Shortly after their formation in 1998, one of their first protests was against the anti-gay preacher
Fred Phelps, who was making an appearance at a church in Chicago to speak out against same-sex marriage. Beginning in 2000, the organization frequently protested against the
Chicago Police Department, for what they perceived as "anti-homosexual and racist attitudes", during arrests of LGBT citizens. The group was also active in protesting against
Laura Schlessinger, for her derisive comments about the LGBT community. Schlessinger created controversy when she called gay people "deviants", and homosexuality a "biological error", and said that homosexuality was acceptable as long as it was not public. Schlessinger was slated to begin a TV talk show in 2000. The GLN said "we think that any responsible broadcaster wouldn't consider for a moment giving a nationwide TV show to someone who holds such hateful views". In 2001, they supported, along with the
ACLU, filing
hate crime charges against a man who was verbally harassing gay Pakistani American poet
Ifti Nasim in a Chicago restaurant. The GLN gained attention in 2004, when they got Chicago mayor
Richard Daley to sign a petition in support of gay marriage. A spokesman for Daley later walked back the petition signature, saying Daley "had no problem with the issue of gay marriage, [but] is not taking a politically active role in supporting gay marriage". The GLN was later instrumental in helping to get
SB 10 passed in Illinois, a bill which legalized same-sex marriage via a state statute in November 2013. The GLN has been active in protesting against Jamaican singers
Capleton and
Buju Banton, who have received international criticism for their anti-gay lyrics that allegedly "promotes violence against gays and lesbians". In 2004, they protested and initiated a boycott against the
Chicago House of Blues, when Capleton was scheduled to appear there. The venue however refused to cancel his appearance, stating "we are not in the business of censoring content". In 2009, working alongside the
Los Angeles LGBT Center, they were successful in convincing
Live Nation to cancel its portion of a tour by Buju Banton, who had called for the "murder of gays in his songs". And in 2010, a concert by Capleton at
Kinetic Playground was canceled after pressure from the GLN. The GLN successfully lobbied the
Southern Poverty Law Center to list the anti-gay organization
Americans for Truth about Homosexuality as an
anti-LGBT hate group in 2010. They have also called for a boycott against the
Salvation Army, for their "selective interpretation of the Bible to promote discrimination against LGBT people in employment benefits and leadership positions within the Army". The group is also active in women's rights, immigration issues and the
anti-war movement. In 2002, in anticipation of a war in
Iraq, the group took out full-page ads in the
Windy City Times and
The Chicago Free Press, denouncing the "wholesale loss of life" a war would bring, and that the LGBT community would especially be affected by reductions in social services. They were also a signatory on a full-page ad that ran in
The New York Times in 2003 against the invasion of Iraq. They participated in the 2008 United States immigration reform protests, and at a rally held in 2009, for the annual
May Day immigration reform march, the GLN opined that the
DREAM Act was a "noxious piece of legislation that preys on the poor". After
Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, the GLN marched in Chicago alongside
pro-abortion advocates on the anniversary in 2023, and stated that people in Illinois who are pro-abortion rights "can't be complacent because conservative judges have been appointed to key court positions and that's why we have to be in the streets". Additionally, the GLN produces monthly episodes on
Chicago Access Network Television, where they discuss various issues, including: an interview with a
Black Lives Matter activist about the 'No Cop Academy' movement, to prevent
AECOM from building a law-enforcement academy in Chicago. They have also discussed the
incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the
crisis in Honduras, and policies affecting
Latin America. ==See also==