Windy City Times at 40: The voice of Chicago's LGBTQ+ community
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Windy City Times covers from 1993 and 1986. Photos: Courtesy of Windy City Times
For four decades, Windy City Times has covered the news and cultural shifts that challenge and celebrate Chicago's LGBTQ+ people.
Why it matters: LGBTQ+ media is shrinking even while the population is growing and continuously facing threats from the Trump administration, according to a new report.
Driving the news: The paper is celebrating its 40th anniversary with an event in Northalsted this week.
Flashback: Fresh out of college and working at another gay newspaper, Tracy Baim co-founded Windy City Times in 1985 at the height of the AIDS crisis when the mainstream press either ignored or badly covered the disease, Baim tells Axios.
- Gay journalists worked at traditional news outlets, but were still mostly closeted and some didn't use their real names in their bylines.
- By 1996, Baim had expanded LGBTQ+ coverage with BLACKlines, a monthly newspaper centered on Chicago's Black LGBTQ+ community and En La Vida, a publication by and for Latine LGBTQ+ Chicagoans. Both are now monthly newsletters.
State of play: The publication moved primarily online in 2020, with quarterly inserts in the Chicago Reader until last year.
- Windy City continues to cover all facets of LGBTQ+ life in the city and suburbs, often zeroing in on news that's absent in the daily papers.
- It also highlights new LGBTQ-owned businesses and announcements for public health services.
The big picture: LGBTQ-focused coverage is shrinking or completely absent in many places across the U.S., with nearly 20 states without any outlets reporting on LGBTQ-specific news, a report co-authored by Baim found.
- The media outlets that do exist almost all share the need for more reporters, better resources and increased budgets.
Plus: Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has made some reporters want to pull their names from articles, the report says.
If you go: The Windy City Times at 40 celebration runs 6–8pm Thursday at Sidetrack.
- Anna DeShawn from "Queer News" will host the evening, which will feature music from DJ Lori Branch and Hannah Viti and food from Taylor's Tacos.
- Tickets start at $49.
- The Gerber/Hart LGBTQ+ Library and Archives also has an exhibition celebrating the anniversary.