Local Queer Elders On LGBTQ+ Pride In 2026

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:38)
Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.
Stick around till the end of this episode to get the latest on what's happening in and around Chicago with a panel of our WBEZ and Chicago Sun Times colleagues. But first, as pride celebrations continue this month, some of Chicago's queer elders are reflecting on how far the LGBTQ plus community has come and what remains at stake today.
At a time when the Trump administration has made moves to restrict federal recognition of transgender people and roll back protections for LGBTQ plus Americans, many are looking to leaders who helped build the movement for guidance. In this episode of the pod, we'll hear from elders who are preparing to share their perspectives of Chicago's queer history at an upcoming event at the Dorothy Bar in the Westtown neighborhood. At the table with me was Karen Morris, co-founder of the LGBTQ plus Intergenerational Dialogue Project. The 52-year-old will be moderator of the Queer Elder Panel. Norma Seledon is the Director of Leadership Development and Capacity Building at Equality Illinois. She's 63 and will be on the Queer Elder History Panel alongside Jay Myers, a 70-year-old storyteller and graduate of the LGBTQ plus Intergenerational Dialogue Project. We started off our conversation by talking about what's top of mind for everyone this Pride Month. And Norma kicked things off.

**Norma Seledon** (2:05)
I believe that these spaces are essential right now.
For everyone in the community, it's important for people to feel that they are connected, that they are validated. And so, couldn't be prouder to be taking the lead, making sure, creating spaces that are safe for our community.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:23)
Jay?

**Jay Myers** (2:24)
Oh, I agree totally.
I think it does well for all of us, not just queer people, but other people outside of our community, to hear stories and to hear our truth, and to be able to recognize humanity and those sorts of things between us. It's really important to be visible and to speak your life, your truth.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:55)
And Karen?

**Karen Morris** (2:57)
For us, I think, especially with Pride, I think I've seen a lot of people be conflicted. You know, what should we do? Should we be like, you know, angry or, you know, protesting? And we should do all of those things. And I also think, you know, queer joy is resistance. And so I think a lot of what's lovely about Pride in these moments is there, we celebrate the joy as well as everything else. So like with our storytellers, you know, we'll hear about things that are not joyful, but just the fact of us being together and being ourselves, it's when we connect, that community is extremely joyful and it's really important.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:30)
Who were the queer elders that made an impression on you, Norma?

**Norma Seledon** (3:35)
You know, I have to say that queerness around me was not an option. It was not something that was visible, which makes it even more important for me to be out and proud and unapologetic in these times.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:48)
So no mentors at the time, no one that you could lean on as a role model because people weren't out?

**Norma Seledon** (3:55)
As a young professional, I had an inkling about supervisors or people around me, but wasn't quite sure. I didn't even have a language for those individuals.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:05)
Interesting. Anybody you look up to, Jay?

**Jay Myers** (4:08)
I lived in a very isolated realm of my own, I thought, when I was growing up. I never had any peers or any adults in my life who were supportive of my very early on discovery that I was in the wrong body as a three-year-old. I talked about it quite openly and it made adults and whatever uncomfortable.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:35)
What did they say?

**Jay Myers** (4:36)
Well, it was just the idea, there was a stigma that I was crazy, which I think I am a little bit. And so it was never talked about. And so I had no idea that the queer world even existed, and especially the trans world, until I saw a copy of Newsweek magazine in like 1974, on the cover, talking about me, in a sense.
And so I never had anybody. The closest I can come to is one of my cohorts from New York, my New York days, and the activism, the protests. And Sue Cummings was an incredible lesbian, and she was strong, and she was out, and she was proud, and I learned I was only 21 And I learned so much from her.