More Articles | WI LGBTQ History Project

News Articles:

March 24, 2025

Keeping the queer magic of Les Petites Bon Bons alive

Los Angeles gallery announces September 2026 show honoring Milwaukee's gay glam rock pioneers.

March 19, 2025

Celebrating the story of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center

Storytelling collaboration will showcase the Center's heart, history, and heritage.

March 09, 2025

Saying goodbye to This Is It

Wisconsin's oldest gay bar -- and one of the ten oldest in the USA -- closed March 9 after six decades of service.

March 01, 2025

Pride organizers: complete our Wisconsin Proud Survey

We've set a goal to document, preserve, elevate and celebrate your stories of community activation throughout summer 2025.

February 28, 2025

Celebrating Sharon Dixon: a warrior of women’s history

Join us Sunday, March 30 for an afternoon of sisterhood -- as we proudly celebrate a living legend!

February 03, 2025

"Hearts for History" celebrates love and acceptance

Honor your loved ones -- while helping our community secure a more inclusive future.

January 01, 2025

Forever Young celebrates the connectivity of 21-below nightlife

New book project explores how all-ages clubs shaped LGBTQ identity, community, and society for a generation.

December 16, 2024

The Summer to Be Seen Tour returns in 2025!

We're bringing LGBTQ history and heritage to the hometown streets of Wisconsin. Join the celebration!

November 22, 2024

Celebrate "80 Years of Gay" at Fluid Milwaukee

We're raising money to protect Wisconsin's first LGBTQ historic marker -- at an address that has been a queer destination for eight decades.

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Blog Articles:

March 21, 2025

Jane LaFlash: the mom Madison chose

After her son came out, Jane chose to make a difference by educating, supporting and strengthening Madison families.

February 26, 2025

Ritchie T. Martin Jr: learning to trust the journey

As a gay Black youth, he found himself at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center. Today, he's leading the center's future.

November 30, 2024

Del Slowik: celebrating the Golden Age of Club 219

A chance encounter on a Milwaukee beach ignited the romance of a lifetime -- and launched a legendary gay nightspot's 25-year reign.

November 16, 2024

Goldie Adams: never take freedom for granted

After forty plus years of drag performances, Goldie shares her colorful story for the first time.

November 15, 2024

David Clarenbach: grinding the gears of the Gay Rights State

After five decades as an LGBTQ freedom fighter, David shares how our past victories can inspire our resistance ahead.

October 11, 2024

Si Smits: champion of cycles, saloons, and charities

Over 50 years ago, Si Smits was one of the first out, proud and confident gay men ever seen on local TV.

October 09, 2024

Barbara Hayden: the nights belonged to us

Nearly seventy years after taking a summer job that changed her life forever, Barbara reflects on what the LGBTQ community has gained -- and lost -- since 1956.

October 08, 2024

Liberace: the spark that made Milwaukee spectacular

One can only imagine what the most visible and vocal gay man of the 20th century could have achieved – if only he had been allowed to be himself.

October 06, 2024

Frank Blunt: legendary boss of the Bad Lands

He smoked, drank, gambled, hustled, and womanized like no other man in Milwaukee. And, one fateful day in 1893, Milwaukee learned why.

October 03, 2024

Evanna Breedlove: a lifetime of love and magic

Over thirty years after moving to New York City, Evanna reflects on growing up Black and trans in the dance clubs and drag cabarets of Wisconsin.

October 01, 2024

George Schneider: we are not going backwards

From teenage runaway to beverage boss, George has lived a lifetime of community service and action.

August 28, 2024

Dave Wolz: from first-time customer to legacy owner

"Big Gay Dave" was a fixture of the Milwaukee gay scene, but it took him a while to actually come out.

July 12, 2024

Tom Goss: from late bloomer to L.A. breakthrough

Tom Goss’s journey, from college wrestler to Catholic seminarian to beloved queer musician, is a story of resilience and reinvention.

July 01, 2024

George Poage: the thrill of victory, the agony of being seen

Celebrating the triumph of Wisconsin’s first gay Black Olympian: George Coleman Poage.

April 12, 2024

Les Petites Bon Bons: the surprise in your Cracker Jacks

Skyrocketing from Milwaukee's South Shore to the Sunset Strip of the '70s, Les Petites Bon Bons became artists in residence in the glitter rock scene, court jesters for rock and roll royalty, and masterful manipulators of mass media.

March 25, 2024

Jerry Dreva: shattering the status quo

Jerry Dreva was a brilliant artist who never owned a gallery. His canvas was the life around him.

March 23, 2024

Eric Wynn: my life as a Club 219 girl

Erica Stevens was one of Milwaukee's most electrifying drag superstars of the early '80s -- until she walked away at the height of her fame.

March 01, 2024

Nik Santilli: rewriting the rules of gender expression

For most of the 20th century, gender expansive people lived in fear of sexual harassment under the mythical "three piece rule." In 1971, the Santilli case changed everything.

January 13, 2024

In Memoriam: Jerry Johnson

Jerry Johnson was a devoted community activist for over five decades. He made significant gifts of time, money and materials to support the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project.

October 09, 2023

Louis Stimac: Celebrating a long-lost champion of our hidden history

Since 1994, LGBT History Month has been celebrated every October to commemorate the contributions of our community. October was specifically chosen to coincide with National Coming Out Day (October 11) and the first and second marches on Washington for LGBT rights (1979, 1987.)

October 09, 2023

Being Bruno

Some people live their life to the fullest, and Madison’s own LGBT treasure Michael Bruno is no exception. I wanted to profile his contributions to the early gay scene of Madison in the 1970’s.

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