Ronald E. Bogan

Last updated
Ronald E. Bogan
Known forFirst out Chicago policeman

Ron Bogan was the first police man in Chicago to come out as gay. Fellow officer Mary Boyle was the first out officer. [1] By coming out to the Chicago Tribune , eventually the CPD Chicago Police Department began actively recruiting homosexual officers and acceptance of LGBT officers increased. [2]

Contents

Family and education

He knew he was gay since he was a little boy, living with his two sisters (one of whom is lesbian), his mother and great-grandmother, who helped raise him and knew he was gay, in Chicago. They lived in the Ida B. Wells Homes on the South Side of Chicago. [3]

Bogan attended Dunbar High School (now Dunbar Vocational High School). He knew then he wanted to be a police officer but Mayor Richard J. Daley was fighting when it came to desegregating the CPD. He attended Eastern Illinois University with the hopes that what he studied there could get him a job until he was able to get a job as a police officer. He was president of his fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma and the first sophomore to be picked resident assistant. [3]

He graduated with a BA in speech communication and radio/TV production with a teacher certification which led to substitute teaching for three years at the grammar school he had attended. He became the Midwest Regional Personnel Administrator at the Controlled Data Corporation when he was 25. He finally became a police officer in December 1978 and retired in 2007. [3]

He married his long-term partner, Curtis Lewis, in 2014.

Career

Bogan spent nearly 30 years on the force before he retired. After his retirement, Bogan became the Chicago Department of Human Services’ Emergency Services Deputy Commissioner. [3]

Coming out as gay

He moved to work on hate crimes in the Civil Rights Division in 1992 that he came out to the Trib. Because there was a requirement to be out as a gay person at the CPD, it led to his being recruited by the Civil Rights division so he could help recruit other gay and lesbian people. [3]

When he started at the Civil Rights Division, crimes against gays were the largest number of cases followed by Anti- Semitic and then racially based. [3]

Honors and awards

The Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame inducted him in 2016. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattachine Society</span> American gay male advocacy group

The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was an early national gay rights organization in the United States, preceded by several covert and open organizations, such as Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection of male friends in Los Angeles to protect and improve the rights of gay men. Branches formed in other cities, and by 1961 the Society had splintered into regional groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Waddell</span> Founder of Gay Games

Tom Waddell was an American physician, decathlete who competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and founder of the Gay Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Police Department</span> Principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, US

The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Chicago City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind the New York City Police Department. As of 2022 CPD had 11,710 sworn officers on duty, and in 2020 had over 948 other employees. Tracing its roots to 1835, the Chicago Police Department is one of the oldest modern police departments in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT rights in Belarus</span>

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Belarus face significant challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Although same-sex sexual activity is legal in Belarus, gay and lesbian rights in the country are otherwise severely limited and homosexuality remains highly stigmatized in Belarusian society. Households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. Belarus provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Many Belarusian people believe that homosexuality is a psychiatric illness, and many LGBT persons in Belarus tend to hide their sexual orientation in public. Those who are "out" face harassment, violence and physical abuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT rights in Haiti</span>

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Haiti face social and legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Adult, noncommercial and consensual same-sex sexuality is not a criminal offense, but transgender people can be fined for violating a broadly written vagrancy law. Public opinion tends to be opposed to LGBT rights, which is why LGBT people are not protected from discrimination, are not included in hate crime laws, and households headed by same-sex couples do not have any of the legal rights given to married couples.

Robert Sloan Basker, commonly known as Bob Basker was a civil rights activist. He first became active in the student peace movement in the 1930s and was politically active throughout his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Gerber</span> 20th-century US homosexual rights activist

Henry Gerber was an early gay rights activist in the United States. Inspired by the work of Germany's Magnus Hirschfeld and his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and by the organisation Bund für Menschenrecht by Friedrich Radszuweit and Karl Schulz, Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights (SHR) in 1924, the nation's first known gay organization, and Friendship and Freedom, the first known American gay publication. SHR was short-lived, as police arrested several of its members shortly after it incorporated. Although embittered by his experiences, Gerber maintained contacts within the fledgling homophile movement of the 1950s and continued to agitate for the rights of homosexuals. Gerber has been repeatedly recognized for his contributions to the LGBT movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Nelson (Utah activist)</span> American LGBT activist (1962–2024)

David Keith Nelson was an American LGBT and gun rights activist. He founded or helped found several LGBT-related nonprofit organizations in Utah and helped direct others. His work with the Democratic Party encouraged many LGBT Utahns to serve as party leaders. His work as a legislative and executive lobbyist accomplished the adoption of several LGBT- and weapon-friendly state and local laws, rules, ordinances and policies, and the rejection of other legislation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Veterans for Equal Rights</span> American LGBT veteran service organization

American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) is the oldest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Veterans Service Organization (VSO) in the United States. Founded in 1990, AVER is a non-profit VSO that supports and advocates for the rights of LGBT military veterans, active duty service members, and their families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equality Illinois</span>

Equality Illinois (EI) was founded in 1991 to work towards building a better Illinois by advancing equal treatment and social justice through education, advocacy, and protection of the rights of the LGBTQ community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Dwayne Jones</span> 2013 mob killing in Jamaica

Dwayne Jones was a Jamaican 16-year-old boy who was killed by a violent mob in Montego Bay in 2013, after he attended a dance party dressed in women's clothing. The incident attracted national and international media attention and brought increased scrutiny to the status of LGBT rights in Jamaica.

The LGBTQ community in Chicago is one of the United States' most prominent, especially within the Midwest, alongside those of San Francisco and New York City, and holds a significant role in the progression of gay rights in the country. With a population of around 3 million, Chicago is the third biggest city in the US, and around 150,000 of those people identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, questioning, or other.

Ronni Lebman Sanlo is the Director Emeritus of the UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center and an authority on matters relating to LGBT students, faculty and staff in higher education. She recognized at an early age that she was a lesbian, but was too afraid to tell anybody. Sanlo went to college then married and had two children. At the age of 31, Ronni came out and lost custody of her young children. The treatment toward the LBGT community and her rights as a mother are what gave Sanlo the drive to get involved in activism and LGBT politics.

The presence of LGBTQ officers in law enforcement has a history of controversy. As times have changed, police forces have adapted by adding LGBTQ divisions, officers and committees within their ranks to account for legislation established by governments to protect individuals who previously had little or no voice when it came to laws impacting their own communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie T. Johnson</span> Former Superintendent of Chicago Police Department

Eddie T. Johnson is an American retired police officer for the Chicago Police Department. He served as the 62nd Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department from March 2016 until December 2019.

William B. Kelley was a gay activist and lawyer from Chicago, Illinois. Many laud him as an important figure in gaining rights for gay people in the United States, as he was actively involved in gay activism for 50 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernita Gray</span> African-American lesbian activist and writer

Vernita Gray was an African-American lesbian and women's liberation activist from the beginning of those movements in Chicago. She began her writing career publishing in the newsletter Lavender Woman. After owning and operating her own restaurant for almost a decade, Gray became the LGBT liaison for the Cook County State's Attorney's office. In 2013, she and her partner became the first same-sex partners to wed in Illinois.

Renee C. Hanover was an American lawyer and civil rights advocate who practiced in Chicago. As a lawyer, she defended groups and individuals involved in civil rights cases dealing with gender, LGBT issues and race. She was part of the Women's Law Center and fought for intersectional equality. Hanover was one of the first openly gay lawyers to practice in the United States.

Adrienne J. Smith (1934–1992) was an American psychologist. She came out as a lesbian in 1973 and became one of the first openly out lesbian psychologists in the American Psychological Association (APA). She worked for reforms in the APA and spoke on LGBT rights across the country.

The Fun Lounge police raid was a 1964 police raid that targeted Louie's Fun Lounge, a gay bar near Chicago, Illinois, United States. The raid led to the arrest of over 100 individuals and is considered a notable moment in the LGBT history of the area.

References

  1. ↑ Schmich, Mary (June 26, 1992). "ONE COP'S COURAGE RISKS A WAY OF LIFE". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Ronald E. Bogan". Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Maxwell, Carrie (October 17, 2018). "First out gay male Chicago police officer on family, career, volunteering". The Windy City Times. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.