Partner Larry Bloom
Queer Places:
University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
Bruce Chardon Scott (March
7, 1912 - December 26, 2001) brought one of the first
anti-gay employment discrimination suits in the United States. Fired from
the federal civil service in 1956 for alleged homosexuality, Scott joined
the Mattachine Society of Washington in the early sixties and brought suit
against the federal government for re-instatement. That case, Scott v.
Macy, was one of the first major gay rights legal victories and was
instrumental in leading to an end of twenty-five years of anti-gay
discrimination in the federal civil service.
Scott was a former officer in
both the Mattachine Society of Washington and Mattachine Midwest, and was
inducted into the City of Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1993.
Born in Portland, Oregon, Scott
moved to Chicago in 1922, at the age of ten, with his recently divorced
mother. He graduated from Chicago's
Tilden Technical High School, attended Armour Institute of Technology [now
known as the Illinois Institute of Technology], and received a Bachelor of
Arts in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 1933. Scott's
first job out of college was with the Corporation Counsel's office of the
City of Chicago. He went on to serve in the Army and worked for the U.S. Department of
Labor for nearly twenty years before being forced to resign in 1956. Scott
participated in the State of Illinois Constitutional Convention of
1969-1970, during which he drafted a proposal for a new constitution for the
State of Illinois. He also served as a volunteer at Horizons.
Bruce Scott
died on December 26, 2001 of Parkinson's disease at the age of 89. At
Scott's request, there was no funeral or memorial service. He is survived by
his longtime companion Larry Bloom.
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