Photo by Tim Czerniakowski
Rainbow crosswalk in Walker's Point
A rainbow crosswalk at the intersection of National Avenue and Second Street in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood recognizes and celebrates the neighborhood's LGBTQ history (2026).
With the 50th anniversary celebration of the opening of the M&M Club on Independence Day 1976 came the Wisconsin LGBT History Project’s announcement of a Wisconsin state historical marker to be installed in recognition of the former venue. It will be the third marker granted thus far by the Wisconsin Historical Society to recognize Milwaukee’s LGBTQ history. The second marks the site of the former This Is It, the famous bar once located on the city’s lower East Side that opened in 1968.
The effort to raise visibility of the LGBTQ community through publicly identifying historical sites began in 2018 with the installation of the city’s first rainbow crosswalks at the intersection of East Juneau and North Jefferson near Cathedral Square. Led by Milwaukee Pride, Inc, the producer of PrideFest, with the support of over a dozen LGBTQ groups, the idea was to celebrate the historical significance of Cathedral Square as the destination of Milwaukee’s first Pride march (1989) and recognize June Brehm, the original owner of This Is It!, as well as celebrate the bar’s 50th anniversary.
Milwaukee Pride, Inc became the project’s fiscal agent and sole funder. Since then, it has paid for the rainbow crosswalks’ annual renewal, as Milwaukee’s Pride president and CEO Wes Shaver commented, “It is our commitment to maintain the crosswalks year-round not only for the enjoyment and pride of the community but for our visibility and identity.”
Forgotten Event
Five years later, in 2024, as part of the History Project’s Landmarks Program, the first Wisconsin state historical marker to recognize local LGBTQ history was erected near the former location of the Black Nite, a gay bar where a fight between patrons and military servicemen men took place in 1961. For all intents and purposes, that event had been all but forgotten. A primary participant, drag performer Josie Carter, “a Black woman of trans experience” as the marker’s dedication reads, had mentioned the brawl in passing in an oral history she recorded in 2011 preserved in the UWM LGBTQ Archive. The story piqued the interest of the History Project and, after having researched the scant information available, pieced together a narrative that portrayed the first moment in local LGBTQ history in which community members responded to harassment and violence.
Approved in February 2026, the marker planned for the This Is It site should be in place later this year. The bar’s legacy is its longevity of over half a century and the role it initially played as a safe space for past generations forced to live in a hidden world. For most of its history, the venue remained devoid of any outside indication of it being a gay bar. Only in its last decade did it hang signage and paint rainbow colors on its facade. By then, expanded under new ownership, the bar had changed from its quaint lounge atmosphere to a modern dance locale replete with near nightly drag shows and events. To the great shock of the community, it closed suddenly in March 2025.
M&M Marker
Photo courtesy of Michail Takach
M&M Club reunion (2016)
M&M Club customers at 10th anniversary of closing in May 2016.
Finally, the third state marker will recognize the M&M Club and owner Bob Schmidt. Aside from its role as a popular destination, M&M’s historic moment occurred when, late one evening, Schmidt removed the large plywood sheets that completely covered the bar’s storefront windows. Schmidt’s symbolic gesture of defiance underscored the community’s growing impatience with homophobia and discrimination as well as its demand for visibility and equality.
Other Landmark Program projects include the rainbow crosswalk at the intersection of National and Second, dedicated in 2025 in honor of Jim Dorn, founder of Milwaukee’s first gay owned bar, Your Place, and a state marker for “The Pit,” the first “out” gay bar in upper Wisconsin, opened in Wausau in 1973 and in business until 1982. In partnership with the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, the History Project is also supporting the Catherine Foley Saloon Restoration at 266 E. Erie Street, the location of Milwaukee's first Levi/Leather bar from 1972 to 1996. Meanwhile, additional markers are in the application and approval process.
Curiously, whether by rainbow crosswalks or historical markers, the current slate of landmarks recognize only Milwaukee’s gay bars. Granted, they are foundational for LGBTQ life and liberation. However, one would hope that other entities and aspects of our history will be eventually acknowledged as well. This year, particularly, happens to mark major anniversaries of some of our most important institutions. Several are celebrating their 40th and 50th anniversaries. With all the focus on Cathedral Square, one might expect a long-overdue nod to Archbishop Rembert Weakland who, lobbied by activist Leon Rouse, was instrumental in the passage of the nation’s first LGBT anti-discrimination law. Known as Wisconsin Assembly Bill 70, it effectively ended anti-LGBT discrimination in housing and employment. I can think of nothing more appropriate than a Cathedral Square historical marker honoring Archbishop Weakland, This Is It and the 1989 Pride rally.
Nomadic Institutions
Still, while many of our institutions have a long and impactful presence in the community, they have also been nomadic, moving to various locations over the course of their histories. The question of where to place a marker gets complicated when, for example, the LGBT Community has had five locations.
For the moment, it’s a moot point since there is currently an application moratorium for official state historical markers. Organizations may, however, elect to simply install their own based on state criteria. Not surprisingly, the historical markers “identify, commemorate, and honor the important people, places, and events that have contributed to the state's rich heritage” and, among others, “The site is representative of popular stories or myths that, although not verifiable, are significant to history and culture.”
It is actually surprising how most of the city’s oldest LGBTQ organizations do not have their respective histories accessible online or elsewhere. Perhaps a marker of their own, while not officially registered, would suffice, at least for the moment.
