Philadelphia's Pride connections run deeper than a festival and march. Here's how the city shaped LGBTQ history
Philadelphia is celebrating LGBTQ pride this June with a march and festival in a new location. But the city's connection to the movement runs much deeper than just parades and festivals.
From some of the first LGBTQ rights protests in the country to a community that helped shape the national fight for equality, in Philadelphia, pride isn't just a celebration. It's a story written into the streets of the city itself.
Long before Stonewall in 1969, before corporate floats, before millions marched around the world, it was a small group of activists standing outside Independence Hall demanding something simple: equality.
"From 1965 until 1969, there were demonstrations which were the premier national demonstrations, which were for equality for homosexuals," said Mark Segal, the founder and publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News.
Those early protests, known as the "Annual Reminders," helped lay the foundation for the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the '60s and '70s.
Activists like Barbara Gittings stood in front of Independence Hall — risking their careers, their safety and their futures — just to be seen.
"Pride, in a sense, had its infancy in Philadelphia," Segal said.
He was at the Stonewall riots in New York City in 1969.
"Philadelphia has been a leader in most things LGBT, and most other cities in the country, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Washington DC, followed our example," Segal said.
Today, that history lives on in Philadelphia's Gayborhood with the new Philly Pride Visitor Center at 12th and Locust — one of the first LGBTQ visitor centers in the country.
A space created not just to welcome people, but to remind them this city helped shape LGBTQ history.
"Pride, I think, has evolved from being just a singular protest to something that's a movement. It's not a day or month, it's just where you stand," said Tyrell Brown, founder and executive director of Philly Pride 365.
And as Philadelphia prepares for another Pride Month this June, community leaders like Brown say the message remains the same as it did 60 years ago outside Independence Hall: Visibility matters. Community matters. And the fight for equality continues.
"Pride is something we do and that we live with every day," Brown said.
This year, Pride moves back to the Ben Franklin Parkway, and organizers tell us the Parkway is the crown jewel of outdoor venues in the country.
