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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING THE LEGACY OF RICK GARCIA AND CONTINUING THE FIGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
WHEREAS, after a four-decade career pushing for gay rights in Chicago, Rick Garcia, the hard-hitting political heavyweight who kept a laser focus on civil rights leaves behind a legacy as one of the city's most influential behind-the-scenes political strategists, known for his deep relationships and focus on winning concrete policy change, passed on January 12, 2026; and
WHEREAS, in the late 1980s, Garcia was one of the "Gang of Four," a group of activists who took the helm of the final, successful stage of a 15-year struggle to pass a Chicago ordinance, originally proposed in 1973, against sexual-orientation discrimination; and
WHEREAS, Garcia was deeply involved in Chicago's municipal LGBTQ+ organizing and was among the leaders of the Gay and Lesbian Town Meeting, a community organization formed to spearhead passage of the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance, which the City Council approved in December 1988 under Mayor Eugene Sawyer; and
WHEREAS, Garcia and his colleagues turned their attention to a campaign for securing similar protection at the county level after the successful passage of the Chicago ordinance. In 1993, after Garcia, his friends, and colleagues helped to shape and lobby for it, the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance was enacted; and
WHEREAS, in 1992, Garcia was a founder of the Illinois Federation for Human Rights, which was renamed Equality Illinois in 2000, and remains a leading force on LGBTQ+ issues statewide; and
WHEREAS, Garcia successfully pushed to have anti-gay attacks in Chicago classified as hate crimes, spearheaded campaigns that banned discrimination against LGBTQ people across Illinois, and helped lead the push to legalize gay marriage in Illinois in 2013; and
WHEREAS, Garcia remained a fierce transgender ally, refusing to support the Illinois Human Rights Act unless it included explicit protections based on gender identity. ...
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