Tracy Baim
Publisher Tracy Baim has been covering the Chicago LGBT community since 1984. As the co-founder of the city’s LGBT weekly Windy City Times, she feels fortunate to be in a career she’s dreamt of since she was a kid. “I have wanted to be a journalist since I was 10 years old,” Baim says. “I know it can’t last forever, but so happy to have done this now for 33 years.” In her lengthy career, Baim has written a film (“Hannah Free”), published a handful of books (including “Barbara Gittings: Gay Pioneer” and “Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America”), won several awards and has been inducted into the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Hall of Fame. She achieved all of that despite having come into journalism at a time when men were primarily the gatekeepers of printing and publishing. “Sexism within the LGBTQ community is just as fierce as in the mainstream, so I think being a woman for sure has impacted the trajectory of my career,” Baim says. “But I am extremely lucky to still be doing what I love, so everything that was a barrier has made me more resilient. And persistent.” —TB
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