Renslow was born in 1929, raised in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, and graduated from Lane Technical High School. His other bars and businesses have included the Chicago Eagle, Triumph Health Studios, Sparrows Lounge, Bistro Too, Zolar, The Club Baths, Center Stage and Pyramid. Edward Kennedy), and within the 46th and 48th Ward Democratic Organizations. He served as a Democratic Party 43rd Ward precinct captain for eight years, as a candidate for delegate to the 1980 Democratic National Convention (for U.S. He pushed for the gay and lesbian civil-rights ordinance when it was first introduced in the City Council in the early ‘70s, and the initial executive order banning discrimination in Chicago city government, as issued by Mayor Jane Byrne. He was the founder of Prairie State Democratic Club in 1980, and they hosted events with top politicians from Chicago and Cook County, and even presidential candidates coming through the area. Renslow was especially active in politics in the ‘70s and ‘80s, as the gay community gained clout. Renslow also was involved in newspapers, purchasing GayLife newspaper from its founder, Grant Ford, and publishing it for several years, until it folded in 1986.
representative to what was known then as the International Lesbian and Gay Association. He served on the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and was a U.S. He received The Leather Journal’s lifetime achievement award and a Centurion Award as Leatherman of the Century. Renslow was inducted into the the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1991 and received dozens of awards from the gay and leather communities. Renslow served as president for many years. When Dom ‘Etienne’ died, Renslow combined his collection of Eteinne’s art with his own archives from his business and his life Renslow and Tony DeBlase co-founded the Leather Archives & Museum in 1991. Gold Coast contest and the experience he had managing A.A.U. Renslow had many partners over the years, among them Dom ‘Etienne’ Orejudos, who he was with more than 40 years and, and helped encourage Dom’s work as the artist Etienne. He was also involved with Cliff Raven, Chuck Arnett Sam ‘Phil Andros’ Steward, David Grooms of Wisconsin and Ron Ehemann, and encouraged them in their work too. He was the founder of many bars and sex clubs since the ‘60s including Man’s Country, which is still open in Andersonville. He opened Gold Coast, believed to be the first leather bar in the U.S., in Chicago in 1958. In 1965, he was a founder of Second City Motorcycle Club. He was the publisher of Triumph, Mars and Rawhide Male magazines, publications mailed and shared across the country as the earliest ways gay men found each other. His dance photography is in the Newberry Library dance collection in the Chuck Renslow Dance Photographs collection. He was an accomplished photographer, including of the ballet. In the early ‘50s, Renslow founded Kris Studios, one of the earliest and most durable of the physique photography houses. Leather, owner of Man’s Country and the Gold Coast bar, publisher of the GayLife newspaper in the ‘80s, political activist, and much more was an out business owner since the ‘50s. He was a critical contributor to a wide range of political, social, business, health and other causes. He fostered organizations and dealt with Mafia and police payoffs, the Chicago Machine, anti-gay government policies, and controversy within the gay community. Renslow reigned over a seven-decade empire, starting more than two dozen businesses-bars, discos, photo studios, health clubs, bathhouses, gay magazines and newspapers, hotels, restaurants and bookstores. Chuck Renslow, 87, a longtime pillar of the LGBTQ community in Chicago and around the world, has died after multiple long-term health issues, Windy City Times reports.