As City of Chicago's first executive-level director of LGBTQ+ affairs, Antonio King gives louder voice to community
This Pride Month, a first-of-its-kind change is under way in Chicago, as Mayor Brandon Johnson has made his director of LGBTQ+ affairs an executive-level position.
The move gives a louder voice to a community whose struggles are changing.
Antonio King holds the position. His executive title gives him, and LGBTQ+ policy, a louder voice at more tables inside the decision making fifth floor at City Hall.
King has a long to-do list.
"As we age, as LGBTQ community, we don't have children. But as we're getting older, who's helping the 60- and 70- and 80-year-olds?" said King. "We're living longer. Who's helping those aging LGBTQ adults?"
King explained that seniors being on their own can cause serious problems.
"Because you don't have anyone to advocate for you — advocating you on a personal level, when you go to the doctor to talk about what's really going on with you, physically, mentally and emotionally," he said. "We don't have those all the time."
The answer as to who should be in that advocacy position, King said, is the City of Chicago, through programs such as a "Life is Work" resource center on the city's West Side.
At the resource center, food, clothes, and resources are available to help those who are aging. The resource center helps young people too.
"On the to-do list is also to ensure within public schools that we are supporting some of the programming for our queer and LGBTQ students in mental health," said King.
King's advocacy is also helping push city policies that hit the right tone and needs of the community. He said talking with a trans resident recently, he learned the Chicago police department is ahead of the curve.
"She said, 'At first he misgendered me,' because I guess he misgendered her,'" King said of the trans resident's interaction with someone at the CPD. "But once she corrected him, he said: 'Oh, you know what? I've been trained on this.' And he began to treat her with much dignity and respect."
King's passion began 40 years ago alongside people dying alone on the fifth floor of the old Cook County Hospital from a disease the world was just learning about.
"That was the AIDS ward. That was the AIDS unit, and that is where they basically took patients to die," he said. "You can hear the individuals, you can hear the pain, you can hear the sorrow, and you could just smell the death that was in the air."
After 40 years of advocacy, King now has the loudest megaphone of his career. With federal dollars for his community drying up, he is helping steer city policy and offer a helping hand to LGBTQ residents still struggling with the barriers of everyday life.
"I'm a Black man living in Chicago. There's still some barriers," he said. "So there are marginalized communities in this city. They still have issues and concerns and challenges."
