Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project

Congratulations to community partner Germaine Bowers of Y-Not II Tavern on her retirement!

Germaine has been supporting our spring fundraising campaigns since day one — and we are especially thankful for her help, year over year.

Enjoy every minute, friend! ❤️

Beloved Bartender ‘Ger’mama’ Is Retiring The cheery mama figure at Coffeetails will end her five-decade industry career this week.

September is Bisexual Visibility Month -- and we're partnering with Bi+ Pride Milwaukee to honor and celebrate the stories of our local community.

Due to long-standing, pervasive stereotypes, bisexuals experience significant scrutiny, stigma and social pressure that limit their true selves. Sometimes, bisexuals find themselves living in closets that society chose for them — that they’d never have chosen for themselves.

Help us shatter those stereotypes! Share your story — to help others be seen. Interested? Contact us at [email protected]. 🩷💜💙

Hag Rag (1986 - ?) was a “Wisconsin le***an-feminist newspaper,” a bi-monthly publication focused on news, nonfiction, political analysis, and commentary of interest to le****ns and radical feminists. It welcomed submissions on racism, lesbophobia, separatism, class and economics, feminist analysis, the worldwide le***an conspiracy, and linguistics.

As of February 1988, subscriptions were $9 per year, with copies “free to incarcerated dykes.”

In Volume 2, Issue 5, Hag Rag published a review of the Milwaukee Le***an and Gay Cream City Business Association (CCBA) awards ceremony, where CCBA presented four awards to honor the work of community activists. One of these, the Pacesetter Award, is given to a le***an or gay individual who has done “the most” for the Milwaukee gay community.

The 1988 Pacesetter Award went to le***an activist Lance Link. Lance was a member of the Hag Rag staff, working on advertising and the Madison calendar pages, and also served as an editor and writer. In addition, she worked on Amazon, Women’s Crisis Line, Wisconsin Womyn’s Land Cooperative, Women of Color News, and Women Against R**e, and she organized a range of concerts, fundraisers, and political demonstrations.

In accepting her award, Lance offered an empowering and deeply personal statement to the community she had long supported:

“Those of us who do have a radical feminist analysis of patriarchy and heterosexism owe it to ourselves and others to apply that radical analysis to racism and class oppression, and to all the other oppressions operating on the planet today.... I want to encourage le****ns and gay men to look around our immediate environment and see what changes we can make right here in River City. Some of us do a lot of letter-writing or phone-calling about aid to the Contras or apartheid, yet haven’t really rooted out our racism, looksism, or homophobia in our own communities. We have yet to figure out how to talk to someone we hear making disparaging remarks about qu**rs or Jews or any other disenfranchised group without fear of getting beat up — or worse...."

"I also want to encourage le****ns and gay men to go into the 1990s with a renewed commitment to being out about our le***anism and gayness, to coming out to our families if we haven’t already. If my family knows that I love wimmin, it makes it harder for them to delude themselves that they don’t know any g**s or le****ns, which makes it harder for them to feel free to express their bigotry on their jobs, in their churches, and in the voting booths.”

Le***an activism was often underrepresented, but that did not mean it did not exist. Quite the contrary: Wisconsin le****ns built community, fought injustice, and worked hard to drive social change.

Explore over six decades of on-demand digital media at our website: https://tinyurl.com/lgbtmedia26 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Yes, it was shocking to see Wisconsin's first LGBTQ landmark vandalized. Take your breath away shocking, in fact.

But we have been humbled -- like you wouldn't believe -- by the outpouring of support from our community. Immediate assistance from our community partners. Heartfelt messages from people all over the country. And now, meaningful donations from our community to bring this landmark back to life.

Within the past 72 hours, we've raised over $500 to repair, restore, and return this landmark to its rightful home. And we assure you, that will happen as quickly as we can make it happen.

We know times are tough right now for everyone. That being said, these donations mean more than you could possibly know. Because this isn't just an investment in a project. It's a statement that our mission matters -- our shared history matters -- and no matter what, the historic triumph of the Black Nite will be remembered, our elders WILL be honored, and their stories WILL be seen.

THANK YOU. ❤

We're on a mission -- led by Dr. Benjamin Rieth -- to document diverse stories of q***r life across all 72 counties in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is home to more than 172,000 LGBTQ people, but many stories -- especially outside urban areas -- often go untold.

The Q***r Wisconsin Storybook Project centers those voices, honoring the truth that we are everywhere, and always have been. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Want to share YOUR story? INFO: tinyurl.com/storybookwi26

Be seen like the Napalese Lounge is seen.
🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Almost five years of visibility! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

This photo seemed like the perfect way to kick off a look back at the Mural Project. Martha Marvel helped lead the project from the very beginning, and over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing the history behind one of the most meaningful chapters in Napalese’s story.

To mark the occasion, we’re inviting you to be part of it, too. Throughout the month of August, stop by, snap a selfie with the mural, and tag Napalese when you post it. We’ll treat you to a free rail drink, beer, or soda! (Limit one redemption per person.)

On the outside, it looked like any other tavern in town. On the inside, it was something else entirely: a room where a gay man from the Iron Range could hold another man’s hand without calculating the cost, where a le***an from rural Wisconsin could dance without watching the door.

“The Main Club was never just a place to drink. It was the core of our community,” said founder Bob Jansen.

READ MORE: https://ourliveswisconsin.com/article/bob-jansen-becoming-the-harvey-milk-of-the-northland/

Growing up in a world that did not allow them to be seen, many elders are still living with the anxieties and traumas of being "found out."

We applaud the Q***r Elders Project for helping our pioneers step out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Learn more in this month's Our Lives Magazine. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

The Q***r Elders Project Through portraits and personal histories, photographer Alyssa Lentz explores the often overlooked parts of love, family, and quiet acts of care that shape the lives of LGBTQ+ elders across the [...]

"Brand New Q***r Cable Show," read the InStep Magazine headline (Vol 9-22, November 1992,) welcoming Milwaukee's first weekly TV show "for, by, and about qu**rs."

The Q***r Program (originally called 'The Brand New Q***r Program') first aired on Milwaukee's Warner Cable Access Channel 47 on November 4, 1992. It was the first program to use MATA's new MPACT studio.

It began as a weekly half-hour call-in show, allowing viewers to listen to conversations between the hosts and guests. While there were previous LGBT cable programs (such as Tri-Cable Tonight), it was the first q***r live broadcast.

The hosts invited listeners to call in and join topical conversations, share news, or ask questions. They sought to provide up-to-date information on local LGBTQ community issues, serving a critical need when mainstream media wouldn't touch those stories.

Within weeks, the program became a regular fixture on Tuesday nights, expanded to an hour, and was rebroadcast Saturday mornings. Each show was replayed three times to make it accessible as possible, especially to q***r youth.

The program's stated mission was "to heighten the visibility of Milwaukee and Wisconsin's LGBT communities through live public access cable television". For much of its existence, it was supported by prominent community organizations such as the Gay People's Union, The G/L Community Fund, and Cream City Foundation.

The show was hosted primarily by Michael Lisowski, though he had a multitude of co-hosts, with the first being Dan Fons. In 1993, Melanie, a black le***an, temporarily joined the two as a co-host for the year.

Dan Fons moved to San Francisco in September 1996, and Lisowski hosted alone for a time. Charles Daniels (aka Charles D.) joined the show. He had previously appeared on the show as a guest promoting pageants, but as co-host he stayed for 8 or 9 years. Next, a viewer named Tim joined, and the three of them (Lisowski, Daniels, and 'Tim') co-hosted.

When Charles' other community work required him to leave, and Tim moved on to other things, Lisowski hosted alone again for a time. From 2007 to 2012, Deonte "D" Goodwin was co-host.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Q***r Program, Quest magazine published an interview with founder and host Michael Lisowski. That interview covers the program's history and legacy to date. The transcript, “MAKING AIR WAVES: The Q***r Program turns 20”, can be read on the Projects page “The Q***r Program” in the Electronic Media section of our website.

The Warner Cable Access facility was shut down in 2017, and with it, The Q***r Program celebrated 25 years by broadcasting its final episode in November 2017.

Explore over six decades of on-demand digital media at our website: https://tinyurl.com/lgbtmedia26 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

September is Bisexual Visibility Month -- and we're partnering with Bi+ Pride Milwaukee to honor and celebrate the truths of our local community!

Despite being a massive population -- nearly 59% of all LGBTQ people and 5% of all U.S. adults -- bisexuals are often the least seen, heard, known, or understood.

We're seeking individuals to be seen, share THEIR stories, and help us explode bisexual myths. Interested? Contact us at [email protected]. 🩷💜💙