Profile

Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn was ordained as a clergyperson with the United Church of Christ in 1976, the first openly gay person ordained in the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ and the second openly gay person ordained nationally in the UCC.  Rev. Mohn has been active in advancing the leadership of LGBT individuals within local, regional, national  and international communities and institutions of faith. He has also taken leadership in advancing social justice for poverty and vulnerable populations. Since 1980, he has served as the President of the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights which provides housing, health, and human service programs and advances human rights protections. Through his leadership he has founded the Midwest Immigrant & Human Rights Center, the Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture, the Rafael Center for Persons with HIV,  Enlaces America (working with diaspora communities from Mexico and Central America), and the MidAmerica Institute on Poverty.
 
Rev. Mohn is a member of the Board of International Social Services and the Immigration & Refugee Services of America, and a former board member and Chair of the National Immigration Forum. He serves as a city commissioner with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations where he was appointed as the first openly gay chairperson of the Advisory Council on Immigrant & Refugee Affairs. He received the Wright Award from the City of Chicago for his work for social justice. He has founded the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. He was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.
 
He recently became a member of the Order of Ecumenical Franciscans.

(This biographical statement provided by Sid Mohn.)