One hundred years ago, queerness was illegal in just about every way in the U.S. There were laws against cross-dressing and sodomy, being trans or queer was classified as a mental illness, and it was legal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. At the same time, there was a thriving underground subculture of balls, drag shows, and salons.During the Harlem Renaissance and blues craze, queer people were open in their own circles, but organizing politically for equality was not in the collective consciousness. The community centers, groups, and newsletters that would become the foundation for the fight for equality wouldnt come around until the 1950s. Related A century before Kill the Gays, Uganda had a queer king: Mwanga II The kings fight against imperialism and his brutality have been used to paint homosexuality in positive or negative lights. In Berlin, however, where there was a booming queer scene, Magnus Hirschfeld began the official movement for LGBTQ+ rights. He founded the first organization for LGBTQ+ rights in the world the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in 1897 and the world-renowned Institute for Sexual Research in 1919. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today A man who would follow in Hirschfelds historic footsteps was born in 1892 in Bavaria, and in 1913 he emigrated to Chicago, where his name became Henry Gerber at Ellis Island (sources disagree on his birth name). He would go on to found the first gay rights organization in the United States after being briefly institutionalized for homosexuality in 1917.Gerber returned to Germany from 1920 to 1923, when he served with the U.S. Army in the wake of World War I. There, he was in contact with Hirschfeld and learned more about what gay rights advocacy could look like, including subscribing to some of the first LGBTQ+ publications. He returned to Chicago determined to start a parallel effort in the U.S.He spent a year recruiting founding members, and on December 10, 1924, he filed with the state of Illinois for the incorporation of a nonprofit organization called the Society for Human Rights. The state granted him a charter on December 24, officially marking the first LGBTQ+ rights organization in the United States. Sodomy remained illegal in Illinois until 1962 (when it would become the first state in the nation to repeal its antisodomy law), and Gerber and his group could not claim they were advocating for crime. As such, the stated purpose was broad: to promote and protect the interests of people who by reasons of mental and physical abnormalities are abused and hindered in the legal pursuit of happiness which is guaranteed them by the Declaration of Independence and to combat the public prejudices against them by dissemination of factors according to modern science among intellectuals of mature age.Gerber began to publish the first known gay publication in the country, Friendship and Freedom, which only had two issues. Dissemination of queer content through the postal service was illegal under the anti-obscenity Comstock Act, so readers were limited. But Hirschfeld did receive a copy, as did Harry Hay, who would go on to co-found the gay rights organization the Mattachine Society in 1950. Hay said receiving that publication directly contributed to his creation of that group, which was the first openly LGBTQ+ group in the country.There were seven founding members of the Society for Human Rights, including the group President John T. Graves, a Black clergyman. The vice-president, Al Weininger, ended up having an inadvertent hand in the organizations swift end. Weininger was married with two children, and one of his family members (some sources say his wife, others his daughter) reported to a social worker that he was part of a group of degenerates just seven months after the organization formed. Police arrested Gerber, Graves, Weininger, and others. Other than Gerber, the fate of the rest of the members has been lost to history.Gerber was released after spending his life savings on his defense across three trials and losing his job as a U.S. postal worker. The police confiscated all of his papers, and zero copies of Friendship and Freedom exist today.Its hard to imagine the courage and strength and determination of someone like Henry Gerber in 1924 determining to do a new thing in the U.S., teacher Rodney Wilson, the founder of LGBTQ+ History Month, told LGBTQ Nation. He was a man ahead of his time by about half a century. The fact that Gerber and the other men who founded the Society were able to get it recognized by the government, were able to exist for months, creating a space within Gerbers home that was safe this proved that something seemingly impossible like gay rights in the 1920s was possible, even if it had to be done in a coded, secret way, added Erin Bell, Operations Director of the Gerber/Hart LGBTQ+ Library & Archives in Chicago. It took an extreme amount of courage, and theres courage to be found in community spaces.Gerber/Hart is a nonprofit organization named for both Henry Gerber and Pearl M. Hart, a Chicago lawyer and advocate. The organization served as the first institutional home for LGBTQ+ History Month in the 1990s.At Gerber/Hart, we pay homage to Henry Gerber in more than just our name, Bell said. In life, he was committed to fostering community and spreading awareness of the need for gay rights and acceptance. We want to honor his advocacy work through programs and services aimed at supporting the queer community: from operating our library as a free space for members of the public to come peruse and borrow materials, to majority-free programs that are both fun and educational, to striving to bridge the access gap by making more online resources. While many have never heard of Gerber or the Society for Human Rights, Bell and Wilson both say awareness is increasing. A book about Gerber An Angel in Sodom was published in 2022. But even those who have never heard of him are connected to his legacy. He helped to inspire future leaders and assisted behind the scenes for decades, witnessing the movement blossom until his death in 1972.The centennial celebration of the Society for Human Rights is also the centennial of the official movement for LGBTQ+ equality in the United States.The celebration reminds us of all the group has taught: to gather in community, to help in community, to organize in community. As LGBTQ+ history is removed from curriculums as part of a broad anti-LGBTQ+ movement, organizations like Bells and Wilsons continue to share our heritage outside of state-sanctioned channels.We are grounded in the present moment only when we understand the moments of the past, Wilson said. Understanding history empowers us to stand our ground and to advance the causes that others, like Henry Gerber, began advancing long ago. Historical literacy is required to be a fully functioning, empowered human being able to contribute to the conversation and move the moment forward.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.