Title
Recognizing and honoring the 50th Anniversary of Philadelphia's first Gay Pride March as a celebration of LGBTQ+ liberation and declaring June 2022 in Philadelphia as LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
Body
WHEREAS, The movement for LGBTQ+ liberation has a deep and righteous history in the City of Philadelphia, helmed by revolutionary leaders who demonstrated the power of organizing alongside movements for justice to advance equity and civil rights; and
WHEREAS, On June 11, 1972, thousands of people rallied in Rittenhouse Square and marched through Center City to Independence Hall in Philadelphia's first formal Gay Pride March. Wearing symbolic chains and removing metaphorical masks, some of the marchers dressed in drag and extravagant outfits as they sang "we are proud to say to all today, gay is good and proud and right"; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia's early movement for gay rights was led in part by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans youth amidst targeted brutality and harassment toward the LGBTQ+ community by the Philadelphia Police Department; and
WHEREAS, Queer teenagers joined with the Janus Society in April 1965 to lead what was then one of the largest demonstrations for LGBTQ+ rights against Dewey's, a Center City restaurant, for refusing service to over 150 members of the LGBTQ+ community in a single day. Distributing flyers and organizing sit-ins, the organizers drew inspiration from the successful civil disobedience strategies used by the movement for Black civil rights, and marked one of the first intersectional coalitions of gay and gender non-conforming individuals fighting for justice for all; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia is home to one of the earliest annual demonstrations for LGBTQ+ rights, the Annual Reminders, led by Frank Kameny, Clark Polak, Barbara Gittings, and Kay Lahusen outside Independence Hall on July 4th from 1965 to 1969. Participants included Ernestine Eckstein, Kiyoshi Kuromiya, and Ada Bello. The silent protests enforced strict dress c...
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