Caan claiming queer space in a blue collar town.
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Joliet, Illinois is a city with a population of 147,433 located southwest of Chicago known for its prisons, including the one featured in The Blues Brothers. The city has transitioned from a rural area with tallgrass prairies and farms to an industrial area with concrete, warehouses, and transportation hubs. It is now home to a junior college, small university, and hospital, and has become more progressive on issues like LGBT rights and hate crimes over the years. A local group called C.A.A.N. held events to discuss assimilation and resistance to social trends.
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Caan claiming queer space in a blue collar town.
- 2. Prisons or the Blues Brothers Old Joliet Joliet Jake & Elwood Blues Stateville
- 4. From tallgrass prairies & savannahs to farms. From farms to concrete & warehouses.
- 6. Playtime
- 7. A large Jr. College, a small university, and a hospital. Soon a V.A. clinic, in the shell left behind.
- 8. Illinois • 1962. First state in U.S. to take down sodomy laws. • 2001 Passed hate crime • 2006 Benefits to same-sex partners of state employees. • 2010 Passed laws prohibiting bullying. • 2011 LGBT non-discrimination laws & recognition of same-sex civil unions.
- 9. C.A.A.N.
- 11. Had picnics, panels, poetry & passings.
- 12. “You will be Assimilated.” "Resistance is futile“ The Borg insignia, designed by Rick Sternbach as seen from Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Descent".
- 13. The freedom to choose which brand of product to buy is not equality.
Editor's Notes
- More likely if you've heard of joliet it is in association with our prisons, or the blues brothers; A Saturday Night Live television skit made into a movie in the 80's.
- Joliet also has its artistry. joliet artists' work may be seen in washington dc, parisfrance but the largest collection is in joliet.
- Production moved out of the US but the cheap stuff has to be shipped back in for folks to buy. So we have the 7th largest inland port in the world, and a warehouse industry to go with it. JOBS! Part-time, no benefits, and obtained through a temp agency.
- But we have things to keep us entertained! A round race track, a straight raceway, and a baseball field and team, the slammers. And a small airport.
- There's a large jr. college (the first one in the nation, actually and a small university). We had two hospitals until one cheated on us and took off with the neighboring town. Just because they have a better demographics.
- 1962 IL did away with sodomy laws, It was the first state in the nation to do it. The others started following suit in the 70's.It wasn't because they like their sodomites so much, but they do like their prisons. The Sodomy laws went away because they adopted some national standards for the prison/industrial complex.
- So here comes C.A.A.N. in 2005. We're nestled between the 19th century stagehouse and the 20th century courthouse, in the first building in Joliet to have an elevator - we still have to pay homage to the elevator gods when it breaks down.
- We had a grand opening. Filled the library with books. Went to a Prop 8 rally. We Had a wedding (there went our first President). and we've even organized our own pride parade.
- We've had picnics, panels, poetry readings and passings.But we have a ways to go.
- We identified that overcoming complacency is our biggest challenge. There is a sense among the status quo illez/gay that except for only having civil unions we got it made.Nothing could be further from the truth.
- http://www.againstthegrain.org/program/628/tues-112012-aids-and-gentrificationIn this interview Sarah Schulman talks about many things including how the AIDS crisis informs the assimilationist movement of today and an international queer culture rising up around the world detached from and in opposition to the hetero-normative nationalism of HRC, GLAD and the equality platform. Listen to history and re-claim your queer voice. The queer voice is the voice of love.