Gerber was 21 when he entered the US in 1913, and may have been confined to a mental institution for a time in 1917 because of his sexuality. He joins the US Army from 1919 to 1923, serving in occupied Germany where he may have been inspired by the work of Germany’s gay advocate Magnus Hirschfeld.

Chicago’s Society for Human Rights started publishing a Chicago newsletter called Friendship and Freedom. It was declared illegal under Comstock laws. After three trials, Gerber loses his post-office job; all his papers are destroyed. No copies of F&F survive.

Henry is honored in Chicago today by the Gerber/Hart Library at 6500 North Clark Street. In 2015, his old house became a National Historic Landmark.

https://www.pbs.org/outofthepast/past/p3/gerber.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20150620185445/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-henry-gerber-house-national-landmark-20150619-story.html

Their next album ‘No Dice’ was released the same year. It included track ‘Without You’, written by Banfinger, which was -not- released as a single (showing how expert their managers were).

McCartney later called it ‘the killer song of all time’. Harry Nilsson turned it into a US#1 in 1971.