The Legacy Project

YOU MAY NOT KNOW HIS NAME, BUT…
Today the Legacy Project celebrates the birth of gay photographer ANGUS McBEAN – whose iconic images of celebrities such as Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn, and Agatha Christie have become cultural touchstones. The man who shot The Beatles’ first album cover was born on June 8, 1904 in South Wales. Read more about Legacy Nominee # AngusMcBean at… http://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/angus-mcbean

ON THIS DAY IN LGBT HISTORY: 1977
Amid a great deal of fanfare and public histrionics, Orange Juice Industry spokesperson Anita Bryant successfully led an orchestrated rebellion of the citizens of Dade County, Florida in an overwhelming vote on June 7, 1977 to overturn a Gay Rights Ordinance that had been passed by the County Commission in January of that year. The ordinance – one of a few dozen such measures passed in smaller communities around the country – prohibited discrimination against gay people in employment, public services, and accommodations. Predictably, a conservative backlash against any effort to assure homosexuals the same rights as anybody else became a cause célébre for Christians who were all too willing to rally behind the squeaky-clean Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign. This dramatic reversal of fortune triggered a blood-lust that was soon sweeping the country as Bryant took her war on gay people on the road in an effort to overturn every similar measure in existence. Eventually Bryant’s ordinance-by-ordinance juggernaut would begin to suffer defeat as the gay community taught itself valuable lessons in political organizing that would become critically important in the 1980s when the rise of Christian Fundamentalism as a national movement would meet the dawn of the AIDS Era. For more information, check out… http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2015/06/07/69956 #1977

Today the Legacy Project commemorates the death of gay novelist and author E.M. FORSTER (Howards End, A Passage to India, Where Angels Fear to Tread, Maurice, A Room with a View) who died on June 7, 1970 at the age of 91 from an apparent stroke in Coventry, Warwickshire, England. Read more about Legacy Nominee .M. FORSTER at… http://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/e-m-forster

THE MAN WHO STARTED IT ALL…ALAN TURING
Today the Legacy Project commemorates the tragic death of gay British mathematician, scientist, logician, and naval cryptologist ALAN TURING. For using his “Turing Methodology” to crack the N**i Enigma Code, Turing is considered “The Father of Computer Science.” And, as the first to publish a paper on machine computational thought, he is considered “The Father of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.).” In 1952 Turing was arrested for being gay and sentenced to two years of chemical castration, which compromised his brain function. Two weeks before his 42nd birthday, Turing was found dead – a victim of presumed su***de – on June 7, 1954 at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, England. Turing’s life and tragic death inspired the creation of Chicago’s Legacy Walk Outdoor LGBTQ History Museum. His bronze biographical memorial at 3345 N. Halsted, dedicated on October 11, 2012, was the first in the world to actually say he was GAY. This man, whose contributions changed the history of the world, continues to touch the lives of every single person reading this. Learn more about at… http://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/alan-turing and check the video created for classrooms… https://legacyprojectchicago.org/video/alan-turing-video-legacy

Presented by the HOLOCAUST MUSEUM and CENTER ON HALSTED. Co-sponsored by The Legacy Project

On the eve of World War II, a young Black scholar named Reed Peggram arrived in Paris on the same prestigious fellowship that had once sent Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston abroad. He was q***r. He was brilliant. He had been educated at Harvard and Columbia. And he had no intention of returning to a segregated America. What followed was a years-long flight across a war-torn continent, capture by N**is, a daring escape, and a personal war for the right to live openly in a world determined to deny him that.

Award-winning historian Ethelene Whitmire, a professor of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discovered Peggram’s story through a trove of personal letters unearthed by one of his descendants.

Join us as Whitmire takes the audience inside her years-long investigation, revealing how she reconstructed Peggram’s world from letters and archives, what his story uncovers about q***r Black life in wartime Europe, and why a man written out of the historical record still has something urgent to say to us now.
Free to the public. Reservations required. RSVP: https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/events/pride-2026-book-and-author-the-remarkable-life-of-reed-peggram-the-man-who-stared-down-world-war-ii-in-the-name-of-love/

June 11, 2026 | 6:30pm CDT
Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60613
Co-Sponsored by The Legacy Project

Today the Legacy Project celebrates the birth of influential gay honky-tonk pianist, singer and composer TONY JACKSON (Pretty Baby, Michigan Water Blues, The Naked Dance) – a pioneer in ragtime music, he was born on June 5, 1876 in New Orleans, LA. Read more about Legacy Nominee at… http://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/tony-jackson

¡FELIZ CUMPLEAŇOS!
Today the Legacy Project celebrates the birth of gay poet and dramatist FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA (The House of Bernarda Alba, Blood Wedding, Yerma, The Sonnets of Dark Love). He was a member of the avant-garde artists’ group the Generation of ’27, and was lionized as “The Finest Poet of Imperial Spain.” He was born on June 5, 1898 in Fuente Vauqeros, Granada, Spain. Read more about Legacy Candidate for Induction # FedericoGarciaLorca at… http://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/federico-garcia-lorca

Today the Legacy Project celebrates the birth of le***an anthropologist and educator RUTH BENEDICT (The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Patterns of Culture) – life-partner of Margaret Mead and president of the American Anthropological Association. She was born on June 5, 1887 in New York City. Read more about Legacy Nominee at… http://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/ruth-benedict

ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL MEN OF THE 20TH CENTURY…
Today the Legacy Project celebrates the birth of gay economist JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES (Essays in Persuasion, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, General Theory of Employment Interest and Money) – founder of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He was born on June 5, 1883 in Cambridge, England. Read more about Legacy Nominee at… http://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/john-maynard-keynes

AND THE BEAT GOES ON…
Today the Legacy Project celebrates the birth of gay poet and leading figure of the Beat Generation, ALLEN GINSBERG (Howl and Other Poems, Kaddish, The Fall of America: Poems of These States, Reality Sandwiches) – whose numerous awards and honors include a National Book Award for Poetry. He was born on June 3, 1926 in Newark, N.J. Read more about Legacy Candidate for Induction at… http://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/allen-ginsberg