Mansion poised to open doors for another 'misunderstood' groupFormer AIDS hospice to become 'safe haven' for transgender peopleJune 22, 2012|Mary Schmich
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-22/news/ct-met-schmich-0622-20120622_1_transgendered-gay-pride-parade-homeless-sheltersStan Sloan says he hears the voices of the dead men whispering in the walls of the old Edgewater mansion.
"You can feel the lives that have come through here," he said as we toured the house Thursday, upstairs to see the nine bedrooms, down to the laundry, out to the big backyard.
Once, not so long ago, when the world was so much more afraid of gays and lesbians, this house was where people with AIDS, shunned by friends and family, could come to live out their final time.
Now the old house — no address please, Sloan said, it's too dangerous — is poised to become something new in the Midwest, perhaps in the nation.
"We're recolonizing it," he said, "for people who are still feared, hated, misunderstood."
Within the next few months, the onetime AIDS hospice will become the TransLife Center, a full-service home for the transgendered, offering shelter for nine people at a time, along with medical, housing and job counseling for many more.
