Gay community

Insightful, entertaining and remarkably thorough, despite its breezy 80-minute length, "Out & Proud" (7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Monday and 6 p.m. June 15 on WTTW-Ch. 11) is a compelling history of Chicago's gay community dating back for more than 150 years.

Shrewdly employing the political to peep at the personal, the documentary focuses on a masterfully chosen handful of gay leaders, folks on the front lines of the liberation movement of the '60s, '70s and '80s. It gingerly lets their stories emerge to color and deepen the historical narrative. Like any sweeping history, this one has its omissions, such as gay alderman Tom Tunney, nowhere to be heard and seen only in still photos.

But the assembled group graces business, history, the arts and politics: Chuck Renslow, a groundbreaking entrepreneur; Jim Flint, who launched the Baton show lounge and played a role in gay sports; Art Johnston, co-founder of Sidetrack video bar and key player in the battle for various rights ordinances; Renae Ogletree, who helped bring the Gay Games to Chicago; and choreographer Joel Hall, witty and forceful on the complex experiences of gays and people of color.

Produced with the Chicago Historical Society, the documentary boasts still images glimpsing gay life in the secretive years of the 19th Century and early 20th Century, including a short look at Jane Addams and her close association with Mary Rozet Smith.

But the most moving testimony explores political struggles and AIDS, including the fearless, angry, in-your-face heroics of activist Danny Sotomayor. "When he died," Johnston recalls, "a part of us all died," adding that Mayor Richard M. Daley attended his funeral "and gave him the respect of a fallen warrior."

The documentary, co-directed and co-produced by Alexandra Silets and Daniel Andries, carefully divides up focus to include multiple ethnicities and the transgender set. The somewhat unsung role of lesbians during the early AIDS crisis, for instance, gets a welcome mention.

So does the community's flamboyant spirit. "Gay organizations are filled with drama and conflict like you can't believe," historian John D'Emilio notes. "Any gay or lesbian activist who doesn't tell you about how hard it was as well as how exhilarating it was isn't telling the whole truth."