This hour long illustrated presentation begins by examining  what it was like to be queer in 1950s and 1960s America, an America where anyone who was at all different was demonized, medicated or arrested.  It continues with Philadelphia’s response to this relentless oppression – the annual Reminder demonstrations that occurred every 4th of July from 1965 to 1969 in front of Independence Hall, the first organized, regularly recurring protests for gay rights in the country.  Finally, it tells how the Stonewall riots changed that paradigm for good, morphing those Annual Reminders into and Gay Pride marches and giving birth to the modern LGBTQ movement.

About Bob Skiba

Bob Skiba is the Curator of Collections at the John J. Wilcox Jr. LGBT Archives at the William Way Community Center. He also teaches a “Queer Community & Culture” class at Jefferson University. Bob writes several local LGBT history blogs, including “The Gayborhood Guru,” directs the Philadelphia LGBT Mapping Project and is the co-author of two books on Philadelphia history: Lost Philadelphia and Philadelphia Then and Now.

This program is free and open to the public and will be held in Room 108 in Parkway Central Library.  Any questions, please feel free to contact AB @bendera@freelibrary.org or 215-686-5395.