With same-sex marriage bans being lifted in many states, including Pennsylvania, why not share some travel tips about our nation’s historically political birthplace? Philadelphia’s current scene is gay and friendly, without the occasional attitude of its larger neighbor, New York City.
Our bewigged history and birth as a nation, the pivotal events of which took place in Philadelphia, may seem boring to some, but it’s enlivened by a queer context.
Philadelphia is also the site of the first gay rights protests, which occurred years before the Manhattan Stonewall Bar riots.
Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny and other early gay activists were among those brave citizens who organized what came to be known as the Annual Reminders; quiet, simple poster-holding protests outside Independence Hall in the mid-1960s, which called for the acceptance of gays and lesbians in mainstream society.