Documenting the History of the LGBTQ Community in Wisconsin

We are sad to have had to create Biography pages for two recently deceased leaders in the Milwaukee bar scene. Early in November, Jerry Breiling had passed away; he was co-owner of KRUZ bar, and had previously worked at the Wreck Room, M&M Club, and Harbor Room bars. Then late in the same month, Ron 'Rona' Thate passed away; he was a longtime bartender at the M&M Club and then Boom/ The Room bar, and co-founder of several choral groups. We had just two weeks previous to his death sat down for an extensive interview with 'Rona', who at the time seemed to be in fine health. This is an example of the importance of documenting people before they are gone, in order to preserve their knowledge.

Through research and reader contribution, we have been able to create new info pages for 4 bars. These include  'Kollege Klub' (Madison, 1963-1984), 'Teddy's' (Milw 1973-1985), 'Artony's' (Milw 1980-1984),  and 'Tattoo's' (La Crosse, 1982-1989).

This website is about historical events, not recent history. But when the serious illness or death of someone very notable to Wisconsin’s LGBTQ history occurs, we of course try to create or update a Biographical page about that person. We are sad to have had to create pages recently for Chuckie Betz (death) and Carl Szatmary (ill), and update the page for Jamie Hernandez (death).

A visitor to the web site caused us to look into a Fond du Lac LGBTQ bar that had been puzzling us- and thus we have recently created a web page for Fond du Lac bar, Myrna’s, which was also variously known as Carry’s and Sabrina’s.

We had inspiration recently to dig into LGBTQ bars that have existed in the Oshkosh area over the past years. We have recently created or updated web pages for Oshkosh bars such as After Dark Lounge, Club 1226, and PJ’s.

A cable access program, The Queer Program, ran for 25 years on Milwaukee Warner-Cable channel 14, presenting live news, interview and call-in programs for the LGBTQ community, from 1992 to 2017. Its primary producer and host throughout the entire run, Michael Lisowski and its original co-producer and co-host Dan Fons, are also profiled.