Wisconsin has long been a forerunner in LGBTQ+ advocacy, ever since it was the first state to pass anti-discrimination legislation for the LGBTQ community in 1982, giving it the title of “the first gay rights state.”
And while most of Wisconsin’s LGBTQ history has been told through Madison and Milwaukee, the Fox Cities has its own rich history of pushing for LGBTQ rights.
During the late 20th century, when LGBTQ people were criminalized and faced large amounts of public backlash, much of the Fox Cities’ LGBTQ community carved out spaces for themselves in bars and book clubs where they could safely be their authentic selves.
At the turn of the century, the Fox Cities saw a lot more fights for acceptance as members of the community began pushing for support in schools and local government.
“Up until recently there were these pockets of LGBTQ support,” the former anti-violence program director for Diverse & Resilient, Kathy Flores, said. “A lot of what we saw for support were in homes, the bar scene and in small businesses.”
Here are five stories that scratch the surface of the Fox Cities’ LGBTQ community and history.
Throughout the late 20th century, gay people primarily found community through the bar scene, often seen as a safe space for LGBTQ people to socialize.
Appleton’s first gay bar, the Lambda Lounge, opened downtown in 1977 by partners Paul DeBruin and Gene Koenke.
Cindi DeBruin, Paul’s sister, said the two bought the bar from Claire Kempky who ran Doris’ Super Bar, a business with a reputation as a hangout spot for gay people. That reputation, she said, encouraged her brother to open a gay bar after Kempky’s closed.
While the bar wasn’t openly advertised as a gay bar for the safety of its patrons, people knew of it through word of mouth and national gay bar guides, such as the Damron Guide.
Researcher for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s “Our Voices: LGBTQ+ Stories of Northeastern Wisconsin” Dennis Jacob said bar patrons often experienced backlash from Appleton residents who believed homosexuality was wrong and didn’t like having a gay bar downtown.
While patrons were safe to be themselves inside the bar, Jacobs said people knew to not enter or leave the bar alone as they faced violence from straight people and many fights took place outside the bar.
“These early [gay] bars were rough,” Jacobs said. “But the gay population in Appleton stood their ground and fought back.”
Ultimately, the bar closed down amid competition from 1101 West, a gay dance club, that opened down the road soon after. However, the Lambda Lounge’s presence in Appleton paved the way for other LGBTQ bars, such as The ReMixx in Neenah, Rascals in Appleton and the now-closed Pivot Club.
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Book clubs have often been a place for people with shared identities to find community while discussing literature pertaining to their lives and experiences.
To provide a safe space for gays and lesbians to socialize, Appleton Public Library collections coordinator Michael Nitz and Lawrence University Professor Dick Winslow founded a book club named the Lavender Salon in 1993.
For 15 years, the group met each Sunday in members’ homes with potluck meals and discussions on books and movies.
The club was exclusive to gay people, so members — whether they were openly gay or not — were able to be themselves and safely meet other people in the LGBTQ community.
“For some, it was their first time knowingly meeting other people who were gay and lesbian so it being a safe space was really important,” Nitz told The Post-Crescent.
Participation in the club grew from seven members to over 60 at a time, bringing in people from Marinette and Sheboygan for the weekly meetings.
During the turn of the century, students in Madison and Milwaukee high schools started creating gay-straight alliances, or GSA clubs, to provide supportive environments for LGBTQ peers.
As word about these clubs grew, a number of students at Neenah High School in 2001, including Nick Ross — a current Appleton School Board member — wanted to create an official club for LGBTQ students to discuss experiences and issues they were going through.
Many of these students were already in LGBTQ support groups at the school and in the community, but Ross said it was important for them to create an official group to give visibility to LGBTQ students and let other students know there was a safe space in the school to discuss their experiences.
But, when the students applied for club recognition, Neenah High School Principal Mark Duerwaechter denied them, saying a GSA has political goals and it would go against district policy, according to Post-Crescent archives.
Additionally, Neenah Superintendent James Wiswall turned down the club because the school already had a club, STAND, which addressed diversity and he didn’t believe the school should supply resources to another club with similar objectives.
“We wanted to start a GSA because STAND had really important issues around race and racism to deal with and we had unique things that we wanted to talk about that were very different from what STAND was doing,” Ross told The Post-Crescent.
After their club got denied, the students appealed to the Neenah school board and began strategizing with help from the American Civil Liberties Union on how to get club approval from the board.
The students’ struggle to create a GSA received intense media attention, drawing support and opposition from Neenah parents and residents.
The fight for the GSA culminated in a school board meeting discussion in October 2002. People packed into the board room and community members, parents and students gave hours of public statements calling for the acceptance of the GSA or asking the school board to turn it down on the basis of religious grounds.
After a closed session, the school board granted the students the right to create a GSA, making it the first club of its kind in northeast Wisconsin.
“It was extremely terrifying and scary for all the reasons of being out in public as LGBTQ, but also super exciting because we put ourselves out there and made things happen,” Ross said.
The Neenah students’ push for a GSA and the attention it gathered in the Fox Cities inspired other students to create the club in their own schools and a year later all three Appleton high schools had a GSA.
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Vered Meltzer was first elected to the Appleton city council in April 2014, making him the first openly transgender individual to hold elected office in Wisconsin.
“Being the first trans person elected helps get the door open,” Meltzer told The Post-Crescent. “Once one person is in it allows other people to bring their full, authentic selves to the table.”
In the last 15 years, Appleton elected leaders have sent strong messages of support for LGBTQ folks through passing resolutions protecting the rights and safety of youth and families in the community.
“In the last 15 years within the city of Appleton, we were doing some pretty active support of LGBTQ folks because we were tired of seeing teens harmed and having hate crimes in our parks,” Flores, who also previously served as Appleton’s diversity coordinator, told The Post-Crescent.
The first time Appleton got involved in LGBTQ issues was in 2012 when the city passed domestic partnership protection for gay city employees and their partners.
At a time when same-sex marriage wasn’t legal, domestic partnership benefits allowed city employees and their partners the same benefits as spouses, such as health insurance and sick leave.
The next time the city got involved in LGBTQ issues was in August 2013 when the city passed fair housing based on gender identity and expression, becoming the third city in the state to ban housing discrimination for transgender people.
Wisconsin had already banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in 1982, but Appleton officials wanted to expand that to include transgender people.
The following year in June 2014, Appleton expanded its discrimination ban to provide safeguards to transgender people in employment and public accommodations.
“As with any kind of fight, the more we were public about things, the more harm actually started to happen,” Flores said.
Flores remembers droves of anti-LGBTQ residents packing into city council meetings to speak against the resolutions and groups formed to protest the wave of LGBTQ-inclusive resolutions happening in Appleton and across the state.
But all the backlash to resolutions then didn’t deter the city from continuing its stance of support for the LGBTQ community.
In January 2020, the city council passed a resolution banning licensed medical and mental health professionals from practicing conversion therapy on minors.
“I don’t know where we would be as a community today if the city had not taken steps forward and been so support of LGBTQ folks,” Flores said.
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Sophia Voight is a local government and political reporter with The Post-Crescent. She can be reached with tips and feedback at svoight@postcrescent.com. Follow her on Twitter @sophia_voight.

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