AIDS Garden Chicago honors trailblazer and former Illinois Rep. Greg Harris
With just days left in Pride Month, AIDS Garden Chicago took the time Thursday to honor former Illinois state representative and longtime LGBTQ+ advocate Greg Harris.
On Thursday afternoon, a plaque dedicated to Harris was unveiled at the entrance to the garden, located near the south end of Belmont Harbor.
The space memorializes the early days of Chicago's HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Harris spoke about those days, and how he and others helped those with HIV in Chicago.
"[We asked], 'Where do we serve? Chicago is a huge city, should we limit this to our neighborhood?'" Harris said Thursday. "And the decision we came to then, like a lot of the other HIV-serving groups, is no — if there are people suffering in this neighborhood, that means there are people suffering all over the city of Chicago."
A native of Colorado, Harris came to Chicago in 1977 for a job. Politics was not on his radar at first.
"I went to work, I partied at night, and that was fine, until my friends started to get sick and die all around me," Harris told CBS News Chicago's Jim Williams in 2023.
The AIDS epidemic was ravaging the gay community, and Harris wanted to serve. He and his friends founded Open Hand Chicago. They cooked and delivered meals for those with AIDS, and provided companionship for many who had been shunned.
Harris himself was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, and AIDS in 1990. He thought he had been given a death sentence at the time, and he threw himself into public service.
Harris served as the chief of staff to the late Ald. Mary Ann Smith in the 48th Ward in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood. In 2006, he was elected to the Illinois House — becoming one of the first openly gay lawmakers in Illinois.
In more than 16 years in the Illinois House, Harris served as House majority leader, and sponsored acts that legalized civil unions and later marriage equality in Illinois.
When asked how he wants to be remembered for his time in state and city government, he told Williams in 2023, "as somebody who went and in tried to help some other people."
contributed to this report.
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