aurora, illinois is blazing a path for queer visibility in the suburbs.
aurora, illinois is blazing a path for queer visibility in the suburbs.
The Aurora LGBTQ+ Advisory Board’s Fred Yanos reveals what to expect from this year’s Pride and beyond.
Queering the Burbs is a regularly-published distillation of pop culture, politics and queerness written by Joe Erbentraut. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing (it’s free!), liking or sharing this piece.
When I first moved to the suburbs nearly eight years ago now, I can tell you one thing that didn’t really happen every June in my new hometown: Pride.
This was a big change from my life with my now-husband in the city, where every year we would simply walk a bit less than a mile from our Andersonville home to the northern edge of the massive Chicago Pride Parade route just to catch a taste of the revelry. Meanwhile, throughout the month, the city’s queer spaces and many events would go above and beyond trying to outdo each other with the most audacious and celebratory happenings possible. It was a friendly competition that we all benefited greatly from. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it.
That said, it seems like every Pride season that comes and goes out here in the western suburbs gets bigger and gayer. In the weeks ahead, the Fox Valley and surrounding area will play host to Elgin Pride (June 1), Belong: Fox Valley’s Pride Month edition of Cheers Queers in Batavia (June 3), Annie Hex’s Queer Pride Prom in Batavia (June 14), DeKalb Pride Fest (June 20), a smattering of Pride flag raisings and Pride Month proclamations throughout the region, and perhaps the biggest and baddest of them all, Aurora Pride (June 9).
As I alluded to in last week’s dispatch, however, all of these happenings do not happen by accident—and they’re happening this year amid a political climate that is increasingly adversarial to progress and inclusivity.
One of the groups working particularly hard to make for a successful Pride Month in the region is the Aurora LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. Inaugurated in 2022, the board was established by the city in an effort to represent the interests of the local LGBTQ community and advise the city on how to best serve the city’s queer population. To my knowledge, it is one of only two such political bodies in the state of Illinois (Chicago is the other one).
Such things are hard to precisely measure, but it feels clear that the board’s efforts are already paying off. Between places like Hoof & Horn, Superjumbo, the Paramount, El Jefe, and many others, downtown Aurora is typically adorned by rainbow flags and other meaningful signifiers of queer acceptance—not just during Pride Month, but year round.
To learn more about the board, its work, and specifically what it has planned for the upcoming Pride Month, I recently spoke with board treasurer Fred Yanos. Our interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you first get involved with the Advisory Board? It launched in 2022 and you’ve been with it from the start.
It got started following that year the Aurora Pride Parade was on and off. The city was going to cancel it, we were left wondering is this going to happen? So I felt like we were like the city's apology letter per se. I saw a posting about the board and I applied because I was looking for some way to get more involved in the community. I was impacted by the parades themselves and I saw so much love and wanted to get involved in the community. I applied, they did an interview and the rest is history.
How has it been going at the board? I saw a recent Facebook post about a situation at a recent board meeting, where some religious folks showed up and gave you all some trouble. Has the reception been pretty good to your work so far or have there been moments like that where it's a little more nerve wracking?
Honestly, this was the first time, maybe because we're making so much noise now that we're having these events and people will start noticing. With us being a city body, our meetings need to be open to the public, so everyone's welcome. They did public comment at first and they were polite at first, but there was also a second batch of people that was a little bit more vocal on their opinions. The good thing is that the city was ready. They made us feel protected. We called cops just to be on the safer side.
I feel like things like this have been happening more in the area. There was recently a church’s Pride flag that was ruined in Aurora and in our neighboring town, Oswego, people were trying to shut down a drag show. With the flag being ripped, we reached out to the church and people made ribbons and put up some little bright flags to replace it. With the drag show, two of our board members (Keri and Brittney) actually went to the city council of Oswego just to speak their piece. The protesters were trying to stop the drag show because they were calling it adult entertainment. It's been interesting.
I think it's true that the more your group and other folks that are doing this work make waves, it always invites a little more attention and there's sometimes this backlash because of it, especially heading into Pride Month. And the Aurora board is still a pretty rare entity for Illinois.
It’s honestly been a learning process. We didn't actually know what we were doing at first, but the first year we were gauging what we should be doing. One of the first events that I did was “Coming Out Stories” and that's when we got to meet the community and pretty much from there, my first project was to start a monthly adult peer group. We do it right after our board meetings, so everyone there already might as well just extend our hours. We do small activities and we set aside a budget for it with arts and crafts and little projects we can do.
How long have you been living in this area and how have you felt about the evolution of queer visibility during that time? Do you think it's been improving?
I'm actually an immigrant. I got here when I was 20, so I've been living here for 10 years now. And being from the Philippines, I don't want to say being gay is accepted, but it’s more tolerated. Living here, I felt more secure in myself and having that community. I really joined the board because I wanted to be somebody that I needed when I was younger. In my country, there's only one way to be gay. And when I got here it was like, wait, there's such a spectrum. You are not defined by just being like a one trick pony per se. You can do anything.
I always get myself crying during Pride parades, especially when the churches are there, because I grew up with the church and I stopped going because I had a feeling back then that I can't be gay and go to church too. But seeing the churches marching there made me realize they're accepting and it sparked my wanting to be more involved. So I feel like it's been more accepting, but the louder we get too, the louder they will try to shut us up, but you can't fight hate with hate, so we’re spreading love.
How old were you or when did you first realize you were queer or different? How has that journey gone for you, especially considering you're in this very public LGBTQ advocacy role?
I want to say I knew from when I was six. All my life, I've never had guy friends. Most of the time I hung out with the girls just because I don't do sports. I don't do manly stuff per se. I was always creative, so it was like “he’s the creative one,” a.k.a. gay. I knew I was gay, but I never accepted it, until I found theater. I found people there who were comfortable being who they are. I'm comfortable with who I am, but I'm not out with family. If my family just Googled or did a Facebook search, I'm sure they'll find out. I’m out with a few cousins that I'm comfortable with, but I want to say I am in the closet, but there's no door to it. My family just doesn’t see it. They pretend not to see it.
I know the advisory council has a lot of activities coming up for Pride Month in Aurora. Can you tell me more about what you have planned?
We have a full month coming up. We partnered up with the Paramount Theatre. We're hosting two $1 Monday movie screenings. Being my musical-loving self, I pushed for Rent [on June 3] and we invited Out of the Closet and Open Door to have resources available there. We're also playing Luca [on June 24] because I wanted a family event. I know they say that Luca's not a gay film, but if you watch it, it's pulling so many strings, you can’t tell me it’s not a gay movie.
That weekend, we're starting off with the flag raising with the city on Friday, June 7, and in the evening, that's the “Community Voices: In Conversation” event with the library [at Society 57]. The following day, it’s Pride at the Plaza. We were trying to make it a full weekend for everybody, so we have drag queens, musical performers, and our new friends from the Gay Rodeo are joining us. The following day, the council is volunteering with Aurora Pride and we will be marching. In the evening we're joining Aurora Pride for their official after party at the Two Brothers Roundhouse.
What are your long-term goals with the council in terms of what you all are hoping to achieve?
We really want to get involved more with education. We visited a middle school in November and the response from us being there was so positive. We're working with the library to do a series to help parents understand more about LGBTQ issues. And in July, we have a self-defense class that I'm working on.
What changes do you think need to happen in order to make the western suburbs a better place to be queer?
I feel like we need more hangout places or restaurants or even bars that are gay-friendly. It's a hassle to go to Boystown all the time. I wish one of these bars or locations would do a Drag Race viewing party or something like that.
Also, I’d like more options for the introvert, like a cafe that's gay-friendly with little poetry events. I feel like there's a lot of gay people here, but they're kind of like, “Where do we go? Do we have to go to Chicago all the time?” I feel like community is what we all want and we need more events. We need more places that will support us and feel like home and feel safe for the queer community. Our group is trying a little bit, trying to set up these events, but I hope more businesses would be open to that idea and be more welcoming.
For more words from queer folks out here doing the work in the western ‘burbs and beyond, read my previous interviews with Batavia artist Annie Hex, Aurora organizer Javi, the organizers of Geneva Pride, Batavia alderman Dan Chanzit, Paramount Theatre artistic director Jim Corti, Aurora trans activist Penelope Torres, North Aurora musician Katie Bogle, Hoof & Horn co-owners Jarrod Johnson and Adrian Xavier Frost, Batavia activist Scott Naylor, Youth Outlook’s Carolyn Wahlskog, Ramshackle Farm’s Shannon and Eve Mingalone, and Batavia’s Lyndsay Hartman. As always, your support—via comments, shares and subscriptions—is so deeply appreciated.
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The Ringer: The Nostalgic Glow of the Movie Soundtrack
So much incredible new music has been dropping lately, that sometimes it is hard for anything to truly stand out from the crowd. But the new album (Here in the Pitch) from LA singer-songwriter Jessica Pratt is doing exactly that for me. Click play below for some truly timeless, trippy melodies. Your ears and your heart will thank you.
As an added musical bonus, I need to spread the gospel of the brilliance of I Saw the TV Glow, which has finally made its way to movie theaters within a realistic weekday driving distance of my home. I can’t add much to what has already been so perfectly said about Jane Schoenbrun’s trans coming-of-age story, but I will say that the soundtrack (which is also explored in the Ringer link above) is soul-achingly immersive and the perfect accompaniment for the eerie beauty of the film itself. Below is one of my favorite cuts, Yeule’s cover of Broken Social Scene’s iconic-for-ex-hipsters-of-a-certain-age “Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl.”