8 May 8, 2013 WINDY CITY TIMES CRIME LGBTQs and the Criminal Legal System When we talk about LGBTQ people and the courts today, we’re often refer- historically a model for criminal legal systems throughout the country. ring to the seemingly endless stream of LGBTQ victories coming out of In the next four weeks, Windy City Times will take readers through that judicial systems across the country. structure today as we look at how LGBTQ people get caught in the system But in the criminal courts, LGBTQ people have long faced a different and the challenges they face once there. reality. Perhaps nowhere has that been more visible than in Cook County, OUT A Windy City Times Special Investigative Series Left to right: 1911 Chicago Vice Commission report. Chicagoan Henry Gerber, who was arrested in the 1920s after starting a homosexual rights group. Clarence Darrow defends the high-profile murderers Leopold and Loeb, a case sensationalized based on the relationship between the two young men. At right: Two men or two women dancing together as well as cross-dressing were banned in gay bars until the 1970s, but some people risked arrest to be themselves. Images this section from the Chicago History Museum, M. Kuda Archives and Windy City Times archives Victims are often treated with shocking levels of ignorance and transphobia. With Malice Aforethought: — Prison problems. Discriminatory denial of prison rights or privileges, derogation, and LGBTQs and the criminal justice system the debatable issue of segregation, which has sometimes seemed to benefit sexual-minority BY TRACY BAIM — Fear of authorities. Because of this fear, prisoners but can lead to more discrimination or including potential arrest, many gays did not harassment by guards. The legal definition of malice aforethought in- report crimes, including shakedowns by men — Criminalization of sex work. Transgender cludes “an intent willfully to act in callous and impersonating police officers, or blackmail from people, who face employment discrimination wanton disregard of the consequences to human other criminals. This in turn allowed criminals to and lack of access to extremely expensive (often life.” flourish. Even today, community organizations life-saving) gender-related medical care, are dis- Throughout much of U.S. legal history, this often document higher anti-LGBT crime numbers proportionately engaged in sex work. But even would be an apt description of the legal sys- than police do, because of this fear of reporting those who are not are frequently arrested as tem’s approach to people beyond the traditional to authorities. sex workers by police simply for “walking while definitions of sexuality and gender identity. — Institutionalized bias. Past exclusion of trans.” The ways the system has harmed the LGBTQ known sexual-minority persons from law licens- These are just a few of the problems related to community are many, but here are a few key his- es, police employment and other jobs meant LGBTs and the criminal justice system. There are torical problems: openly LGBT people did not have a seat at the many more problems related to the civil courts. Tony Midnite was a popular female imperson- — Sodomy and related sex laws. They primar- table in creating policies and enforcing laws. In the civil courts, LGBTs have lost custody of ator, including in Chicago. This image is from ily targeted gay men. Illinois was the first state — Gay panic. This is a common “defense” children, lost their homes after a partner dies, 1953. Cross-dressing was banned in the city to get rid of its sodomy law, in 1961, and the used by those charged with violent gay attacks been refused adoptions and encountered many until the 1970s. U.S. Supreme Court finally banned such laws in and murders, and it has often been successful. other biased decisions based on their sexuality Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. — Ignoring violence. Neighborhoods per- or gender identity. — Targeting “vice.” These commissions and ceived as “gay” have often been targeted by Many of these problems have decreased in re- police squads go after any illegal activity, in- gay-bashers and serial killers. In the past, be- cent decades, solved in part by pressure from cluding prostitution. But many over-eager de- cause police ignored the crimes or often treated activists, help from allies, and the coming out of partments have also targeted gay men having them with little seriousness, LGBTs organized LGBT police officers, lawyers, judges and elected consensual sex (without prostitution), and po- their own street patrols and response, including officials. lice have had handsome decoys pose as gay men a whistle-blowing campaign in 1970s Chicago, But this recent history of harassment and in order to entrap victims in public spaces. Po- and a 1980s Pink Angels group. Ignoring vio- abuse by law enforcement and the courts still lice even placed ads in gay papers’ personals and lence has gone beyond ignoring neighborhood has a residual impact, causing mistrust of the massage sections seeking to entrap men. gay-bashing to ignoring or belittling individual system, and in some cases appearing on peo- — Cross-dressing laws. Many states and cities complaints of crime or to inadequate investiga- ple’s criminal records still today. For example, had laws that barred people from wearing items tions of homicides. Some serial killers likely were an adult man arrested for supposedly public con- traditionally linked to the opposite sex. These able to continue their trade longer because of sensual sex with another adult man may have to laws allowed for police harassment and arrests. a lack of police attention to their attacks, and register as a sex offender. It took Chicago until the 1970s (first through their victims. (John Wayne Gacy, Larry Eyler and In this special Windy City Times series, we legal rulings and later through City Council ac- Jeffrey Dahmer are three such examples.) will look in depth at the criminal legal system tion) to eliminate the cross-dressing law. — Criminalization of HIV and AIDS. Gay men and the LGBTQ community in Cook County. Our — Dancing queens. While it was technically have been targeted for their sexuality based on reporters spent several months researching the not illegal, police often harassed and arrested the consequences of these types of laws, many archives, looking into public records, interview- people for dancing with a partner of the same of them still on the books. And new HIV/AIDS ing authorities, visiting county facilities and sex. Until the early 1970s, most Chicago-area transmission laws are also being passed with re- talking to people who have an up-close view of gay bars banned same-partner dancing to avoid gressive language. the criminal justice system. additional police scrutiny. — Intimate-partner violence. Police and au- In many ways, the problems LGBTs face with — Official harassment. LGBT bars, especially thorities have had a difficult time handling the prison industrial complex are a reflection of prior to 1980, were targets of police shake- domestic-violence cases involving people of the the larger societal problem with incarceration downs, and were often also harassed by the Ma- same gender, or gender non-conforming people. and of a society that would spend $50,000 in- fia. The police harassment created a large level The police ask “who is the man” or “who is the carcerating someone for smoking marijuana or of distrust in seeking help from authorities when woman” because they do not have the training for stealing $100, rather than take a realistic the businesses experienced other problems, and to understand how LGBT relationships work. approach to drugs and survival crimes. But per- owners often turned to the Mob for pseudo-pro- — Mishandling transgender cases. The police haps by investigating further this one area of Chicago Tribune April 26, 1964 report on a tection. Police cooperated with media to provide across the U.S. have had difficulty with trans- the system, we can see alternative solutions for raid of the Fun Lounge, a suburban Chicago names of those arrested—resulting in lost jobs gender survivors of attacks, and with solving a system desperately in need of being fixed. gay club. and even suicides. the large number of transgender murder cases. WINDY CITY TIMES May 8, 2013 9 Gay bars were among those pulled into a federal investigation of police harassment, and a judge Mattachine Midwest report on an under- overturned the cross-dressing ban, The Gay Crusader cover cop entrapping gays, September September 1973. 1969. From the M. Kuda Archives The Gay Crusader December 1973 (left) and August 1973, reports on police reforms and a benefit for people injured in a devastating arson fire in New Orleans. A report in a 1975 edition of The Gay Crusader GayLife Aug. 29, 1975 report on muggings of noted that no arrests had been made in three of gay men in Chicago. six gay-related murders. A rare case of a murder of a gay person solved, through a confession reported in The Gay Crusader September 1975. Left: In 1975, The Chicago Gay Crusader alerted readers to attacks on gay men in public parks, as well as police arrests of gays. Right: Activists protested the police response to the murder of Donna Smith by her ex-husband. In GayLife Dec. 24, 1974. GayLife Dec. 10, 1976 (left) and Nov. 26, 1976 (below) report on yet more violence against gays in Chicago. Left: GayLife Oct. 1, 1976 reported on a study showing most gay men are killed by heterosexuals, not other gays, and a report on the murder of Bijou’s owner. Above: GayLife Feb. 4, 1976, stories about a double murder of two women, and a blackmail scheme. 10 May 8, 2013 WINDY CITY TIMES GayLife April 4, 1977 reported on the mur- der of gay bartender Frank Rodde III, 29; his murder was never solved.