U Gay Liberation Front	Gloria McMaster
Diana Peralta, Activist C-U Gay Liberation Front	Paola Rivera
William Stanley, Activist C-U Gay Liberation Front	Winston Stanfield III

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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, late November, 1971

WIth censure by the community, a death threat hanging over my head and should I survive, a jail sentence for chaining myself to the podium, the next few days were not very pleasant. They ended in a surrealistic sexual encounter that I will leave for readers of the book and a nervous breakdown on the next day. But all was not lost as the following dramatization shows.

Dramatization of hospital scene, December 5-7, 1971

So Diana Peralta and I made it to the Champaign City Council meeting a few minutes late. Here is what happened:

Dramatization of Champaign City Council, December 7, 1971

Actual copy of the agenda from the December 7th, 1971 Champaign City Council meeting. Handwriting says: They ammended[sic] code when they feared the scene that the[sic] had been forewarned would occur if we attended the meeting: and we did, so they did.

News-Gazette humorous account

The experience was not humbling. I tasted power and was about to invoke revenge.

Dramatization of GLF teach-in, December 7, 1971

Despite the acrimony between Kathy McCabe and myself, after the victory in Champaign, she wrote a letter to members of the Urbana City Council stressing the need for consistency in the laws between the twin cities. Several weeks later, Urbana followed suit and repealed their cross-dressing law.

Contact Person

Jeff Graubart jeffgrau@rcn.com