A Tale of Two Places: AIDS Care in Belleville
Belleville, IL
In the late 1980s Belleville became a regional center for services to people living with AIDS.
In 1988, two white Catholic nuns, Carol Baltosiewich and Mary Ellen Rombach founded Bethany Place, an AIDS service organization (ASO). Bethany Place prospered; until 2019, it was the largest ASO in southern Illinois, serving 12 counties.
In 1989, Charles Baxter, an unmarried white man, opened Our Place, a residence for men living with HIV, after a lengthy battle with city officials. It closed ten weeks later, after housing just three men.
Yet, the politics of AIDS in Belleville were contradictory.
Why are the stories of these two places so different?
The reasons are more complex than we might think. To be sure, they include homophobia and conservatism, as well as the Catholic Church and its role in providing health care. But also key was support of the local gay and lesbian community, and of HIV/AIDS activists.
Background: Belleville
Belleville is the St. Clair County seat as well as the center of a Catholic diocese .
In the late 1980s, Belleville was a place struggling with a changing sense of itself. A small city but also a regional leader, Belleville was linked to St. Louis, where many of its residents worked, as well as to a broad swath of southern Illinois . Its century-old St. Elizabeth’s Hospital provided health care for the entire metro-east.
Debates about policy in Belleville could have far-reaching consequences.
Incorporation boundaries for the adjoining communities of East St. Louis, Centerville, Fairview Heights, and Belleville (data: as of 2000).
Through much of the twentieth century, its leaders sought to protect Belleville from "corruption," which they variously imagined as organized crime in East St. Louis, the growth of state government, or Black migration to the area.
Yet efforts to keep Belleville isolated from a changing world were bound to fail.
The growth of the city’s Black population from 1.8% to 6.8% over the course of the 1980s prompted a racist response—in 1988, four cross-burnings were reported on property owned by Black people in “white” neighborhoods in Belleville and neighboring Fairview Heights. Despite this the rate of change only increased.
Similarly, by the 1970s and 1980s, Belleville was home to a small and increasingly visible LGBT community. In these decades, there was usually at least one bar or restaurant that lesbian and gay people favored, but gay guides like Damron often warned about the need for discretion and local LGBTQ people could remain quite isolated. As one resident described Belleville in the late 1980s: “It’s always been a conservative town…My partner and I kept pretty much to ourselves.” ( A Catholic Sister Learns to Serve )
Identified LGBTQ associated bars, restaurants, and businesses near Belleville, IL (circa 1960- early 1990s). Click map to enlarge.
The emerging AIDS crisis only generated new fears.
Changing demographics help explain part of why Bethany Place succeeded and Our Place did not. Bethany Place’s connections to the Catholic Church made it familiar to area residents and officials, and therefore acceptable. Many of these same people saw Charles Baxter as a stranger who represented the broader changes "threatening” Belleville.
Equally important, perhaps, the nuns of Bethany Place secured the support of the metro area’s gay and lesbian community, while Baxter remained a stranger to them. Therefore he was unable to rally their support when he faced opposition.
Bethany Place
The nuns who founded Bethany Place belonged to the Hospital Sisters of Saint Francis , the same order that ran nearby St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. Sister Carol worked as a homecare nurse in rural Illinois. Sister Mary Ellen was on the nursing staff at the hospital. In the mid-1980s, each found herself caring for young men with AIDS at a time when the journey from diagnosis to death was usually less than a year.
NEW YORK: St. Vincent's Hospital and St. Clare’s Hospital where the sisters trained.
Frustrated by their lack of knowledge about the illness, they decided to move to New York City for six months to gain some experience. Living in a convent in Hell’s Kitchen, they worked in two NY Catholic hospitals that treated people with AIDS.
The sisters also got involved with New York's Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) , answering calls on its hotline. They became friendly with some of the group’s volunteers, who introduced them to the gay scene in New York. They visited bars, were tutored in safer sex practices, and built relationships with gay men--those who were ill and dying, their partners and family members, and AIDS activists. At times the sisters got more than they bargained for. Sister Mary Ellen told Carol one day after a shift on the hotline, “I don’t want to hear another word about sex.” Yet the experience deeply influenced the work they did with their return home to Belleville.
Opening Bethany Place
In June 1988, with the assistance of Sister Thomas Kumdmueller, they opened Bethany Place. By November, the three nuns set up a hotline staffed by volunteers. They organized support groups and offered an expanding menu of services: case management, counseling, funeral assistance, legal help, HIV testing, home nursing, along with food and housing support.
Bethany Place grew rapidly, prompting a move to larger quarters in 1989.
Early on, Bethany Place was supported by both St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and the State of Illinois. The hospital provided office space, and the state, no doubt impressed by the center’s connection to St. Elizabeth’s, paid Sister Carol’s salary. But soon, both state and hospital funds dried up, and by 1991, St. Elizabeth’s issued an ultimatum: Bethany Place had to raise $100,000 or they would shut it down.
Bethany Place (1988-97) had three locations adjacent to the St. Elizabeth's Hospital complex. Our Place (1989-90) was located several blocks east, on Route 159.
The sisters responded by restructuring Bethany Place as an independent nonprofit organization and they successfully raised the funds to do so. While the ASO’s early clients were mostly white gay men, its clientele soon expanded, reflecting the profile of the disease in the metro east, to include women and men, Black and white.
Our Place
Charles Baxter, a resident of nearby , was a home health aide with experience in caring for patients with AIDS.
He decided to open a non-profit residential facility for up to seven men in a neighborhood close to St. Elizabeth’s, leasing an old Victorian home that most recently had housed medical offices.
This would meet a pressing need: there was no residential facility in the southern Illinois area that would accept people with AIDS at that time. In fact, according to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC), in 1989 the entire state had only 4 spaces in skilled nursing homes reserved for people with AIDS (Outlines).
Baxter’s application to the Belleville Zoning Board for the required special use permit was denied. At the hearing, Zoning Board commissioners raised a series of questions focused on their “fear of AIDS” (as a federal judge would later characterized them): How would Baxter screen residents? How would he dispose of bodily fluids and dirty laundry? How he would protect students at the junior high school across the street from the home’s residents? Most tellingly, the zoning board could only imagine that Baxter was himself a gay man and/or HIV positive; otherwise, why would he care about this project? Baxter generally avoided discussion of his own sexual identity, only stating as part of the lawsuit, “I am not a practicing homosexual in any way.” (Baxter v Belleville, p. 129)
One of many local newspaper stories about Our Place.
The application then went to a City Council meeting, where Belleville’s mayor was a vocal opponent. (Southern Illinoisan) Although the two alderman who represented the ward in which Our Place was located supported the application—usually all that was needed for approval—the Belleville City Council denied Baxter’s permit.
With the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois , Baxter sued the city of Belleville and won. Although city officials denied they were motivated by prejudice against people with AIDS, federal District Judge William Stiehl ruled that their actions violated protections for people living with HIV under the recently revised Fair Housing Act. “Irrational hysteria and public panic,” he wrote, “cannot support activity that is clearly discriminatory.”
Our Place finally opened on September 11, 1989. During its short life, it provided a home to three men with AIDS, two of whom died there.
Charles Baxter inside the newly opened Our Place, September 1989.
As a result of the lawsuit Baxter received a small settlement from the city, but he was unable to raise necessary funds to keep the residence going. Describing himself as "emotionally drained and financially strapped,” Baxter, who had sold his home and many possessions to open the hospice, left Belleville to stay with family in Kansas City. “I need a fresh start,” he told a journalist. “I don’t think people can ever imagine what I went through.”
How do we understand why one AIDS service organization succeeded, and another failed?
Clearly, one reason is that Bethany Place benefited in its early years from its association with St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. The support offered by the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis opened the door to assistance from the state of Illinois and conveyed a sense of legitimacy that continued even after Bethany Place became independent. City officials were unlikely to question the motives or qualifications of the primary health institution for the entire region.
Charles Baxter’s connections were more tenuous. He claimed to have support from Bethany Place and the AIDS Task Force of Southern Illinois, but neither spoke out on his behalf. Activists at St. Louis Effort for AIDS and the St. Clair County Task Force on AIDS –two major groups involved in HIV/AIDS education and service in the region—said they did not know enough about Baxter or his specific project to endorse it strongly.
Baxter's two most outspoken advocates were an Our Place volunteer and a local mother. The volunteer met Baxter when he cared for her brother, and the mother had sued Belleville officials in 1986 when her child with HIV was not allowed to to attend public school. Neither of these advocates had much political influence.
Baxter did have supporters among some officials and area journalists, but the loudest voices were those that proclaimed how dangerous he was. Not only was he possibly a homosexual with AIDS. He was also a “bachelor” who demonstrated his lack of concern for children by situating Our Place across the street from a school. One elected official worried those children could “catch” AIDS because Baxter might carelessly throw “infected” materials into public trash cans. He was, in other words, estranged from the traditional values and institutions that made Belleville great.
Some also accused Baxter of inviting an invasion outsiders to Belleville. They expressed concern that Our Place would draw “homosexuals [from] New York City and Chicago and Florida.” One alderman reported that he voted against Baxter’s request because his constituents were afraid he would bring “people from other areas with AIDS into our area.” These area residents asked their representatives, “why does everybody have to come to Belleville to do those things?” (Baxter v Belleville, p. 170)
One city official emphasized that there might be “a lot of people hanging around the home,” including “drug people” who might associate with school children. This oft-voiced concern about drug users, coming on the heels of local cross-burnings at Black homes as well as the racially discriminatory policies of the intensifying national War on Drugs, hints at coded concerns about the quickening pace of Black migration into the area.
Newspaper clippings form the Belleville Public Library Vertical File.
Another reason for the different fates of these two ASO’s is that the Catholic sisters who opened Bethany Place were able to gain the support of the gay community when Baxter was not. Despite some early missteps, the nuns demonstrated a level of sincerity that won them allies in the small LGBTQ community in Belleville and among AIDS activists in St. Louis.
As Sister Carol recalled, their aim was to create a space in which “people could come and be accepted for who and what they are.” This approach was deeply shaped by their experiences in New York City. In an interview with journalist Michael O’Loughlin, Sister Carol talked about how her growing friendship with gay men there changed her life: “The love that was there….You just watched that and you said, Is this wrong? This can’t be wrong.”
Baxter also described Our Place as a home where men with HIV would find “support, companionship and common ground.” But he seems to have alienated LGBTQ people in the metro-east and in St. Louis. His original policy statement specified that “Our Place holds heterosexuality as God’s intent for humanity” and denounced homosexuality as “one of the many disorders that beset fallen humanity.” (Post-Dispatch, 7 Sept 1989). Baxter later said the statement had been “written by an overzealous former supporter” whom he had appointed as Our Place’s spiritual advisor. Baxter had signed without reading it, and dismissed this person after the policy was publicized in a newspaper article. But the damage had been done: Baxter could neither raise funds nor get “moral support from the homosexual community.”
Bethany Place was a success; Our Place barely got started.
Both Bethany Place and Our Place spoke to a desperate need for AIDS-related services in the St. Louis region. But that was not enough.
Their differing histories remind us that “place” is not just a physical space that serves a certain purpose.
This tale of two places reveals how local politics and culture shape the possibilities and limit the opportunities for LGBTQ people.
Explore More
A note on language
In describing this history we use person centered wording, such as "persons with AIDS" or someone "living with HIV/AIDS." Readers should be aware they may encounter older derogatory wording in historic sources that are referenced or quoted.
Sources
American Civil Liberties Union Illinois Division Records 1920-2014 (Box 770, Folders 8-9 "Baxter, Charles v City of Belleville, District Court 89 3354, Transcript of Hearing, July 1989"), Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
"A Catholic Sister learns to serve people with AIDS." American Magazine. (2019 December 29). https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/12/29/catholic-sister-learns-serve-people-aids
Baxter v. City of Belleville, Ill. US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois - 720 F. Supp. 720 (S.D. Ill. 1989) August 25, 1989.
"Decision Nears On St. Elizabeth’s Hospital Move" St. Louis Public Radio, December 11, 2014. https://news.stlpublicradio.org/health-science-environment/2014-12-11/decision-nears-on-st-elizabeths-hospital-move
Michael J. O’Loughlin. Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear (Broadleaf Books, 2021).
Outlines: The Voice of the Gay and Lesbian Community, Vol. No. 3, Aug 1989, page 21
Prevention and Beyond: A Framework for Collective Action. National Conference on HIV Infection and AIDS Among Racial and Ethnic Populations, August 13-17, 1989. (US Department of Health and Human Services). Bethany Place listing, page 48.
Peter W. Salsich Jr. "Federal Influence on Local Land Use Regulations: The Fair Housing Act Amendments," Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Spring 2000), pp. 228-241 https://www.jstor.org/stable/25782448
Newspaper sources (in date order)
“School board’s view of boy with AIDS outranges mother” Jack Ventimingia, Granite City Press-Record, Sept 10, 1987, page 1A / 10A.
“Nuns reach out to people with AIDS” Roger Schlueter, Belleville News-Democrat, Sept. 27, 1988 Page 1C
“They Aint Burnt Nobody’s Spirit, Says Pastor of Burned Out Church” Associated Press (via Nexis Nexus), Oct 31, 1988. (Article discusses second time in six months a Black church burned in Godfrey, IL. States “there have been four cross burnings since July on property owned by blacks in predominantly white neighborhoods in Belleville and Fairview Heights.” Belleville chief of police suggests in article that they were not racial but just “copy cats” who saw coverage of it in the media.)
“AIDS help is call away” Roger Sclueter, Belleville News-Democrat, Dec 6, 1988, page 1C
"Support growing for AIDS victims" Rick Arnold, Granite City Press-Record, Dec 18, 1988, page 4C
“Area AIDS increase expected" Granite City Press-Record, Dec 25, 1988, page 3A.
“Council nixes AIDS housing” Martin Richter, Belleville Journal, May 17, 1989, page 1A
“Chicagoan recalls long struggle to build home for AIDS victims” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, May 21, 1989, Page 1A
“AIDS expert helps with plan for home” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, May 29, 1989, Page 1B
“Alderman: Baxter was unprepared” Kelly Paul, Belleville News-Democrat, July 22, 1989, page B
“Agency expands AIDS services” Rick Arnold, Belleville Journal, Sept 6, 1989, page 1A-3A
"Finally: AIDS hospice opening" Darrell McWorter, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept 7, 1989, page 3A
“Our Place resident succumbs to AIDS” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, Sept. 26, 1989, page 1A
“Baxter welcomed to AIDS task force” Carolyn Schmidt, Belleville Journal, Oct. 8, 1989 page 2A
“Group plans new AIDS victim site” Marilyn Vise, Belleville News-Democrat, Jan 4, 1990, Page 1A
“Deadly disease thrives on ignorance” Roger Schlueter, Belleville News-Democrat, Oct 20, 1991, page 1A -9A
“Bethany Place: Nuns take on the world in caring for people with AIDS” Roger Schlueter, Belleville News-Democrat, Oct 21, 1991, page 1A-3A
“New medical office to force AIDS agency to relocate” Sarah Fike, Belleville News-Democrat, Jan 26, 1994, page 1A-3A
“Bethany Place to move” Fredrick L. McKissack, Belleville News-Democrat, March 29, 1994, page 1A-3A
“Many have concerns about AIDS home” Madeleine Smith, Belleville Journal, June 7, 1989, page 1A
“City faces suit on two fronts” Anthony Smith, Belleville News-Democrat, June 14, 1989, page 1-3A
“ACLU suit will accuse city of bias, lawyer says” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, June 18, 1989, page 1A
“ACLU threatens to sue Belleville” Carolyn Tift, Belleville News-Democrat, June 7, 1989, page 1A
“Baxter told to replace 3 toilets worth $400” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, June 12, 1989 page 1-3A
“Judge orders city to issue permit for AIDS home” Cheryl Eaton, Belleville News-Democrat, Aug 26, 1989, page 1A
“Controversial homes get OK” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, September 6, 1989, page 1A-3A
“City OKS home without limits” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, August 31, 1989, page 1A
“Variance is last obstacle to opening of AIDS home” Martin Richter, Belleville Journal, Sept 8, 1989, page 1A-3A
"AIDS House opens Monday in Belleville" Paul de la Garza, Southern Illinoisan / AP, Sept 10, 1989, page 18.
“Home for AIDS victims to open in Belleville today” Daphne J. Wright, Belleville News-Democrat, Sept 11, 1989, Page A1-A3
“Board closes home for victims of AIDS” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, Nov. 25, 1989, page 1A-3A
“Baxter: Center will remain open” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, Nov 30, 1989, Page 1A-3A
“Settlement with home was near, Mabry says” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, Nov 26, 1989, page 1A-3A
“Baxter wants cash, Thomas says” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, December 1, 1989, page A1-A3
“City will pay Baxter $39,000” Marilyn Vise, Belleville News-Democrat, December 19, 1989, page A1-A3
“AIDS home attempt has lasting benefits” Marilyn Vise, Belleville News-Democrat, Jan 1, 1990, page 1A-3A
“Baxter calls it quits, returns to Kansas City” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, Jan 3, 1990, page 1A
“Group plans new AIDS victim site” Marilyn Vise, Belleville News-Democrat, Jan 4, 1990, Page 1A
“AIDS home leaves legacy” [editorial] Belleville News-Democrat, Jan 4, 1990, page 4A
“State: Baxter failed to report gifts” Marilyn Vise, Belleville News-Democrat, Jan 18, 1990 page 1B
“AIDS home director drops plans to open at new site” Marilyn Vise, Belleville News-Democrat, February 25, 1990, page 1A-3A
“Dealer moves shop, ready to battle fear” Deborah Dine, Belleville News-Democrat, April 22, 1990, page 1A-3A
“Belleville pays ACLU $60,000 for lawsuit” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, May 6, 1990
“AIDS house remembered” Wally Spiers, Belleville News-Democrat, May 25, 1990, page 1B
“Settlement would halt federal suit” Carolyn Tuft, Belleville News-Democrat, December 8, [199?], Page 1
“Antique dealer to quit former hospice” Deborah Dine, Belleville-News-Democrat, Dec 11, 1990, page 6B
“Former AIDS hospice is razed for parking lot” Cheryl Eaton, Belleville News-Democrat, Dec 2, 1990, page 3B
“Bethany Place is in a better place” Doug Kaufman, Belleville News-Democrat, July 19, 1994, page 1C
