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He plans to bring This Is It more fully into the social media era, but said he’d make few additional changes to the décor. Friend and mentorĪfter Brehm’s death, his partner in the business, George Schneider, 31, took over the bar.
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“Joe grieved customers lost to AIDS, and he was a comforting presence when the gay community struggled to heal after it was victimized by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer,” Stingl wrote. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Jim Stingl penned a moving remembrance of Joe and a tribute to This Is It. Tammy Baldwin wrote a tribute in which she said, “Thank you for making the world a more welcoming, generous and understanding place.” Barrett praised him for continuing his mother’s legacy.
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Days before his death, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett proclaimed March 31 to be Joe Brehm Day. His loss was mourned not only by the LGBT community but the entire city. He supported PrideFest, the Cream City Foundation, the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center and other community groups.īrehm died on April 3 at age 68. He solidified the bar’s role as a community resource, using it to raise money for HIV/AIDS and other causes. Like his mother, Joe Brehm was a staunch LGBT ally, even though he lost friends and had his home and car vandalized because of it. But even after suffering a stroke, she continued to help out at what had become the family business. Joe Brehm, June’s son, took over the bar in 1980. It was also close to the downtown hotels, making it a destination for visitors to the city.
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near Cathedral Square, This Is It felt safer than most of the other bars at the time, which were tucked away on dark backstreets. Until recently, there was no sign on the building’s façade that signaled This Is It was a bar, much less a gay bar. Schwamb can’t recall a single police raid on the establishment. Patrons of those clubs would race for the back door at the first glimpse of a badge. They were particularly harsh toward lesbian or gay bars frequented by African Americans. Police also raided bars and arrested patrons. Milwaukee’s law enforcement officers were often brutal to LGBT citizens in those days. Schwamb became a This Is It regular at a time when, if someone’s car was vandalized near a gay bar, the victim would think more than twice before notifying the police. He is the leading organizer of the Milwaukee LGBT History Project. Gay-friendly places were hard to find in Milwaukee during the 1970s, said Schwamb, a longtime activist and volunteer in Milwaukee’s LGBT community. But she would have liked it, according to people familiar with the bar’s history. Once word got out that This Is It welcomed gay people and treated them with respect, he said, the rest became part of Milwaukee LGBT history.īy the time Schwamb was a regular at the bar in the mid-1970s, it was known as an LGBT gathering place.īrehm couldn’t have known at the time that This Is It would go on to become the city’s oldest operating gay bar and play a significant role in the city’s LGBT history - so significant it’s recognized by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Perhaps it was because other gay bars in the area were moving south, speculates Don Schwamb. After June Brehm opened the bar This Is It in 1968, gay people just started showing up.