Congratulations to Equality Illinois co-founder Art Johnston for receiving the Jane Addams Making History Award for Distinction in Social Service from the Chicago History Museum in recognition of his decades of advocacy on behalf of LGBT Illinoisans.
After the presentation by Chicago Cubs co-owner and LGBT activist Laura Ricketts during a gala dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel, Johnston, owner of Sidetrack Bar, said the honor is significant because it ties together two words seldom heard together, “gay” and “history.”
“Every single evil that has ever been visited on my community is the result of the fact that we have been removed from history intentionally because ours is an inconvenient truth,” Johnston said. “Denying the most vulnerable among us—our kids—the knowledge that people like them matter, that they will always matter even if no one bothered to tell them so.”