THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

"Sexicon" featured a 10-member panel, each person talking briefly about the relevance of a particular word/term in their lives and identity formation. Erica Meiners, associate professor at Northeastern Illinois University and the moderator, introduced the evening's theme with a play on the term "Formerly Known As," which is also the name of a popular dance party on the first Thursday of every month at Big Chicks: "All queers are formerly known as … language has been a marker and a tool for sovereignty and self-determination … as simple as our ability to recover and also demarcate our tactics to produce pleasure, community and recognition."

Pointing to the ability of words to represent power, she noted examples such as that of feminists pushing for "Ms.," Latinos using Chicana/Chicano to signify a particular political identity, immigrant rights advocates using "undocumented" rather than "illegal," and anti-prison organizations advocating for "formerly incarcerated" over "ex-cons."

For some on the panel, their words meant reinventing and appropriating terms that have historically been used to demonize LGBTQ communities. Emilia Chico, an organizer with the Chicago Dyke March Collective, said "dyke" was "a word that helped me transform language into action." She recalled that her mother reminded her of a time when the word "ruined lives," but that she, Chico, went on anyway and felt empowered as she walked the streets of Chicago during the march "and the crowd goes fucking wild."

Kim Hunt, executive director of Affinity, similarly took "queer," and admitted that while she now embraced it, her initial encounter with the word made her cringe: "I could not figure out why anyone could want to call themselves queer when 'queer' had negative meanings." Hunt noted that the use of "queer" shifted between generations, and that she honored the experience of elders for whom the word still had negative connotations but also supported women in their 50s and younger who appropriated it as a word that made them feel "open, undefined, and free."

The singer and musician Scott Free took on "bear," as in, a gay man whose body type (larger and often more hirsute than is considered the norm) is both a proclamation of freedom from a muscular gay aesthetic and a fetish object in its own right. Reading through what he said was culled from the Wikipedia entry on the subject, Free elicited laughter from the audience as he concluded that "when bears have their own porn category, you know they've arrived."

Chuck Renslow, activist and founder of the International Mr. Leather (IML) contest, explained the term "leather daddy," a dominant man who establishes often long-standing relationships with one or more submissive men in exchange for sexual and/or cultural mentorship. While studiously reading through what seemed like a complicated set of rules and established conventions of hierarchy and dominance that dictate the relationship, Renslow wryly noted, off-the-cuff, "I mean, it's not the Boy Scouts, even if it seems like it sometimes," and the audience burst into laughter.

Christina Kahrl, executive editor of Baseball Prospectus, a baseball think tank, spoke about the word "transsexual," noting that, unlike with "gay" or "lesbian," being in or out was not an option. Kahrl, who is MTF, said that she often found herself explaining the word and her identity to friends, trying to tell them, "This does not mean that you are just 'super-gay.'" She said that she was constantly deflecting stereotypes, beginning with her mother who declared, on hearing the news of her transition, "Well, you have to give up sports," or the colleague who exclaimed, "But you drink Guinness!" She concluded by saying, "I do not just wear the word transsexual; I own it."

A similar tone of ownership was struck by Michael Rivera, a design professional who spoke about "gay," and his coming out and moving from Cincinnati and then to Puerto Rico before finally coming to Chicago, and of how his various communities in the different places became more gay and less straight. He concluded with words that prompted much applause: "My word is 'gay.' I am gay."

The writer and spoken-word artist Michelle Renae took up another term denoting sexual identity, "bisexual." Addressing a common stigma that bisexuality is a temporary category where "people pause on their journey to Gay Town or Straightville," Renae said she saw it as indicative of sexual fluidity, and that she was happy "to play hopscotch on the Kinsey scale."

Claudia Perry, an insurance agent, took up the word "ally," saying to the audience, "How much lube you use is entirely up to you, and I will defend your right to do it."

Fashion designer Tommy Walton was resplendent in a pair of high-heeled and open-toed laced stilettos that literally lit up as he walked onto the stage in an all-black suit and black gloves, from which hung silver-colored chains. Walton's word was "realness" which, he explained, denoted a form of passing, "to fit into an environment that is not your own or a class not necessarily yours." He said that the word has since been co-opted and stolen by the world of hip-hop as "keeping it real." Realness, he emphasized, is "the refusal of the mundane in your life." Hearkening back to the theme of sexual fluidity and of the panel, he said, "All these words … butch, dyke etc. one time or another, I'm going to be all of those things."

The concluding discussion and audience responses touched upon how these words shifted in meaning in relation to historical and generational shifts and the development and, sometimes, the breakdown of community among LGBTQ people.

Renslow's presence at the event prompted a protest by members of Unite HERE, a union that has been calling for a boycott of the Hyatt Regency Chicago, saying, for instance, that the hotel "has done massive layoffs." Outside, they distributed flyers praising Renslow "for the advancement and cohesion of the leather and the greater LGBT communities," but urged him to move IML from the Hyatt.