"A gay person in office can set a tone, can command respect not only from the larger community but from the young people in our own community who need both examples and hope."

— LGBTQ+ civil rights icon Harvey Milk

On the evening of Jan. 22, 1996, more than 300 members of the local LGBTQ+ community witnessed the Bloomington City Council resoundingly defeat an amendment to the city’s human rights ordinance that would have banned job and housing discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation.

That action, which was a stinging rebuke of local efforts to achieve equity for the LGBTQ+ community, was equally demoralizing in that the council legislating against their lives neither reflected nor represented the rich diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. They were the observers, not the decision makers.

The leadership of the Advocacy Council for Human Rights (ACHR), at that time Bloomington/Normal’s local LGBTQ+ organization, recognized this deficiency and responded. Jerry Pope, an administrator from Illinois Wesleyan University and co-chair of ACHR, seriously mulled entering the 1997 election as a candidate for mayor of Bloomington.

Incumbent Jesse Smart and Alderwoman Judy Markowitz, both opponents of the ordinance amendment, had already entered the race, and there was a strong sense that little would change for LGBTQ+ people if either of them were elected. (Note: Markowitz eventually was elected mayor and spearheaded a successful effort in 2002 to update the ordinance to include protections that had been proposed in 1996).

Pope ultimately decided not to run for mayor, but in 1999 ACHR co-chair and Bloomington resident Peggy Burton mounted her own campaign for a seat on the City Council. While not successful in her quest, in a recent email interview Burton explained the good that came from her effort.

“I ran for City Council office so LGBTQ+ residents in Bloomington would have a voice and, more importantly, to start a communication with others in the community,” Burton said. “Once a dialogue is created people see how we are more alike than different.”

While Burton did not win that election, she and LGBTQ+ people found other ways to represent the community. Markowitz appointed Burton a Bloomington Public Library trustee, and during her tenure Burton became board president and oversaw important studies of library needs that led to the recent expansion and renovation of the library.

Other members of the LGBTQ+ community were appointed to local boards and commissions, but anti-LGBTQ+ forces remained defiant.

In 1999, then-Normal Mayor Kent Karraker recommended that Mari McKeeth fill a vacancy on the Normal Human Relations Commission. Such appointments are normally approved by the Town Council as part of a consent agenda, but this time there was extensive discussion and an attempt to deny the appointment.

Town Council member Craig Ward led the opposition.

"She is involved in several groups including the Human Rights Advocacy Council and a feminist/lesbian choir," he argued. "It’s my assumption she’d be in support of changing the ordinance to include homosexuals. There’s already a view of that nature on the commission; we need a balance."

The council approved the appointment on a split vote, but the incident was a clear reminder that parts of society still sought to deny the LGBTQ+ community “a seat at the table.”

The ensuing years produced many victories for LGBTQ+ people.

In 2006 a state law that banned discrimination against LGBTQ+ people was passed, the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy ended in 2011, and in 2009 an updated federal hate crimes law provided for prosecution of hate crimes perpetrated against people based on their perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.

Despite these advances, our local elected officials, while increasingly supportive, did not include in their ranks members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Jump to 2017, when a seismic shift in the local political landscape reversed that trend. Samantha Quigle waged a successful campaign and won a seat on the Normal Township Board of Trustees. (Note: Quigle’s spouse, Rebecca Rossi, a year earlier became McLean County’s first openly gay elected official when she won a six-year term on the Normal Public Library board.)

Joining Quigle in 2017 was Elizabeth Fox Anvick, a member of the LGBTQ+ community who mounted a successful campaign for a Bloomington District 87 school board seat. Fox Anvick continues her service as school board president and is recognized as the first openly gay elected official in Bloomington’s history.

Other successes followed, and soon LGBTQ+ people won seats on the city councils, the county board, township board, and the Heartland Community College board.

Community member Karla Bailey-Smith mounted campaigns in 2020 and 2022 to represent parts of Bloomington-Normal and McLean County in the Illinois General Assembly. While not successful, her groundbreaking candidacies were further proof of the evolving political landscape for LGBTQ+ people.

What caused this sudden surge of local LGBTQ+ people willing to seek and win elected offices? The reasons vary, but Fox Anvick offered her own motivation in a 2017 Pantagraph interview.

"I wanted to make sure that everybody was going to have a seat at the table because I knew after the election in 2016 that maybe not everybody was going to be able to have a seat at the table, holistically," she said, specifically noting her concerns for LGBTQ+ rights being "slashed" under a new administration in the White House.

Last year the Prairie Pride Coalition began to explore the process of amending the Bloomington human rights ordinance to include protections for people based on their gender identity. In stark contrast to the 1996 ordinance process, the PPC leadership requested a meeting, looked across the table, and saw a familiar face: openly gay Bloomington City Council member Cody Hendricks.

Twenty-seven years of advances, setbacks, and the hard work of many LGBTQ+ trailblazers who took the brave step of running for an office … all were part of an odyssey that culminated in political equity and representation.

None of this is meant to imply that there’s no work to be done. According to Equality Illinois, LGBTQ+ people make up more than 7% of the U.S. population, yet they only hold 0.25% of elected offices in the U.S.

Perhaps Burton, who set the example and on whose shoulders so many local LGBTQ+ leaders stand, said it best.

“It is imperative that we continue to get LGBTQ+ people in positions not only of power but where decision will be made that affect us and others. Don’t let a few small-minded people discourage you; look to the bigger impact for our future of living together with diverse people all coming together to form a circle of protection we can rely on.”