Owen Keehnen

Owen Keehnen, queer writer and historian, is the author of several fiction and nonfiction titles. Several of his books have been about Chicago LGBTQ history including his latest, Man’s Country: More Than a Bathhouse. In 2017, Keehnen began to actively preserve the LGBTQ history of the Belmont Rocks, a popular Chicago queerspace from 1960-2003. In 2022, the history of the Belmont Rocks was formally recognized when the area reopened as AIDS Garden Chicago. Keehnen is cofounder of the LGBTQ education/history organization, the Legacy Project, and was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 2011.