Here Are the Winners of the 2019 LGBTQ Progress Awards

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For the fifth year, the Shepherd Express LGBTQ Progress Awards honors people and organizations that have worked and taken risks to improve conditions for LGBTQ people in Wisconsin. Past winners have been active in many areas of life—from health issues to politics and from culture and sports—and have included Mark Behar, Tanya Atkinson, Carmen Murguia, Plymouth Church and the Saturday Softball Beer League.

This year’s annual Progress Awards dinner and ceremony will be held on Thursday, Aug. 8, at Renaissance Place, 1451 N. Prospect Ave. Tickets will go on sale soon. To get an alert when tickets are on sale, click here and provide your email address. The Cream City Foundation is this year’s presenting sponsor.

Activism: Bill Meunier, PrideFest Founder

Raised in a Milwaukee blue-collar, union family, Meunier grew up with a sense for political activism. As an out gay man in a time of police raids on gay bars and rampant homophobia, he was among the first Milwaukeeans to join the struggle for LGBTQ equality. In the 1970s, along with other community firebrands, he organized the nascent community’s pride events.

Then, in 1979, a friend suggested he attend the Gay and Lesbian March on Washington, D.C. Buses for a Milwaukee LGBTQ contingent were organized. Setting off, when the bus drivers realized who their passengers were, they wouldn’t continue the trip once they reached Chicago. New drivers took over. En route, restaurants refused to serve them. In Washington, as Meunier explains, “I realized I was suddenly among more than 75,000 people just like me. I felt the oppression lift, and I wanted others to have that feeling, too. I understood things could be different.”

Meunier returned to D.C. for the second march on Washington in 1987. On the return bus ride, he organized the first Milwaukee Pride Committee, and PrideFest was born. Each year, it grew exponentially. Meunier promised skeptics he’d bring the PrideFest to Henry W. Meier Festival Park. Despite obstacles and opposition from all quarters, in 1996, he did.

But Meunier is more than PrideFest’s founder. In Wisconsin Light’s 2000 millennial issue, he was named “Man of the Century” for his significant contributions to every major LGBTQ cause and campaign in Milwaukee and in Wisconsin. In 2018, taking advantage of the right he helped achieve, he married his partner, Carl. (Paul Masterson)

Philanthropy: Cream City Foundation

“This award really speaks to the number of true philanthropists and the generosity of our community over decades,” says Cream City Foundation president and CEO Brett Blomme. “Milwaukee is a very generous city, and members of the LGBTQ community are extra-generous with their time, talent and resources. This organization was founded in the heart of the AIDS epidemic by a group of individuals who said that, if we pool our resources, we’ll be able to make a bigger difference. We started with $500 in seed money and have grown over the last 36 years to giving almost $2 million to the community.”

The focus is on three programs. The LGBTQ+ Scholarship Program provides financial assistance to college and post-graduate students with track records of activism and a demonstrated willingness to use their educations to advance equality. “It speaks to the future of the movement,” Blomme says. The Impact Grant Program provides resources to partnered initiatives between LGBTQ and allied service providers. A current project pairs Pathfinders with the Milwaukee LGBT Chamber of Commerce to provide career planning and job training to homeless youth. The Convening Program brings together donors, activists, educational and political leaders to discuss current challenges and ways to progress.

“Because we ‘ve had progress in some respects—marriage equality, LGBTQ folks raising families, HIV-AIDS breakthroughs, although there’s still much work to do there—that doesn’t mean there aren’t still many obstacles facing the community,” Blomme says. “What we do is define those and focus on them.” (John Schneider)

Arts and Culture: Mrs. Fun

In their 31 years as the band Mrs. Fun, keyboardist Connie Grauer and percussionist Kim Zick have never been closeted. Nor have they made a point of being lesbian, much less tried to capitalize on it. “We’re very honored to receive the LGBTQ Progress Award in Arts and Culture, and we’re very grateful for the support of the LGBTQ community,” Grauer says. “We’ve had support from many different communities. We just let our music represent us. What people know about us is whatever they think. Our representation is the two of us up there on stage playing really complicated, hard music. The listener can take what they’d like from it. We just released a new recording in the fall. It’s called Truth. I think it’s the best body of music I’ve ever written and that we’ve ever played. And that’s why we’re artists, right? To continue improving? We don’t spend a lot of time out of that.”

As a composer in residence for the city, Grauer teaches composition to groups aged 6 to 96. For 20 years, Mrs. Fun has worked in the Arts and Community Education (ACE) program in city schools. “I’m hoping, just by being there playing, that we’re helping to advance equality. That’s what we always hope, as artists, that we impact people by performing. When we stop talking about everything and just be, it will be a better world. I think we’re heading in that direction as a cast of humans. I’m hopeful we’ll continue to." (John Schneider)

Health and HIV Awareness: ACT UP (Yuri Keegstra, Christopher Fons, et al)

A quote by Doug Nelson, then executive director of the Milwaukee AIDS Project (MAP), cited on Milwaukee’s LGBTQ History website, sums up the life of Christopher Fons. “Christopher was the conscience of the AIDS community. Christopher created and defined AIDS activism in Milwaukee and made it work. He inspired hundreds of people to join the ranks of AIDS activism, and his leadership made a real difference.”

Fons, HIV positive in the era before effective treatment became available, co-founded the Milwaukee Chapter of ACT UP. Created in New York City in March 1987, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) harnessed and focused the energy of the LGBTQ community in its fight to force national and local government entities to respond to the AIDS epidemic. In 1989, Fons mobilized ACT UP Milwaukee.

Casting itself as “a diverse group of individuals united in anger and compassion and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis,” ACT UP’s mission spanned the spectrum, from fighting for victims’ rights and access to care, to boycotts and demonstrations against corporations as well as those government agencies that failed to address the crisis. In 1991, Milwaukee police detained Fons and others for distributing safe-sex literature at area schools. He famously marched to City Hall, wheeling his IV bag, leading an ACT UP protest in response to Milwaukee’s lack of action in the cryptosporidium outbreak of 1993 that killed numerous AIDS victims. Christopher Fons died of AIDS on Feb. 21, 1995. He was 27. (Paul Masterson)

Business: This Is It!

In June 1968, a year before the Stonewall Riots, June Brehm opened This Is It! at its current location on East Wells Street. Today, it ranks among the country’s longest continually-operating gay bars. Upon its 50th anniversary in 2018, the Milwaukee County Historical Society recognized This is It! for its “welcoming environment.” That environment, reminiscent of a 1970s rec room, hasn’t changed over its half-century history. Therein lies the enduring charm that has offered the city’s LGBTQ community a continuing living legacy.

June’s son, Joe, took over in 1981 and engaged in community life beyond the “lounge,” as he would call it. He assisted the editors of Wisconsin Light, the city’s first real LGBTQ newspaper, provided meeting space and hosted the first fundraisers for the business association that would later become the Cream City Foundation, supported PrideFest’s History Project display and, over the dire years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, provided comfort to patrons mourning the loss of friends. This Is It! remained without signage for a long time until 2012 when the bar’s façade was painted in rainbow colors. When Joe Brehm died in April 2016, his business partner, George Schneider, took full ownership, promising to continue the bar’s mission.

Today, This Is It! retains its classic welcoming atmosphere but, aside from increasing its visibility, has modernized and expanded, doubling the area of the bar. Starting in 2016, George Schneider, with the help of Milwaukee Pride and the East Town Association lobbied to have Milwaukee install a rainbow crosswalk nearby. The city agreed in late 2018 to allow the rainbow crosswalks in commemoration of the bar's important civic history and landmark 50th anniversary. (Paul Masterson)

Equality (Organization): The Holiday Invitational Tournament

The Holiday Invitational Tournament (HIT), the world’s longest-running LGBTQ bowling tournament, celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Sadly, it would be its last. It all began in 1978, when Milwaukee’s various LGBTQ bowling leagues organized a very special tournament. Scheduled over Thanksgiving weekend, it provided an escape from a lonely holiday in those dark days when many players who embraced their liberation found themselves ostracized at traditional family gatherings. The first HIT took place in 1979. It grew each year thereafter, expanding from a regional to national and, eventually, international tournament, hosting teams from as far away as New Zealand and Australia.

Within two years of the first HIT, Milwaukee would be among the six founding cities of the International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO). Today, that organization boasts 250 leagues with 8,000 members in five countries. But to the world, Milwaukee’s HIT would forever remain “the grand-daddy of gay bowling tournaments.” HIT stressed fun and camaraderie but, in the 1980s, its mission took on a significant fundraising role in fight against HIV/AIDS. Over the years, hundreds of attendees would raise tens of thousands of dollars for local health organizations to assist HIV/AIDS victims.

The announcement of HIT’s end brought a great outpouring of gratitude from its many supporters. They expressed thanks to its board and volunteers for the welcoming hospitality, lifelong memories and fellowship they created and for their role in contributing to the sport and in making Milwaukee a part of the international LGBTQ community. (Paul Masterson)

Equality (Individuals): Brenda Coley and Sandra Jones

This couple of 32 years has worked on behalf of Milwaukee’s LGBTQ community since they connected as teenagers 42 years ago. Coley, now co-executive director of Milwaukee Water Commons, spent 10 years in HIV prevention work at the Medical College of Wisconsin and 10 more for the public health agency Diverse and Resilient where, among many services, she facilitated a leadership development program for lesbian and bisexual women. She also served on the board and worked as interim director of Milwaukee’s LGBT Community Center.

At age 15, Jones marched to free Angela Davis. Years later, with a well-earned Ph.D. in English, she joined the faculty at UW-Milwaukee as an uncloseted bisexual, opening a door for other LGBTQ teachers at the university who were, as she puts it, “bumping into each other in the closet.” When they bought their house on Brewers Hill, Jones made a point of telling the neighbors they were partners, not sisters or cousins or best friends. “We were not going to spend all this money on a house and then turn it into a closet,” she says.

“We both identify as bisexual,” Coley says. “People have a lot of misconceptions about that. It’s not about not being able to make up your mind. It’s who you are. You can be involved with a person regardless of their gender identity. I always say I’m attracted to a person’s personality.” “When I met Brenda, there was an immediate connection. She’s my soulmate,” Jones agrees. (John Schneider)

Youth Activism: Pedro Perez Valdez

Twenty-eight-year-old Pedro Perez Valdez is a prevention coordinator in the HIV Department of the 16th Street Community Health Center. “We’re out there advocating for people living with HIV or who are at risk,” he explains. “We’re very visible in the LGBTQ community, especially the Latinx LGBTQ community. Wisconsin is considered to have a low HIV rate in the country, and the numbers have been stable or falling except in the Latinx community. We organize community events and go out to the bars. We provide free testing for HIV, any STDs, Hepatitis C, gonorrhea and syphilis. We have a PrEP clinic, and we help people navigate the system when it comes to insurance and accessibility for people who only speak Spanish. We have also been successful in helping undocumented people to receive PrEP.”

Valdez is also an immigration rights activist. Although has father was born in the U.S., Valdez, himself, was undocumented until the age of 20 due to the combined circumstances of his birth on the border and a broken immigration system. He grew up undocumented in Milwaukee. At age 17, ineligible for in-state tuition or financial assistance and wanting a college education, he joined Voces de la Frontera’s Youth Empowerment Struggle (YES) and marched, protested and organized for passage of the Dream Act. He was also the first in that group to come out as queer. He then led the group “to spotlight the fact that there are undocumented queer people still in the shadows.” That work continues. (John Schneider)