'The problems I had, of course, was hiding it. 'By some grace of God, I accepted my identity and what I was very early,' Renslow said in Baim's 2007 series of recorded interviews. The founder of International Mr Leather /REekpoCapKīorn and raised in Logan Square, Renslow came out as a gay man when he was a student at Lane Technical High School, he told Baim, who is also the publisher of the Windy City Times. His life was extensively chronicled in 'Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow,' a 2007 biography by Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen.Ĭhuck Renslow, a pillar of our lgbtq community here and around the world, has died at age 87. Leather contest and the Leather Archives and Museum in Rogers Park, but Renslow has a storied history of opening dozens of gay friendly businesses around Chicago.
He is perhaps best known as the founder of the International Mr. Renslow, 87, died Thursday after multiple long-term health issues and nearly seven decades of pioneering the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer business scene in Chicago. CHICAGO - Chuck Renslow, one of Chicago's earliest openly gay entrepreneurs, died Thursday, but the longtime activist's leather-clad legacy continues on.
