Tracy Baim

Last updated
Tracy Baim
NationalityAmerican
EducationDrake University
Occupation(s)journalist, writer
Years active1984–present
Known for Windy City Times
MovementLGBT Rights

Tracy Baim is a Chicago-based LGBT journalist, editor, author, and filmmaker. She is also a former publisher of the Chicago Reader newspaper. [1]

Contents

Biography

Baim attained a journalism degree from Drake University in the field of news-editorialism in 1984. [2]

Career

Windy City Times was founded in 1985 by Baim and others, who started Sentury Publications to publish the paper. [3] [4] where she is the publisher and executive editor.

Baim came to the Chicago Reader in 2018 and planned to leave by the end of 2022. [5]

Awards and honors

Baim was also a finalist for a 2012 Lambda Literary Award [9] for Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers.

Works

Journalism

Books

Films

Other projects

Related Research Articles

<i>Windy City Times</i> LGBT newspaper in Chicago, Illinois

Windy City Times is an LGBT newspaper in Chicago that published its first issue on September 26, 1985.

Gaysweek was an American weekly gay and lesbian newspaper based in New York City printed from 1977 until 1979. Considered the city's first mainstream weekly lesbian and gay newspaper, it was founded by Alan Bell in 1977 as an 8-page single-color tabloid and finished its run in 1979 as a 24-page two-color publication. It featured articles, letter, art and poetry. It was, at the time, only one of three weekly publications geared towards gay people. It was also the first mainstream gay publication published by an African-American.

The Bay Area Reporter is a free weekly LGBT newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published newspaper of its kind.

Gay Chicago is a defunct LGBT online news organization in Chicago, Illinois, which ceased publishing in print form on September 21, 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame</span> City-sponsored hall of fame (founded 1991)

The Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame is an institution founded in 1991 to honor persons and entities who have made significant contributions to the quality of life or well-being of the LGBT community in Chicago. It is the first city-sponsored hall of fame dedicated to LGBT people, organizations and community in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Córdova</span> American writer

Jeanne Córdova was an American writer and supporter of the lesbian and gay rights movement, founder of The Lesbian Tide, and a founder of the West Coast LGBT movement. A former Catholic nun, Córdova was a second-wave feminist lesbian activist and self-described butch.

St. Sukie de la Croix is a writer and photographer. He is most widely known for his 2012 book Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall. His works have explored the underground cultures and aspects of Chicago's LGBT community dating back to the 1670s. He has had several columns in Chicago publications, both in print and online: Outlines, Nightspots, Chicago Now, and Chicago Free Press.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dom Orejudos</span> American artist, dancer, and choreographer (1933–1991)

Domingo Francisco Juan Esteban "Dom" Orejudos, Secundo, also widely known by the pen names Etienne and Stephen, was an openly gay artist, ballet dancer, and choreographer, best known for his ground-breaking gay male erotica beginning in the 1950s. Along with artists George Quaintance and Touko Laaksonen —with whom he became friends—Orejudos' leather-themed art promoted an image of gay men as strong and masculine, as an alternative to the then-dominant stereotype as weak and effeminate. With his first lover and business partner Chuck Renslow, Orejudos established many landmarks of late-20th-century gay male culture, including the Gold Coast bar, Man's Country bathhouse, the International Mr. Leather competition, Chicago's August White Party, and the magazines Triumph, Rawhide, and Mars. He was also active and influential in the Chicago ballet community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuck Renslow</span> American businessperson and gay culture pioneer (1929 – 2017)

Charles "Chuck" Renslow was an American businessman, known for pioneering homoerotic male photography in the mid-20th-century US, and establishing many landmarks of late-20th-century gay culture and leather culture, especially in the Chicago area. His accomplishments included the cofounding with Tony DeBlase of the Leather Archives and Museum, the co-founding with Dom Orejudos of the Gold Coast bar, Man's Country bathhouse, and the International Mr. Leather competition, and the founding by himself alone of Chicago's August White Party, and the magazines Triumph, Rawhide, and Mars. He was a romantic partner of Dom Orejudos as well as Chuck Arnett, Samuel Steward, David Grooms, and Ron Ehemann.

Marie Jayne Kuda (1940–2016) was an American writer, lecturer, publisher, and historian of LGBT culture in Chicago. Her collection contained over 100,000 documents and ephemera and her research extended to LGBT culture from ancient times through the 20th century. She was the founder of Womanpress, published the first annotated bibliography of lesbian literature, Women Loving Women, and organized five Lesbian Writers' Conferences in Chicago.

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.

Chicago Gay Crusader was a periodical about gay issues in Chicago and the United States. It was created in 1973 by Michael Bergeron and William B. Kelley, becoming defunct in 1976. The first issue in May 1973 marked Chicago's "first successful attempt at producing a serious gay newspaper", following another paper that only lasted two issues. Richard W. Pfeiffer wrote a monthly column for the newspaper.

<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.

The Chicago Lesbian Liberation (CLL) was a gay liberation organization formed in Chicago for lesbians during the Women's liberation movement (WLM). The group was originally part of an organization for both men and women, but in 1971, the women broke off to form their own group. CLL was involved in publishing a newspaper, Lavender Woman, helping to set up the first Chicago Pride Parade and the first all-women's dance in Chicago.

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.

<i>Lavender Woman</i> US lesbian periodical (1971–1976)

Lavender Woman was a lesbian periodical produced in Chicago, Illinois, from 1971 to 1976. The name Lavender Woman comes from the color lavender's prominence as a representation of homosexuality, starting in the 1950s and 1960s. It is believed that the color became a symbol due to it being a product of mixing baby blue and pink. Lavender truly hit the spotlight as a symbol of homosexuality empowerment in 1969 when lavender sashes and armbands were distributed during a "gay power" march in New York.

Margaret Ann "Peg" Grey was an American physical education teacher and sports organizer based in Chicago. She was the first female co-chair of the Federation of Gay Games. She was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1992.

Joanne E. Trapani was an American activist and politician. She was the first open lesbian elected official in Illinois when she won a seat on the village board of Oak Park in 1997, and she was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1993.

References

Notes

  1. Reader, Chicago (2022-08-05). "[PRESS RELEASE] Baim stepping down as Reader publisher end of 2022". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  2. 1 2 3 "Tracy Baim: a gay-media torchbearer". Chicago Tribune. 2013-02-08. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  3. Barnhurst, Kevin G. (2007). Media Queered: Visibility and Its Discontents. New York City: Peter Lang. pp. 143–147. ISBN   978-0-8204-9533-0.
  4. "The 50 Most Powerful Women in Chicago Tracy Baim". Chicago Magazine. April 13, 2020.
  5. Roeder, David (August 5, 2022). "Tracy Baim to leave the Chicago Reader by year-end". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame 1994.
  7. 1 2 Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice 2014a.
  8. American Institute of Architects.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Association of LGBTQ Journalists 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Hieggelke 2020.
  11. HuffPost.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice 2014b.
  13. Baim & Keehan 2014.

Citations