Individual | Inducted 2024
Reverend Charles Straight, senior pastor of the Faith United Methodist Church, has demonstrated his persistent advocacy and unshakable dedication to helping society’s underprivileged and marginalized people over the course of more than 35 years of committed service in the Christian ministry. He serves as a spiritual advisor to the Mind Body and Soul Wellness Circle, a consortium of six organizations with headquarters in Chicago led by Black queeridentified men. Additionally, he is the president and a board member of The People’s Lobby Education Institute, which unites clergy and believers to change society by elevating the principles of justice above greed and individualism.
As a founding member of the first HIV ministry in a Black church in Chicago, Straight has consistently been at the forefront of offering support and resources to those affected by HIV/AIDS within the faith community. His role as the volunteer coordinator for the Kupona Network, the first Black HIV service organization in Chicago, further exemplifies his dedication to community engagement and empowering individuals through education and support. Straight actively contributed to the development of measures to meet the needs of the HIV/AIDS community on a national scale as a member of the US HIV & AIDS Faith Coalition Leaders Group. He served as the first board chair of BE-HIV, the chair of the Needs Assessment Committee for the City of Chicago HIV Prevention Planning Group, and an advisory board member of the Lutheran Social Services’ Second Family Program, and was a co-organizer of the first AIDS Walk in Chicago.
He has extensive clinical experience in giving compassionate care and support to people who are infected with HIV through his work as a nurse at St. Joseph Hospital’s AIDS Unit, as a research nurse at the Chicago Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS, and as the lab manager of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) at Howard Brown Health. His unswerving dedication to advancing the rights of underprivileged and disenfranchised people, particularly those who belong to the LGBTQIA+ community, has had a lasting effect on the City of Chicago and its environs.