Fun Lounge police raid

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The Fun Lounge police raid was a 1964 police raid that targeted Louie's Fun Lounge, a gay bar near Chicago, Illinois, United States. The raid led to the arrest of over 100 individuals and is considered a notable moment in the LGBT history of the area.

During the mid-20th century, the Chicago metropolitan area was home to several gay bars and other establishments that catered to the local LGBT community. One such club was Louie's Fun Lounge, located outside of Chicago on Mannheim Road near O'Hare International Airport. However, these bars and their clientele were often subject to harassment and other forms of discrimination, indicative of the widespread culture of homophobia present in the United States during the time. Bars were often targeted in police raids, with those arrested often having their names and personal information published in local newspapers, leading to the loss of jobs and relationships. In the early morning of April 25, 1964, the Fun Lounge was the target of one such raid, with deputies of Cook County Sheriff Richard B. Ogilvie arresting 109 individuals and seizing several hundred dollars-worth of illegal drugs. Newspapers such as the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Tribune widely reported on the raid and highlighted the fact that several teachers had been arrested, leading to all but one losing their jobs. Others who had been arrested lost their jobs and there are reports of at least one suicide.

While the raid was one of several during this time, its size made it notable, and in its aftermath, LGBT individuals in the Chicago area formed Mattachine Midwest, a gay rights organization modeled after the national Mattachine Society. The group published newsletters and operated a hotline for people to report police harassment, and historians regard its formation as the beginning of modern gay activism in the area. Ogilvie benefitted politically from the raid, as it demonstrated his hardline stance against "vice", and he was later elected governor of Illinois in 1968. However, Ogilvie lost his 1972 gubernatorial reelection bid, with gay activists advocating against him for his actions as Cook County Sheriff. The Fun Lounge raid and a later police raid on the Trip bar in Chicago have been compared to the later Stonewall riots in the impact that they had on the Chicago LGBT community.