Wisconsin’s Oldest Gay Bar Will Become a Historic Landmark
The Wisconsin Historical Society approved a historic marker for the former Milwaukee bar, which closed in 2025 after nearly six decades.
This Is It!, Wisconsin’s oldest gay bar, which permanently closed in March 2025, will be recognized as a historic landmark. State preservation officers with the Wisconsin Historical Society approved a historic marker for the site on March 4.
The now-shuttered bar will be the second LGBTQ landmark recognized in Wisconsin. The first was the former Black Nite tavern in Milwaukee, which the state recognized in 2024.
“For decades, ‘This Is It’ was part of Wisconsin’s cultural landscape, serving as an important gathering place for the LGBTQ community,” Angela Titus, assistant deputy director and chief program officer for the Wisconsin Historical Society, said in a statement. “This new historical marker will ensure that the story of this beloved community space, and the role it played in the state’s history, will be preserved for future generations.”
Founded by June Brehm and Michael Latona, This Is It! opened in August 1968, a year before the Stonewall Uprising in New York City, widely considered the seminal moment in the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
Prior to her death in 2010, Brehm said that as a longtime service industry worker she saw how society treated gay people and decided to open a bar where they would feel safe, welcome, and respected.
“June was discouraged — even by her gay friends — against opening This Is It!,” Michail Takach, chair of the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project, said in a statement. “They told her she was crazy; they told her she would get herself in trouble. Her response was, ‘So what? Let them come for me.’ Nobody ever came for June, but nearly 60 years later, her decision to stand up for what’s right still stands as a lesson for us all.”
Following Brehm’s death, her son Joe, who died in 2016, and employee-turned-owner Georg Schneider carried her vision forward, expanding the bar and welcoming a more diverse clientele, including members of Milwaukee’s ballroom community.
The historic marker will be installed in a publicly accessible location outside the bar, which stood at 418 E. Wells St. in Milwaukee for 57 years. Installation is expected this summer, with a dedication ceremony to be announced later.
All funding for the project, including installation and maintenance, will be paid through private donations, requiring no taxpayer funding.
“This historic marker honors a place that my family worked very long and very hard to build, sustain, and protect for Milwaukee,” Sarah Freiheit, Brehm’s granddaughter, said in a statement. “When the outside world believed gay men had no place in the world, my grandmother vowed to create one for them. For decades, This Is It! was the go-to destination in times of crisis, in times of celebration, and those times when just being with your community was the best possible comfort.”
More from Metro Weekly:
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.