“We were picketing for freedom and equal rights, and the Liberty Bell was a great symbol.”Īda Bello, an activist who participated in the 1969 march, says, “The marches were to convey to everybody that we were just as entitled as any citizen to have our rights respected. A participant in the first Reminder march, Reverend Robert Wood, explained why they chose Philadelphia as the setting for these historic and groundbreaking marches. This group included Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, and others. “It must be great to be that brave.” At a time when homosexuality was classified as a medical disease, and sodomy was illegal in every state but one, activists who would come to be known as the Gay Pioneers weren’t afraid. “Oh my goodness,” she remembers thinking. Marj McCann, a 25 year old office manager in Center City, told Philadelphia Magazine that she had watched the marchers from behind a trash can across from Independence Hall at that first march. The last one was in 1969, right after the Stonewall Riots, for which they set the stage. These became the Annual Reminder marches. The 1965 protest was one of the first organized protests for gay and lesbian rights. Left: 1965 protest for gay and lesbian rights at Independence Hall.
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