Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn

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 LGBTQ 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. From 1980 until 2015, he 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 National Immigrant Justice Center, the Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture, the Rafael Center for Persons with HIV,  heartland Health Centers, the first low income elderly apartment complex in Chicago for lgbtq elderly persons, Enlaces America (working with diaspora communities from Mexico and Central America), and the MidAmerica Institute on Poverty.

Rev. Mohn was a member of the Board of International Social Services, Immigration & Refugee Services of America, a former board Chair of the National Immigration Forum. He served 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 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 serves on the board of Synergy, a global lgbtq rights organization where he also served as its founding Board Chairperson.

He founded and served as Director of Interfaith Action of SW Michigan, a five county organization working on social justice issues including lgbtq inclusion and protection. Through his work there he was instrumental in increasing the number of faith communities with formal policies of lgbtq inclusion, as well as organizing 4 local municipalities to adopt non discrimination ordinances with protections for lgbtq persons.

He continues to provide consultative services to social justice initiatives. He is a member of the Order of Ecumenical Franciscans.

(This biographical statement provided by Sid Mohn.)

Biography Date: August, 2004; rev. Nov 2022

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