Fourth Quarter, 2003 Progress Report
for Jay Ruby's Oak Park Research Project

Lest we forget how much things have changed in Oak Park, take a look at this photo from 1952.

The dancers are my classmates, Jim Jones, Virginia Long (Sensenbrenner), Joanne Srp and Art Lundquist. I obtained the image from Jim Jones at our 50th high school reunion (Class of 1953). In the 1950s, in an all white suburban world, this portrayal of African Americans was perrfectly acceptable if not "funny." As Oak Park-River Forest High school is now about 30 percent African American such racial stereotpyes are unthinkable. I would like to believe such values no longer exist among my classmates.

Technical update

This quarter has been frustrating as I spent a lot of it trying to find a solution to some technical problems with the delivery of the Taylor family Portrait. The intellectual work was finished by September as was the basic design. But the videos would not load as they should and they did not look good on a Windows machine. I looked for solutions with my limited technicial knowledge. Tried many but none worked. Finally I applied for a small grant from my university to hire a consultant. I got the grant but it was not made available until December. I went to Dreamworks outside of Philadelphia and they solved the problems. As of the writing of this report, a CD has been sent to an acadmeic publisher who earlier voiced an interest in distributing the Oak Park Stories. Hopefully I will have good news by the next report.

Is Oak Park "Post-Gay?"

When I started the preliminary investigations for this project in 1999, it became immediately clear that in addition to the unique approach to the integration of blacks into the village, Oak Park had become a very gay friendly place where gay people sought to integrate themselves into the larger community.   So as I began to select families to do portraits, I found Rebekah and Sophie's family - lesbians whose lives are useful in understanding how gay families are a part of Oak Park.   I am in the midst of their portrait now.

Over the last five years an amazing number of changes are to be seen both nationally and in the village that have had a great impact on gays and lesbians.   I don't want to overstate the case, but it is not unreasonable to call them transformative.   Let me briefly mention some of the more oblivious national changes in no particular chronological order.   A gay bishop was ordained by the Episcopalian church.   The Texas courts abolished their sodomy laws. About 60 percent of U.S. adoption agencies now accept applications from gays and lesbians.   The New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer (and probably many more newspapers) now publish same sex wedding/commitment announcements.   Walmart, the largest employer in the country, announced they would offer benefits to the same sex partners of their employees.   As Walmart is notoriously conservative in its employee relations, this move could easily cause many others to follow suit.

It is in the area of so-called gay marriage that the most changes have occurred.   Canada legalized same sex marriage as did several European countries.   Vermont and California   passed a civil union laws that gave same sex couples most of the civil rights that marrieds have enjoyed.   The Massachusetts courts opened the door to a civil union law in that state.   Similar laws are being discussed in several more states.   It seems certain that gay marriage will be a topic of considerable debate in the forthcoming national elections.   Closer to Oak Park, Cook county (which includes both Oak Park and Chicago) passed a registry law similar to the one in place in Oak Park - a symbolic gesture in which the county recognizes same sex couples.   And finally Wheaton, an Illinois suburb west of Oak Park and home of the headquarters of Billy Graham and the religiously conservative Wheaton College,   now have such a growing number of home-owning gay and lesbian couples that Wheaton was actually described as being "gay-friendly" in a Chicago Tribune article.   It seems clear that "the times they are a changin..."

When I started this study Oak Park was still vibrating from a series of civil rights issues involving gays and lesbians that had resulted in acrimonious public debates and many, many letters to the editor in the local newspapers.   This period of turmoil reached a climax when a referendum for a registry passed by a narrow margin.   Both sides were painfully aware of the others' existence.   It looked like the battle would continue for some time but it did not.   The number of newspaper articles and letters to the editor slowly diminished.   Today there are very few "gay related" issues up for public discussion.   Two excellent examples exist.   During the election campaign for village president, there were no public discussions of the sexual orientation of Joanne Trapini (a lesbian).   She won.   Nor did the fact that Bob Walsh was gay enter into his campaign for school board.   He also won.

The notion that there is a "post-gay" world has been discussed since at least 1998 when the New School of Social Research mounted a conference on "Post-Gay Culture" and Daniel Reitz in the webzine Salon devoted a column entitled "Toward a Post-Gay World" to his reaction to the idea.

In "Future without Shock," Jennifer Vanasco   provides the clearest definition of the concept (Originally appeared March 20, 2002, in the Chicago Free Press . Reprinted in the Wednesday Journal , October 15, 2003):

"What do I mean by post gay? I mean a world where gay couples aren't stared at, commented on or (heaven forbid) battered as they walk down the street holding hands or kissing.

I mean a world where being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered is interesting in the same way that learning that someone is left-handed or a twin is interesting - it is a fact about the individual that affects their worldview, but says nothing about his or her character, interests or politics.

By post gay, I mean a world where a lesbian marriage or a gay man in the military or a transgendered president is barely even remarked upon by the media gauntlet."

She mentions a number of communities where she believes this world exists. "There are pockets of places around the world like this...the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, the small college towns of Northampon, Mass. and Madison, Wis., parts of New York and Paris and most of San Francisco, Amsterdam and Stockholm."