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Calling for the installation of a City Historic Marker in front of the home of the AIDS Library of Philadelphia, 1233 Locust Street and for the dedication of this marker to occur in 2017 to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the AIDS Library of Philadelphia.
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WHEREAS, Fear, stigma and discrimination characterized the initial reaction of society in the mid-1980s to the appearance of a new lethal disease which ultimately became known as AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; and
WHEREAS, This new disease arose primarily among gay men, and at that time LGBT people faced widespread discrimination and marginalization: and
WHEREAS, The City Council of Philadelphia in recognition of the disadvantaged status among lesbian and gay men passed the Gay Rights Bill in 1982, amending the Fair Practices Ordinance, to provide protection in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodation, becoming one the nation’s first cities to adopt such legislation; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia under the leadership of Mayor W. Wilson Goode and City Council was one of the nation’s first cities to use local funds to address the AIDS epidemic in the absence of any response from the federal government; and
WHEREAS, Among the first services requested by People with HIV/AIDS was for access to the most up-to-date information available about HIV/AIDS to deal with this health emergency; and
WHEREAS, The AIDS Library of Philadelphia, was created in 1987 to collect, organize and make available information to People with HIV/AIDS, their families, and caregivers, as well as policy makers who sought to develop a coordinated response to the epidemic and address public fears and discrimination; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphians John Cunningham and Heshie Zinman, through their professional experience and dedication, helped organize and build the AIDS Library of Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, The AIDS Library of Philadelphia was the nation’s first library dedicated exclusively to proving information about HIV/AIDS; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia has a long history of leadership in library services from Benjamin Franklin’s founding of the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731, to the founding of the American Library Association in Philadelphia in 1876, and to the founding of the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1891; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia has played a seminal role in the organized LGBT civil rights movement with Annual Reminders at Independence Hall each July 4th from 1965 to 1969, the home of Barbara Gittings, the mother of the LGBT civil rights movement and as the site of the Philadelphia Conference, the LGBT community’s Seneca Falls where in February 23-25, 1979, three hundred activists from across the nation gathered at the Quaker Meetinghouse at 4th & Arch Streets to plan the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, where 100,000 demonstrated on October 14, 1979; and
WHEREAS, The AIDS Library of Philadelphia is celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2017, now as a service unit within Philadelphia Fight, a multiservice health care agency providing culturally competent primary and HIV care along with research, consumer education, advocacy, social services and outreach to people living with HIV; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That a historic marker be erected in front of Philadelphia Fight, the home of the AIDS Library of Philadelphia, 1233 Locust Street in commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the AIDS Library of Philadelphia.
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