William B. Kelley

[2] Kelley also said that being from a de facto segregated town and growing up during the McCarthy Era made him interested in civil rights, and that he was a member of the ACLU while he was in high school.

[2][6] He said that he wanted to move to this new environment to test if he was really gay, or if it was just due to his high school.

His mother became a recluse later in her life, and claimed that other women in her small town disliked her because of her son's gayness.

[3] Kelley met his partner Chen Ooi at Cheeks, a gay bar in Chicago, in July 1979.

Kelley said in an interview for younger activists that Ooi was an important part in his activism, as he both encouraged and challenged him.

[11] Later in the same decade Kelley also co-chaired the Illinois Gay Rights Task Force.

[2][4][14][16] Kelley presented a paper at this meeting about issues that gay organizations had with procuring tax exemptions.

[13] Kelley also wrote a letter to the editor of the Chicago Reader supporting the controversial Hall of Fame.