Society for Human Rights
(America’s First Gay Rights Organization)

December 10, 1924

 

at 17, the boy’s admitted

into an insane asylum.

institution of electroshock

& hallucinogens, white coats

& sodomy laws. the state

not separated from the church.

they wanted the devil out. he became

double-O seven. shaken & stirred

to action.

 

Henry Gerber wasn’t his name.

a german immigrant boy hiding

in america’s skirt. told to meld into

the heteronorm. the boy made illegal.

his fatherland wrote paragraph 1755

the bible an arm against him. an outlaw.

an outcast                would go crazy.

             he called a community

together. organized a society

in secret. a space for men to gather

in his home in old town, untouched

by the fear of being found out

& detained & shamed.

 

John Graves, a Black minister

whose partner was a Pullman porter,

his friend, comrade & confidant signed

the papers to become the first

president of the first organization

in the dumb country, in the young city

45 years before stonewall. Black & White

Chicago men mustered a congregation

                                                             until they couldn’t

until Henry Gerber was fired from his post

office job, arrested, tried three times & lost

his life savings.

 

he’d go underground, go pseudonym

write newsletter Connection chronicles

from lone apartment bunkers, advocating

for the safety of his being & the being

of those like him & the country being ok

with his being & those like him & the city

country being greater because of it.