Karen Gotzler
LGBT Progress in Activism
Karen Gotzler’s LGBT community involvement spans decades. Her dedicated engagement has been as both activist and leader. In 1981 she was a part of Milwaukee’s first organization of LGBT professionals and business people, The Cream City Business Association, serving from 1987-88 as its president.
She was a founding member of the Lesbian Alliance of Metro Milwaukee. That organization still exists today providing services and social events for its members as well as acting as a collaborative partner with other community groups. In 1996 Gotzler ran for 3rd District Alderperson in an effort to bring LGBT representation to the city’s Common Council. It was the first time an out person ran for local political office. Although unsuccessful, her campaign raised general awareness of the ever increasing voice and impact of LGBT citizens in local politics.
However, Gotzler’s greatest impact has been as the leader of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center. A founder of that organization, she served on its board of directors for many years before stepping up to assume a leadership role, becoming its interim executive director (as a volunteer) in 2012. At the time, the Center was in the midst of a dire financial crisis. Its future was unsure. Gotzler’s business and organizational acumen, buttressed by her unwavering belief in the Center’s mission, proved instrumental in the comprehensive financial restructuring and a rallying of community support that restored its viability. She would later be hired as its full-time executive director, a position she still holds today. (Paul Masterson)
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Jeff Kelly
LGBT Progress in Health and HIV Awareness
While on the faculty of the medical school in Jackson, Miss., Jeff Kelly founded an HIV research program, but he wanted to move it somewhere more hospitable to gay people. He visited Milwaukee with his partner, now husband, Allan Hauth and they liked the city. He approached the Medical College of Wisconsin. They welcomed his proposal. In 1994, with Hauth and key staff from Jackson, Kelly opened MCW’s Center for AIDS Intervention Research (CAIR). The goals are to find better ways to manage HIV prevention, better ways to maintain health among people living with HIV and better ways to share the findings with health providers worldwide. CAIR has developed partner programs in Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia, which has seen the biggest increase in AIDS cases worldwide.
“HIV has always been a disease associated with disadvantage and marginalization,” Kelly says. “In Russia, gay men face discrimination, arrest and imprisonment. We see it most strongly in Milwaukee now among young African Americans who face homophobia within the black community and racism in predominantly white communities. So they tend to be hidden. Many of our programs have, for a long time, involved gaining the trust of someone and having that person contact other gay men in their social network. If someone gets treatment early and stays in treatment, their life expectancy is pretty much the same as anyone’s. Treatment also greatly reduces the likelihood of transmission. Our mission now is getting people aware, making sure we reach first the people in greatest need.” (John Schneider)
Joseph R. Pabst
LGBT Progress in Philanthropy
When Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater burned in 1895, Captain Frederick Pabst ordered “rebuild it at once.” The Captain could have never envisioned, over a century later, his great-great grandson, Joseph R. Pabst, in that theater’s front row, furiously bidding at a charity auction during the 2009 gay softball world series. But surely the Captain wouldn’t be at all surprised that his progeny would, like himself, be a dedicated builder of the community.
For more than 20 years, Joe Pabst has been a leading LGBT and HIV/AIDS activist. He has found his identity helping others through his generous philanthropy, funding all aspects of the LGBT community in that pursuit. His efforts focus on the cumulative, systematic and continuous expansion of LGBT progress towards equality. There is no organization, group or issue that has not received financial support through Pabst’s charitable foundations. And, to document our LGBT progress, Pabst created the initial sustaining endowment of the LGBT Archive and Collections at the UW-Milwaukee Libraries. Beyond his own giving, he encourages and inspires other LGBT and allied funders to give as well. He also celebrates LGBT people as a significant supporter of LGBT and HIV/AIDS programming at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Florentine Opera Company and elsewhere. The result is a successful engagement of a community broader than our own.
Pabst’s philanthropy has not been without its challenges. But, as he puts it, “I have an intimate understanding of LGBT identity, of HIV/AIDS identity, bullying and sexual exploitation. I have an important job to do just as the Captain did.” (Paul Masterson)
Ruthie Keester
LGBT Progress in Arts and Culture
Ruthie Keester’s open-hearted sensible advice column, “Dear Ruthie,” first appeared in 1997 in the Wisconsin Light newspaper. She soon began making public appearances across the state, speaking on behalf of equal rights and for the benefit of HIV/AIDS-related agencies and programs that benefit LBGT youth. In 2009, Ruthie (aka Mark Hagen) helped bring the Gay Softball World Series to Milwaukee; in 2013, she founded Ruthie’s Kennel Club to raise funds for animal rescues. She’s starred in Milwaukee theater performances and is the city’s first female impersonator to appear regularly on television. An honorary member of the Milwaukee Press Club, she contributes to and promotes Wisconsin’s LBGT culture in her weekly column for the Shepherd Express.
“I’ve seen Milwaukee grow in leaps and bounds where LGBT acceptance is concerned,” Ruthie says. “The residents of this city truly care about one another regardless of our differences. America overall is sharing acceptance and love, particularly with the birth of each generation, and Wisconsin is a vibrant part of that happy movement. I’ve always thought that Milwaukee offers big city convenience with small town values. Our ‘big city’ reflection is certainly seen in our varied theater scene. The fact that Milwaukee has numerous theaters that highlight LGBT playwrights, issues and themes proves how special this town is. I’d also add that Milwaukee is blessed with a wonderful mayor. I’ve had the honor of speaking alongside Tom Barrett on several occasions. He truly has the interests of the city’s LGBT community at heart, which proves that the city supports those who support others.” (John Schneider)
Saturday Softball Beer League
LGBT Progress in Equality (Organization)
This year Milwaukee’s Saturday Softball Beer League (SSBL) celebrates its 40th season of play. It all began in 1977 with four local gay softball teams organized around “pick-up” games. In those earliest days, the losing team would supply the beer for the inevitable post-play partying. Formalized as SSBL the next season, its name reflects fun with friends around America’s favorite pastime and that ubiquitous Milwaukee beverage: beer.
The league’s fame, however, lies in its historical role as one of five founding cities of NAGAAA, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance. In 1979, SSBL hosted its first gay softball World Series. Over the years, in addition to its annual Dairyland Classic Softball Tournament, SSBL hosted two more world series in 1985 and again in 2009. The last one, appropriately titled “NAGAAA-Fest” drew 127 teams and more than 2,500 players from throughout the United States and Canada. They came to Cream City and enjoyed Milwaukee’s gay gemütlichkeit at its best.
SSBL also boasts six members in NAGAAA’s Hall of Fame. The most recent inductee is Mona Garcia, the first straight woman to be so honored. Long the treasurer of SSBL, she now serves on the NAGAAA Board of Directors as its executive assistant.
From those humble beginnings four decades ago, SSBL helped shape Milwaukee’s LGBT community through the camaraderie and sportsmanship of organized athletics. Today its teams are made up of LGBT and non-LGBT players representing men, women, diverse ethnicities and ages, all living by the motto created for NAGAAA-Fest, “Fun and Friends First!” (Paul Masterson)
Bob Schmidt
LGBT Progress in Business Development
Bob Schmidt was in his thirties when he opened M&M’s on the corner of Water and Erie streets on July 4, 1976. “What we had in Milwaukee then were just kind of dark, dingy places off the alleys,” Schmidt remembers. “When I appeared before the city to get a liquor license, one commissioner made it really tough. ‘Who would come to that part of the city for a drink?’ he said. He knew what he was asking. A few bar owners paid off the vice squad, but I never did. They’d sit outside sometimes and make everybody who came out show an ID, like fish in a barrel. It was too dangerous to leave the windows uncovered then, but when I put in the atrium for the dining room in the ’80s, it didn’t make sense to keep the bar all boarded up.
“I got a lot of grief and hell from the gay community when I uncovered the windows – nasty phone calls and letters asking me who the hell I thought I was putting everybody in danger like that. But it was the right thing to do. Nobody wanted to sit at that end of the bar for a while but eventually everybody became more comfortable with it. It was a time of coming out and growing up. I’m grateful to the Third Ward Association. The businesses were happy to have a gay bar there. When we got egged and graffitied, they were right there to help me clean it up.” (John Schneider)
Si Smits
LGBT Struggle for Equality
In a 1973 series entitled “Some Call Them Gay,” WTMJ-TV broadcast the first media coverage of Milwaukee’s LGBT community. One segment featured Si Smits riding astride his motorcycle, very publically outing himself on local television at a time when he could easily have been fired.
But already then, Smits was a high-profile community figure. He was a board member of the Gay People’s Union (GPU), the only official LGBT organization at the time. Well known in the city’s leather and Levi community as the founder of its first motorcycle and leather club, the Silver Stars in the 1970s and subsequently, two others, he opened Boot Camp Saloon at East National and South Barclay avenues in 1984.
But, things were about to change dramatically. HIV slowly made its way to Milwaukee. The crisis nearly overwhelmed the gay community. Area businesses were inundated with requests for donations for HIV/AIDS support and other causes. That demand prompted Smits to start his own charity, the Gay and Lesbian Community Fund (G/L Community Fund). It remains the only foundation supporting LGBT organizations exclusively.
Smits served as treasurer of SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) for nearly a decade and a half and for five years on the Pride Parade committee. When an arsonist burned down the Boot Camp Saloon in 2011 Smits retired from business and dedicated himself to his foundation. He admits to many challenges, yet despite them, always felt his various community roles were his calling and always found a satisfaction in supporting the community. (Paul Masterson)
